Starting next year, banks in Poland will face a higher corporate income tax (CIT). Bankers argue that the decision is unfair, as other, more profitable industries have not been targeted with this new “solidarity levy,” intended to finance defense and healthcare spending. The planned gradual reduction of the existing bank levy will not offset the new burden. According to industry estimates, the bank levy — in place for nearly a decade — has already deprived the economy of PLN 800 billion in credit financing, and the higher CIT will add another PLN 124 billion in lost lending capacity over the next 10 years.
“The banking sector already contributes the most CIT of all industries. Six of the 10 largest CIT payers come from the banking sector. Last year, together with dividends, we paid over PLN 24 billion into the state budget,” said Dr. Tadeusz Białek, President of the Polish Bank Association (ZBP), in an interview with Newseria. “No other sector in Poland pays this much in taxes. On top of that, the banking sector is the biggest buyer of government bonds in the EU, helping the state manage public debt. In a sense, we are being penalized with extra taxation precisely because we are the government’s most reliable partner.”
On August 21, the Ministry of Finance presented its plan for additional bank taxation. CIT will rise to 30% in 2026 (from today’s 19%), then decrease to 26% in 2027, and to 23% in 2028 — the intended target rate. In parallel, from 2027 the bank levy will be gradually reduced, first by 10% in 2027 and by 20% in 2028. The bank levy, introduced in February 2016, is currently 0.0366% per month (0.44% annually) on assets above PLN 4 billion, excluding equity and sovereign bonds.
According to ZBP, Poland’s banking sector is already among the most heavily taxed in Europe, with a current effective fiscal burden of 32.2%. The higher CIT in 2027 would push that to nearly 47%, and in later years raise it permanently by about 3 percentage points. In 2024 alone, the sector paid more than PLN 24 billion in taxes and levies, including PLN 13.42 billion in CIT and PLN 5.8 billion from the bank levy. The sector also distributed PLN 3.5 billion in dividends to the state treasury.
Banks are a key source of government financing: in 2024 they purchased around PLN 690 billion of sovereign debt instruments — roughly half of the state’s borrowing needs, which are rising sharply due to defense spending. For 2025, the finance ministry projects a record deficit of PLN 271.7 billion (6.5% of GDP). Bank levy revenues are forecast at PLN 7.59 billion, while the higher CIT is expected to bring in more than PLN 7 billion in 2026. Over the next decade, this will cost the banking sector an additional PLN 20.6 billion.
“Even if this levy is described as solidarity funding for important goals like defense and healthcare, it cannot be that only one industry bears the extra burden, especially since stock market data shows banking ranks just 11th in profitability (ROA). Transport, logistics, automotive, retail chains, gaming, telecoms, and IT are far more profitable, yet face no additional charges. In our view, this is not only unfair, but also unconstitutional. In Western Europe, solidarity levies — where introduced — have applied across multiple industries,” Białek argued.
According to ZBP, the additional PLN 20.6 billion in taxes will reduce the sector’s capacity to finance the economy by around PLN 124 billion over the next decade. It will also hurt retail investors: roughly 25% of bank shareholders in Poland are individuals. They will lose out on share valuations and dividends — estimated at PLN 4.8 billion over 10 years. Pension funds and retirement schemes (OFE, IKE, IKZE, PPE, PPK) will also be negatively impacted, affecting about half of working Poles. Indeed, the announcement of higher CIT alone triggered a 10% selloff of bank shares on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, followed by further declines in subsequent days.
The industry proposes replacing the bank levy with a higher CIT instead.
“We have consistently argued for years that the bank levy should be restructured. Its base on assets is flawed — it means the more banks lend to the economy, the more tax they pay. This discourages lending. In most EU countries, the levy base is liabilities, not assets. A simpler solution would be to merge the bank levy into CIT, so that a higher CIT becomes the only tax burden. That would be neutral for credit supply,” Białek explained.
He added that, under the current levy structure, Poland’s economy has been underfinanced by more than PLN 800 billion over the last decade.
