If you were a Polish tax resident in 2026 and earned money on an umowa o pracę (employment contract) or an umowa zlecenie (contract of mandate), you file a PIT-37 for 2026 between 15 February and 30 April 2027 (art. 45 of the PIT Act). Your employer has to send you a PIT-11 by the end of February. If you do nothing and had no other income, the pre-filled return in e-Urząd Skarbowy is accepted automatically on 30 April, without any reliefs the tax office doesn't know about. A refund on a return filed online arrives within 45 days, and within 3 months on a paper one.
Most of the money foreigners lose here comes from three things: the child relief nobody added, a missing PIT-11 from a second employer, and joint filing attempted with a spouse who lives abroad.
First check: are you a Polish tax resident for 2026
Under art. 3(1a) of the PIT Act you are a resident if your centre of personal or economic interests is in Poland, or if you spent more than 183 days here in the tax year. Residents pay Polish tax on worldwide income and file the annual return. The rules, and what happens with double-taxation treaties, are covered in our tax residency guide.
If you arrived in Poland in October 2026 and your family and home are still in Mumbai or Kathmandu, you were probably not a resident for 2026. A non-resident on an umowa o pracę is still taxed on the Polish salary and usually files a PIT-37 as well. A non-resident on an umowa zlecenie is normally taxed at a flat 20% withheld by the payer (art. 29(1)(1)) and receives an IFT-1R instead of a PIT-11. In that case there is usually no annual return to file in Poland.
The forms in one table
| Form | Who issues it | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| PIT-11 | your employer or the company paying under a zlecenie | information about your income and tax withheld, sent to you by the end of February |
| PIT-37 | you | your annual return for employment and zlecenie income |
| PIT-36 | you | the return you file instead if you also had income without a Polish payer, for example foreign income or a JDG on the tax scale |
| PIT/ZG | you | attachment for foreign income, filed with PIT-36 |
| IFT-1R | the payer | information on flat-taxed income of a non-resident |
If you had several jobs in 2026, you get several PIT-11 forms and add them all to one PIT-37. A job that ended in March still sends you a PIT-11 for that year.
Logging in: options for foreigners
The return is filed in the Twój e-PIT service inside e-Urząd Skarbowy (urzadskarbowy.gov.pl). From 15 February you'll find a return already filled in with data from your employers. You can log in:
- through login.gov.pl, using Profil Zaufany, your Polish online banking or an e-dowód;
- through the mObywatel app;
- with tax data: your PESEL or NIP, date of birth, the total income from last year's return, one amount from a 2026 PIT-11 and the refund or tax due from last year's return.
The third option doesn't work in your first year in Poland, because you have no previous return to quote. If you have no Polish bank account with online login and no Profil Zaufany yet, file a paper PIT-37 at the tax office or send it by Poczta Polska registered mail: for a posted return, the posting date counts. A paper refund takes up to 3 months instead of 45 days.
Reliefs that actually return money
| Relief | Amount in the 2026 return | Conditions |
|---|---|---|
| Child relief (ulga na dziecko) | 1,112.04 PLN a year each for the 1st and 2nd child, 2,000.04 PLN for the 3rd, 2,700 PLN for the 4th and each next | minor children in your care; with one child only if your income was up to 112,000 PLN (married all year, both spouses together) or 56,000 PLN (single) |
| Unused child relief paid out | up to the social and health contributions you paid | when your tax is too low to absorb the relief (art. 27f(8)-(9)) |
| Joint filing with a spouse | tax calculated on half of the combined income and doubled | see the next section |
| Single parent filing | as above, with the child instead of a spouse | parent raising a child alone |
| Relief for under-26s | income up to 85,528 PLN exempt | employment or zlecenie income received before your 26th birthday |
| Internet relief | up to 760 PLN deducted from income | only two years in a row, and only if you never used it before |
| Donations | up to 6% of income | to public benefit organisations, with a bank transfer as proof |
Child relief is counted per month: for a child born in July 2026 you claim six months. Students up to 25 count too if they didn't earn more than the limit in the act. In the return you give the child's PESEL, or the name and date of birth if the child has none, and the tax office may ask for the birth certificate.
Joint filing: why many foreign couples can't use it
Art. 6(2) of the PIT Act allows joint filing for spouses who were married all year (or since the wedding), both Polish tax residents, with joint marital property. Art. 6(3a) extends it to spouses living in another EU or EEA country or Switzerland, but only if Polish-taxed income made up at least 75% of the couple's total income and the foreign residence is proven with a tax residence certificate.
What that means in practice:
| Your spouse | Joint filing |
|---|---|
| Lives with you in Poland, Polish tax resident | yes |
| Lives in Germany, Spain or another EU/EEA country | yes, if the 75% test is met and there's a residence certificate |
| Lives in the UK, the US, India, Turkey, the Philippines or any other non-EU country | no |
| You married abroad under a regime of separate property | no |
The last row matters for couples who married outside Poland: whether you have joint property depends on the law that governs your marriage, and under some systems spouses keep separate property by default. If that's your case, file separately and look at the child relief instead.
Steps for a 2026 return
- Collect every PIT-11 for 2026. If one hasn't arrived by early March, ask the employer in writing.
- From 15 February 2027, log in to e-Urząd Skarbowy and open the pre-filled PIT-37.
- Check that every employer is in it and that the address is the one where you lived on 31 December 2026: the tax office is chosen by that address.
- Add the reliefs, joint filing if you qualify and your bank account for the refund.
- Accept and send. Keep the UPO (official receipt).
- If the result shows tax to pay, pay it by 30 April 2027.
Automatic acceptance on 30 April applies only to people who had no income other than what appears in the PIT-11 and pension forms (art. 45cd(4)). If you also had foreign income, rental income or crypto sales, there is no automatic acceptance and you file the right forms yourself: PIT-36 with PIT/ZG for foreign income, PIT-28 for rent taxed at the flat rate, PIT-38 for crypto.
When the refund arrives
According to the Ministry of Finance, the refund comes within 45 days of filing an electronic return and within 3 months of a paper one. For a return accepted automatically on 30 April, the 45 days run from 1 May. If the bank account field is empty, the refund goes to an account used before or by postal order, which is slower and harder to collect if you've already left Poland.
Leaving Poland
If you move away in 2027, you still file for 2026 by 30 April 2027. Do it before you close your Polish bank account and lose access to online banking login, or send a paper return by post with a working account number. For the following year, check where your tax residence was: some people stay Polish residents for the year they leave, others don't, depending on days and ties.
If your home country asks for proof that you paid tax in Poland, request a certificate of residence (certyfikat rezydencji) from the Polish tax office. Our residency article explains the CFR-1 form.
Common mistakes
- Accepting the pre-filled return without opening it. It may lack your child relief, and no one will add it for you.
- Missing a PIT-11 from a short job. The tax office already has that PIT-11 from the employer and will ask for the tax difference with interest.
- Joint filing with a spouse who lives outside the EU. The office will reassess, and you'll repay the difference with interest.
- Ignoring the deadline. Filing late is a fiscal offence. If you've missed it, file as soon as you can together with a czynny żal (voluntary disclosure, art. 16 of the Fiscal Penal Code), which usually closes the matter without a fine.
- Leaving without the refund. If you had no account in the return and closed your Polish one, getting the money out becomes a paper exercise.
You can correct a return for up to five years after the end of the year in which the tax was due. A child relief you forgot for 2023 can still be added by filing a corrected return (korekta) for 2023.
How we can help
An accountant we work with prepares PIT returns for foreign employees: several PIT-11 forms, children abroad or in Poland, a spouse in another country, corrections for previous years. The price depends on the number of forms and reliefs and is quoted after the accountant sees your documents. For foreign income and treaty questions we recommend a tax adviser (doradca podatkowy).
This article is general information and not tax advice for your case.
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