As of 1 January 2025, amended property tax regulations will take effect in Poland. The amendment may significantly affect owners of commercial properties, including foreign investors. The changes introduced include new definitions of buildings and structures, which may lead to the reclassification of some properties and thus increase the applicable tax rates. The amended legislation is the result of problems with effective property tax enforcement.
Foreign investors should analyse their properties in detail in the context of the new legislation in order to assess potential changes to the tax burden. Experts recommend carrying out property audits to determine which tax changes will affect which properties, and to enable the associated costs to be factored into budget planning for the following year.
– Before entrepreneurs complete their declaration, they should first make sure that all their properties are identified and inventoried. Only on the surface will it be another ordinary property tax return. In order to comply with the new tax conditions, it will be necessary to ascertain the actual condition of the assets, verify the registration data and compare them with the actual condition. And, finally, to qualify and value the objects for the tax declaration according to the current regulations. – explains Szymon Mojzesowicz (MRICS, ASA) of the Polish consulting firm Lege Advisors.
Undoubtedly, this is also a signal that the tax authorities will be watching the implementation of the new regulations closely. Taking shortcuts and unthinkingly rewriting last year’s declaration can cause many problems. These range from the accrual of interest on tax arrears to the recognition of an unreliable declaration as a fiscal offence.
According to the experts, in very many cases, especially medium-sized and large industrial plants, there is no getting around the support of external companies specialising in asset valuation
There are many changes in the amended act. Many of them tidy up the existing definitions of facilities. Particular attention should be paid to the appendix to the Act, which contains a list of taxable structures.
– In view of the amended law, every entrepreneur with real estate must analyse the regulations, conduct an audit and prepare new documents. This will not be without training of existing employees preparing the declarations and perhaps involving new ones. The question is whether there will be enough time to do all this in order to submit the declaration on time? – says Szymon Mojzesowicz (MRICS, ASA) of the Polish consulting firm Lege Advisors.
The legislator seems to have been aware of the challenges posed by the amended legislation. U has therefore made it possible, subject to certain conditions, to extend the deadline for filing the declaration to 31 March 2025. The condition for taking advantage of this deadline is the submission of the notice and payment of property tax for the first months of 2025 in the amount of the monthly average of 2024. This begs the question: will this time still not be enough?
