Our report: CIT in Poland – why is it not as it should be?

Warsaw, 31^st May 2023

ZPP report: CIT in Poland – why is it not as it should be?

The Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers has published its latest report “CIT in Poland – why is it not as it should be?” which is an attempt to systematise the knowledge on the functioning of corporate income tax in Poland.

The year 2022 was exceptional in terms of the share of budget revenues from taxes. For the first time ever in history, CIT revenues (PLN 70.1 billion) exceeded those from PIT (PLN 68.1 billion) from natural persons. The shift in priority in relation to the value of the tax paid is an extraordinary situation resulting from the record-breaking – 33.9 percent y/y – increase in CIT revenues. In recent years, not only the amount of tax paid in nominal terms, but also in relation to GDP, was the highest in history.

However, the observable increase in CIT revenues did not bridge the gap in relation to this tax. Due to its often-elusive nature from an economic perspective, the size of the CIT gap is largely the result of the collected estimates. The Polish Economic Institute in their “CIT Gap in Poland” (“Luka w CIT”) report states that in 2019-2020 the level of the CIT gap stabilised at approx. 30% of theoretical CIT revenues. This means – recalling the suggestive picture outlined by PIE experts – that out of every PLN 100 of tax that should flow to the state budget and local governments, they receive only about PLN 70. According to estimates, the CIT gap in 2020 was between PLN 20 and 25 billion. Recent years have also been a period of dynamic changes regarding the scale of the phenomenon.

Therefore, the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers set itself the goal of systematising the latest available analytical knowledge concerning CIT, discussing the key phenomena related to this tax, identifying successes and failures in terms of reducing the scale of the phenomenon of aggressive tax optimisation and considering the reasonableness of alternative concepts – with the entire repository of opportunities and risks correlated with it.

The “CIT in Poland – why is it not as it should be?” report was created as part of the Business for Poland, Poland for Business project.

Find out more: 31.05.2023 CIT report in Poland. Why is it not as it should be?