What it's worth
Net pay per year in Poland, employment contract, single, 2026. Return relief never costs you anything: it only takes pay out of income tax.
| Gross salary | Standard | Return relief | Difference | A month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100,000 zł | 72,129 zł | 78,524 zł | +6,395 zł | +533 zł |
| 200,000 zł | 130,382 zł | 149,155 zł | +18,773 zł | +1,565 zł |
| 425,000 zł | 254,393 zł | 278,009 zł | +23,616 zł | +1,968 zł |
The relief is a fixed amount of tax-free pay, not a lower rate. On high salaries, where all of it would be taxed at 32%, it's worth the same to everyone. Check your exact salary
Who qualifies
You can use the relief if all of these are true:
- You moved your residence to Poland in 2022 or later, and you're now a Polish tax resident.
- You weren't resident in Poland in the 3 calendar years before the year you moved, nor in that year before the day you moved.
- You hold Polish citizenship, a Pole's Card (Karta Polaka), or the citizenship of another EU or EEA country or Switzerland. With any other citizenship, see below.
- You can show where you were resident for tax in those years: a certificate of tax residence, or other documents such as an employment contract or a rental agreement abroad.
- You haven't used return relief before. You can use it once in your life.
Any other citizenship qualifies too if one of these is true: throughout that period (the 3 years before your move, and that year until you moved) you lived in the EU or EEA, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Chile, Israel, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, South Korea, the UK or the USA; or before it, you lived in Poland for at least 5 calendar years without a break.
So you don't need to have lived in Poland before: the name says "return", but the conditions are about where you lived and your citizenship.
What it covers
- Pay from a job (umowa o pracę)
- Contracts of mandate (umowa zlecenie) with a company
- Business income, on the scale, the 19% flat tax, IP Box or the lump-sum tax (ryczałt)
- Maternity benefit
- Contracts for specific work (umowa o dzieło)
- Sickness and other social security benefits
- Copyright income outside a job
- Pay that is already tax-free for another reason, such as travel allowances
- Social security (ZUS) is paid in full
- The health contribution is paid in full
- Social security paid on the tax-free pay can't be deducted
- The normal 30,000 zł tax-free amount still applies on top
- Other income, such as rent or investments, is taxed as usual
The 85,528 zł limit is shared with Poland's other zero-income-tax reliefs: for people under 26, for parents of four or more children, and for people who keep working past retirement age. If you qualify for more than one, together they still cover 85,528 zł a year. The limit is per person: filing jointly with a spouse doesn't double it.
How long it lasts
Four tax years in a row. You choose whether they start in the year you move or the year after. Example for someone who moved in 2026 and starts the same year:
If you move late in the year, starting the year after usually gets you more: four full years of pay instead of a few months in the first one.
How to claim it
- 1Get a certificate of tax residence, or other proof, from the country you lived in for the 3 years before your move.
- 2Give your employer a written statement that you meet the conditions, with the first and last year of the relief. The PIT-2 form has a box for it. From the next month at the latest, your employer takes no income tax from your pay until you've earned 85,528 zł in the year.
- 3File your annual return (PIT-37 for employees) by 30 April. If the relief wasn't applied during the year, you can still claim it there and get the tax back.
If you stop meeting the conditions, for example because two jobs together take you over the limit, tell your employer. Keep the documents that show where you lived: the tax office can ask for them, with a Polish translation, for as long as it can check your return.
When it ends
From your fifth year, all your pay is taxed normally. At 425,000 zł a year that means 1,968 zł less a month.
Your PIT-2 names the years the relief applies, so your employer goes back to taking income tax from all your pay on its own.
See what you keep with and without the reliefSources and limits
- Ustawa o podatku dochodowym od osób fizycznych (PIT), art. 21 ust. 1 pkt 152 and ust. 43–44 · ISAP (Sejm)
- Ustawa o podatku dochodowym od osób fizycznych (PIT), art. 26 ust. 1 pkt 2 (contributions on tax-free pay aren't deductible), Dz.U. 2026 poz. 592 · ISAP (Sejm)
- Ministerstwo Finansów, Przewodnik dla podatnika „Ulga na powrót” (as of 1 July 2022) · Ministerstwo Finansów
- Rulings of the Director of the National Revenue Information service (KIS) on return relief, 2025 and 2026
- Ustawa o systemie ubezpieczeń społecznych (contributions) · ISAP (Sejm)
Information, not tax advice. The salary figures come from our Poland calculation, tested against research cases P3 and P5-R (computed; return relief has no independent example yet). The conditions follow art. 21 ust. 43 of the act and the Ministry of Finance guide; your tax office decides whether you qualify.