Experts4Expats

24/02/2025

This article from October last year might be now even more useful to you.

The New Year is fast approaching, so it is worth reminding yourself of the annual declarations a taxpayer (an individual not conducting business activity) must submit.

Unfortunately, in Poland, each income is declared on a different annual declaration, which may encourage mistakes. That's why it is always worth consulting an accountant who will help you settle your taxes correctly, especially when these are incomes other than standard income from full-time employment.

Currently, only one annual declaration PIT-37 is auto-prepared by the Tax Office, so if you only have income from full-time employment, you can do nothing - the tax office will settle your tax and prepare a PIT-37 declaration for you. You still should log into the system and check the auto-prepared PIT-37. You must do this because, in case of additional payment, you will have to settle and pay your tax or provide the account number if you have a tax refund. You can check your annual declaration here:
https://www.podatki.gov.pl/pit/twoj-e-pit/

How should you prepare for your annual tax declaration?

1. Collect all PIT-11s from employers for whom I worked in 2024. According to the law, the employer must send your PIT-11 to the Tax Office by the end of January 2025.
2. In an Excel file, collect all the additional income from the past year—for example, sales on platforms like Allegro, Amazon, Etsy, etc.
3. Collect documents from the bank about interest received, dividends in other countries, etc.
4. If you rent your apartment, collect all amounts received.

Once you have collected all the proof of money you have received, you need to select the appropriate annual declaration. Below is a list of yearly declarations and their descriptions.

In Poland, private individuals generally are required to submit an annual tax declaration to report their income. The most common forms used for personal income tax declarations are:

PIT-36: For individuals who earn income from various sources, including foreign income.
PIT-37: For employees and pensioners who receive income from employment, pensions. The only declaration pre-prepared by the tax office (unless you are settling with your wife/husband).
PIT-28: For individuals who earn income from rental activities.
PIT-38: For income from capital gains, income from the sale of securities, shares in companies, the acquisition of shares in companies/cooperatives, and the transactions of virtual currencies for consideration.
PIT-39: For individuals who sold real estate.

The deadline for submitting the annual declaration for 2024 is the end of April 2025.
If you need specific instructions or further details on filling them out, please refer to www.smartnumbers.eu

Thank you!

13/02/2025

Reposting important news from one of our partners!

Market update!

The government have just announced working on new housing program - "First Keys". Even though there are no details how the help will look like, we can already pass to you main criteria of the program:

- as before, program will be directed only to first-time buyers

- it will apply only to second-hand market apartments, and those who build their own house, meaning no properties from developers will be eligible for the program

- the seller of the property must own it for at least 5 years for the property to be eligible for the program

- the m2 price limit was set at 11 thousand PLN for biggest cities, meaning that most properties in cities like Warsaw, Kraków or Wrocław will not be eligible for the program

Above means that new program (assuming it goes live) will unlikely influence the property prices in a way "Safe Mortgage 2%" did.

Expect further updates once we know more details about new program, timelines, etc.

13/12/2024

Important information from the mortgage market!

The government decided not to go forward with the "Mortgage 0%" scheme!

News were provided by our member - Loan-brokers.pl

16/10/2024

The New Year is fast approaching, so it is worth reminding yourself of the annual declarations a taxpayer (an individual not conducting business activity) must submit.

Unfortunately, in Poland, each income is declared on a different annual declaration, which may encourage mistakes. That's why it is always worth consulting an accountant who will help you settle your taxes correctly, especially when these are incomes other than standard income from full-time employment.

Currently, only one annual declaration PIT-37 is auto-prepared by the Tax Office, so if you only have income from full-time employment, you can do nothing - the tax office will settle your tax and prepare a PIT-37 declaration for you. You still should log into the system and check the auto-prepared PIT-37. You must do this because, in case of additional payment, you will have to settle and pay your tax or provide the account number if you have a tax refund. You can check your annual declaration here:
https://www.podatki.gov.pl/pit/twoj-e-pit/

How should you prepare for your annual tax declaration?

1. Collect all PIT-11s from employers for whom I worked in 2024. According to the law, the employer must send your PIT-11 to the Tax Office by the end of January 2025.
2. In an Excel file, collect all the additional income from the past year—for example, sales on platforms like Allegro, Amazon, Etsy, etc.
3. Collect documents from the bank about interest received, dividends in other countries, etc.
4. If you rent your apartment, collect all amounts received.

Once you have collected all the proof of money you have received, you need to select the appropriate annual declaration. Below is a list of yearly declarations and their descriptions.

In Poland, private individuals generally are required to submit an annual tax declaration to report their income. The most common forms used for personal income tax declarations are:

PIT-36: For individuals who earn income from various sources, including foreign income.
PIT-37: For employees and pensioners who receive income from employment, pensions. The only declaration pre-prepared by the tax office (unless you are settling with your wife/husband).
PIT-28: For individuals who earn income from rental activities.
PIT-38: For income from capital gains, income from the sale of securities, shares in companies, the acquisition of shares in companies/cooperatives, and the transactions of virtual currencies for consideration.
PIT-39: For individuals who sold real estate.

The deadline for submitting the annual declaration for 2024 is the end of April 2025.
If you need specific instructions or further details on filling them out, please refer to www.smartnumbers.eu

Thank you!

30/08/2024

Hi, feel welcome to read an article on compensation fee related to commercial rental by our real estate expert, Ms. Aleksandra Weryńska:

"For the past 10 years, I have specialized in finding perfect business locations for my clients.

Catering clients always point out that the ideal areas are the Main Market Square, Kazimierz, and Zabłocie.
- Why?
- “Because it's the guarantee of success for my business...”
However, not for everyone.

Rents of catering venues are so high that costs are often devastating, competition is huge, life plans change, and, well, the lack of staff...

A catering business requires a considerable amount of money to start a venue, so when it decides to go out of business, every renter of a good catering venue would like to get back at least some of this money. And here comes the magic “COMPENSATION FEE”. A new renter gets the ready-made, adapted venue but they have to pay a lot for it, as to the previous renter. Often furniture and equipment that are left in the venue are heavily used or not to our taste but still we have to pay for them because in fact, we are paying for:
1. Attractive location.
2. Adapting the venue for catering to the requirements of Sanepid (Polish Sanitary-Epidemiological Authority).

Of course, there are plenty of catering venues in Kraków but those in the best locations practically always require payment of a compensation fee.

REMEMBER: COMPENSATION FEE is not the rental fee for a venue.
Thus, this is a transaction between the current renter and you as the new one. This transaction should be supported by a purchase and sale agreement prepared by a lawyer, notary, or experienced real estate agent.

After you have agreed on the terms of payment of a compensation fee for a venue, you can move on to signing a lease agreement for an ideal spot for your catering business.

Congratulations! Once you have registered your business and rewritten your permits, you are ready to get started.

Good luck,
Aleksandra Weryńska
COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE AGENT"

08/08/2024

A guide to Blue Card process prepared by our relocation expert - Krakspire - make sure to not miss this useful information!

Are you considering working in Poland in a profession that requires high qualifications? The Blue Card EU might be just what you need. It’s a permit designed for foreigners who intend to work in Poland in a high-skilled profession. To apply for this permit, the foreigner must have either completed...

06/07/2024

First guests are arriving to meet our experts. Feel welcome to join us too at Yolk Workspace & Community

29/06/2024

Hi, one of our members, Foglar Law and Translation, have prepared for you an article covering the subject of buying real estate, setting up a business and other legal transactions by a foreign resident, namely the apostille procedure for Poland.

Please remember you can meet them this Saturday in Kraków to speak about these, or other legal matters - get your FREE slot via here: https://forms.gle/fGgzZYtdZYYNuFUA6

THE PROBLEM…

In Poland, certain legal transactions require a notarial form, such as the sale or purchase of real estate and the establishment of certain legal entities, like limited liability companies, joint-stock companies, and foundations. Generally, to meet this legal form, one must appear in person before a notary, which can be highly impractical and inconvenient for individuals residing abroad.

Although it is possible to authorize someone to act before a notary on behalf of a person who is at the moment residing abroad, it should be noted that this cannot be done through a simple power of attorney. The Polish Civil Code indicates that the form of a power of attorney depends on the form in which the legal action to be authorized is to be carried out. If the action requires a written form (i.e. a wet-ink signature), then a written power of attorney is sufficient, however if the action must be carried out in notarized form, then the power of attorney should also be drafted in the form of a notary deed.

At first glance one may assume that it is not possible to grant such a power of attorney abroad - especially if the person signing the PoA resides in a common law country, in which notaries do not prepare notary deeds at all (such as the UK or USA). Thankfully, international law has a solution which makes it possible to sell real estate and establish companies in Poland while residing abroad - this can be done by supplementing your power of attorney with an apostille.

… AND THE SOLUTION.

Using the apostille procedure allows selling or buying real estate and incorporating
companies in Poland without the party being present at the notary office where the
contract/by-laws are concluded. In order to do this, the interested party should go to a notary in the country in which he resides, where he appoints a power of attorney. The PoS is then certified with an apostille clause, thus allowing the legal action to proceed properly in Poland.

The concept of an apostille is the result of the Hague Convention of October 5, 1961,
known as the Apostille Convention, which replaces the lengthy process of legalizing
documents. In Poland, the Convention has been in effect since 2005. The number of
signatories continues to grow, and one of the countries that joined the Convention in
2024 is Canada, so it is worth keeping up to date with which country changes in the
process of document authentication.

Up-to-date information on the status of signatories to the Convention can be found on the website of the Hague Conference on Private International Law
(https://www.hcch.net/en/instruments/conventions/status-table/?cid=41)

HOW DOES THE APOSTILLE SYSTEM WORK?

The apostille system is relatively simple. If the country issuing the document and the
country in which the document is to be used are both parties to the Hague Convention, the document must be submitted to the competent authority in the issuing country to receive the apostille seal. For example, in Poland this is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

It is worth bearing in mind that on some documents issued in another EU country, the authorities of member states may not require an apostille. This applies to documents relating to: birth, death, survivorship, name and surname, marriage , divorce, separation or annulment of marriage, origin of a child, adoption, residence or domicile, nationality or lack of criminal record.

Each country has different authorities responsible for issuing an apostille. In Poland, as already mentioned, it is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is important to note that the procedure for applying for an apostille or for legalization of a document is also available to those residing outside Warsaw and even the borders of Poland due to the possibility of using correspondence service.

In the United States, this responsibility is divided between the Department of State and the secretariats of each state. In other countries, it may be various ministries, courts or public offices.

Please remember that foreign documents with an apostille will always require translation by a sworn translator before you will be able to use them for official purposes in Poland.

LEGALIZATION OF DOCUMENTS.

If a country is not a party to the Hague Convention, it is necessary to go through the
procedure of legalization of the document.

This procedure has two stages:

-first the document is legalized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

-then, at the Polish embassy or consulate, it is necessary to obtain a clause of
compliance of the document with the law in force in the place of its issuance.

FOGLAR LAW AND TRANSLATION

Our law firm, by combining legal and translation services, will be able to efficiently carry out the processes related to the drafting of international documents which will
significantly speed up and simplify formalities.

We regularly assist clients from outside of Poland with matters relating to the sale and purchase of real estate, setting up the companies or the sale of shares.

Whether you're looking for legal advice, translation or someone to handle a specific
matter for you, contact us through the communication channel of your choice for the
information you need.

Phone number: +48 784 570 363
Email: [email protected]

Make sure to visit our website: https://foglar.pl/

27/05/2024

One of the E4E members, Loan-brokers.pl, has prepared for you a 10-step guide to the Polish Mortgage. Feel welcome to have a look.

P.S. They are organizing a webinar this Wednesday where you will be able to get more information of this kind, feel welcome to join: https://www.facebook.com/events/469574438749029/

04/05/2024

Number of the day - 14346. That is how many residential properties were bought in Poland in 2023 by citizens of countries other than Poland.

Please note that in 2013 it was 3196 properties, and in 2020 - 7434, showing a steady uptrend. Compared to the total of new flats released to the market last year - 221,3 thousand, purchases made by foreign nationals are still only a fraction of the total market.

The above data is public - provided by the Polish Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Main Statistical Office - GUS.

26/04/2024

Hi everyone, it is time to summarize our first event - Free Consultation Day. We are happy to announce it was a success! The event took place at Yolk Workspace & Community, and within 6 hours our experts offered a free advice to 50+ participants.

We loved to hear each unique story and help!

We wanted to thank everyone who took part in the event.

Stay tuned for the next event!

Photos by: David McGirr/Kraków Expats Directory

26/02/2024

Hi, it is time to introduce ourselves!

1. Who are we?

We are the Experts4Expats - a group of companies operating in Kraków, each offering different types of services directed to foreign nationals living in Poland, as per the below list (following we will introduce us one by one in separate posts):

- Accountant
- Credit/mortgage advisor
- Insurance agent
- Lawyer (business and real estate law)
- Real estate agent (commercial and private properties)
- Relocation specialist (business customers)

2. What and why do we want to do?

To start, we plan to establish a quarterly open day where experts will offer free advice to anyone in need. It is our way of giving back to the community. Over time the Expert4Expats initiative will be expanding charitable operations further, so better follow our page and stay tuned!