VAT refund in Poland – terms and deadlines

August 22, 2023

In this article, we have collected basic information on the terms, conditions and deadlines for VAT refunds in Poland. When should VAT be paid and when are we entitled to a refund? What are the deadlines for VAT refunds? There are also specific terms to look at when doing business in Poland.

VAT settlement – possibilities

First, let’s highlight the difference between output tax and input tax:

• input tax – paid by a business on acquired goods and services
• output tax – charged on supplies of goods or services

When settling VAT, we can deal with two situations:

• The amount of output tax is higher than the amount of input tax – this means that we have to pay VAT to the tax office
• The amount of input tax is higher than the amount of output tax – then we can either “transfer” this amount to the next settlement period or apply for a tax refund

Deadlines for VAT refund

The VAT Act provides for three basic refund periods:

• 60 days – a standard period
• 180 days – the deadline is extended if the taxpayer did not report any sales in the settlement period covered by the refund, only purchases
• 25 days – a shortened period that applies when the taxpayer has applied for a refund to a regular account and meets the conditions described in art. 86 sec. 6 of the VAT Act (inter alia, he or she was a registered active VAT taxpayer for the last 12 months, submits confirmations of payment of invoices by bank transfers, the refund amount does not exceed PLN 3,000), or has applied for a refund to a VAT account.

The deadlines for VAT refunds are counted from the moment of submission of the JPK file for the settlement period in which the input VAT surplus for refund calculated over the VAT due was shown.

Important! The Head of the Tax Office may extend the above deadlines if he considers that the refund requires additional verification.

Specific deadlines for VAT refund

The VAT Act provides for two more specific deadlines for VAT refunds

• VAT refund within 40 days – is available to taxpayers who meet the following conditions jointly:
  • in the period covered by the refund, they issued only structured invoices, i.e. under KSeF
  • the amount of input tax or the difference between input and output tax (not settled in previous periods) does not exceed PLN 3,000
  • for 12 months preceding the refund, the taxpayer was registered as “active VAT taxpayer”, submitted JPK records for each settlement period, and his or her bank account is on the so-called White List.
• Refund within 15 days – is available to the so-called non-cash taxpayers, i.e. those who accept non-cash payments for goods sold and services provided, e.g. using a payment terminal. In order to receive a VAT refund within 15 days, you must meet several conditions – they are as follows:
  • for three consecutive monthly settlement periods (or one quarterly period) directly preceding the refundable period, percentage share of:
    • gross sales (i.e. including VAT) recorded using the online cash register was not lower than 80% of total sales
    • non-cash payments received was not lower than 80% of the total payments received
  • for 12 months preceding the refund, the total gross sales value, recorded on the so-called online cash register, was not lower than PLN 50,000 (for each settlement period)
  • for the period for which the refund application is submitted, the amount of the difference between the input and output tax does not exceed twice the amount of tax recorded at the online cash register
  • the amount of input tax or the difference between input and output tax (not settled in previous periods) does not exceed PLN 3,000

Tags terms and deadlines for VAT refund, vat, VAT refund