Ich stoße oft auf Artikel und Diskussionen darüber, wie viele Steuern es in Polen gibt und wie hoch sie sind. Als jemand, der in einem Niedrigsteuerland lebt, aber Polen regelmäßig besucht, wurde ich neugierig, ob das polnische Steuersystem wirklich so schlecht ist, wie die Leute oft behaupten. Mit der Zeit habe ich auch viel über die polnische Kultur und Sprache gelernt und spreche sehr gut Polnisch, sodass meine Sichtweise nicht nur auf kurzen Besuchen oder Eindrücken von Außenstehenden basiert. Nach allem, was ich gesehen habe, ist das polnische System alles andere als ideal und hat definitiv seine Mängel. Gleichzeitig bin ich nach einem Vergleich mit der Besteuerung in anderen Ländern und der Untersuchung verschiedener Quellen nicht davon überzeugt, dass Polen auch nur annähernd den schlimmsten Fall erreicht. Ich habe verschiedene Artikel durchgesehen, YouTube-Videos angesehen und auch KI eingesetzt, um einige der Informationen zu überprüfen und mich auf Quellen hinzuweisen. Ich bin auch kürzlich auf diesen Kanal gestoßen: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk-PnP61yfskzSVrvugy_Kw Hier finden Sie zahlreiche Informationen zu Steuern im Vereinigten Königreich. Mein Eindruck ist, dass sich das System dort in vielerlei Hinsicht tatsächlich zwei- oder sogar dreimal härter anfühlen kann als in Polen. Natürlich sage ich nicht, dass Polen eine Art Steuerparadies ist. Wie viele Menschen würde ich mir ein einfacheres und besseres System wünschen. Aber aus der Sicht von jemandem, der an ein Niedrigsteuerumfeld gewöhnt ist, habe ich immer noch das Gefühl, dass einige der Beschwerden über Polen übertrieben sein könnten, insbesondere im Vergleich zu Ländern wie Großbritannien, Frankreich oder Belgien. Was denken Sie? Ist die Steuersituation in Polen wirklich so schlimm oder ist die Zahl der Klagen größer als das eigentliche Problem?
Are taxes in Poland really that bad, or does it only seem that way?
byu/CacheConqueror inpoland
Von CacheConqueror
16 Kommentare
Polish people like to complain a lot, but long story short, taxes in Poland are far more lenient than taxes in the rest of western europe.
Taxes in Poland are one of the lowest in the EU and the whole system is designed to benefit both the working and the owning rich to the detriment of the working poor.
I’m an outsider and far from an expert, but it seems like rates are comparable to where I’m from and more services and value are provided to people here relative to that rate.
I compared my US tax to Polish taxes and they came about the same. If I moved to no income tax state, maybe then i will have significantly lower rate.
There are many layers of taxation.
– VAT – many products are 23%
– Income tax – 30k free, from 30k up to 120k 12%, and anything above is 32%. Minimum wage is appx 43.2k p/year, so you have a 13.2k taxable income. Average pay is appx 77k, so 47k is taxable
– Obligatory social security. You see gross pay of, say 5k p/month from which appx 1k is deducted for social security. Also, employer pays additional appx 1k of social security.
– other taxes, like road tax included in gasoline, taxable investments gains, taxable lottery and betting gains, sin taxes from alcohol and cigarettes, there was proposed tax from electronic devices that went towards ministry of culture (dunno if it went through tho)
Many ppl don’t see it because everything is hidden within price of goods they’re buying. For example, tons of people think 15g pack of cigarretes really costs 25+pln, where in reality, 90% of the price is taxes
It’s not that bad. I moved from Italy to Poland. You should see taxes in Italy lmao. I’m way happier paying my fair share here than I am in Italy. It’s one of the lowest rates in the EU.
I would say that the biggest problem is not about how high the taxes are. It is more the fact, that the taxes mostly affects people of average income. If you are poor, you are within the tax-free allowance, that’s good. But if you are wealthy you have numerous possibilities to optimize taxes and pay disproportionately few. As a result, the middle class is dying out because it is the only group that actually pays taxes—too rich to qualify for tax breaks, too poor to avoid paying them. And it also does not help that currently minimal salary is increasing, but the second tax bracket remains unchanged. We’ve reached the point where, if you earn just a little more than twice the minimum wage, tax law considers you a wealthy person who needs to be punished. „But I still cannot even afford to buy a flat“, you will say, „who cares“ The tax office will respond. And this is how we live here.
One of the lowers and most unfair income taxes in the EU, Polish employers are yapping because paying anything to anyone hurts their fragile feelings and eats away their usually inherited or stolen wealth
This a joke right?
We in Quebec get taxed Top marginal of ~53.3% in Poland it’s 32% (or flat 19% for JDG).
https://preview.redd.it/icjpwcmgeeqg1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=ef9281bd99e4b72a1b7134b49d3d6993a4f30031
Here is my wage receipt for February. I’m under 26yo, so no 12% deposit for tax and work on Umowa o Pracę. Paying 600zł every month for public healthcare just to pay additional 1500zł for having my 8th tooth removed because closest possible appointment refunded by NFZ is for month. Fortunately I don’t have major health issues apart need to wear glasses (-1,5d, cylinder 168°, both eyes). Queue for oculist consultation is 4 month, I preferred to pay 200zł and have it next week. And now imagine that this only taxation on wage, then from every single buy government has it’s share that ranges from 5 to 23%. Have in mind that 23%VAT was introduced „only for while“ in 2011
Because of low trust in the government and 3 decades of neoliberal propaganda, many Poles believe their tax money is wasted.
Complaining is our national sport.
The 2nd tax bracket needs to be increased, 120k is ridiculously low…I’m getting taxed as a rich person but I can’t afford a flat or a proper mortgage..
I am from Spain living in Poland and taxes in Poland are HIGHER than in Spain.
In Poland, if you earn +30.0000€ you are considered „Rich“ and you pay 32% income tax + insurance 9% + ZUS 5%.
So with a 30.000€ salary, you pay 46% taxes.
In Spain, with a 30.000€ salary, you pay 33% taxes.
Then the VAT is 23% in Poland, while in Spain is 21%
Then you have the ¨sugar tax¨ in Poland which is making groceries more expensive than in Spain.
This is my experience as a Spaniard living in Poland.
Many propaganda accounts say that Poland is the best country, with lox taxes and blabla
The reality is that is way more expensive (taxes wise) than many other countries in the EU.
They are not bad, taxes are quite low.
Problem is that health insurance and social security is quite expensive for what it is.
The income tax itself is not the worst, but in this country we also have mandatory pension contributions and mandatory health insurance, etc. which are taxes in all but name.
When you account for all the payroll contributions that are effectively mandatory, the effective tax burden is a lot higher and a lot more flat than what the income tax rates say alone.
When you additionally account for all the mandatory expenses from the employer (which are also not called „tax“ but are effectively a tax), you will see that the tax burden for many people falls somewhere in the 40-50% range.
I think this is the main reason for frustration. We are repeatedly told that our income tax rates are comparatively low (which is true) but this is not what people actually see being taken from their salaries.
This increases the popularity of alternative forms of employment like B2B contracts which offer lower tax rates in exchange for giving up many benefits typically associated with regular employment.
I cannot give you a comprehensive comparison with other countries because countries intentionally obfuscate their tax systems to make this comparison harder.
E.g. the UK has various benefit cliffs like the withdrawal of child benefit or personal allowance. UK also has a minimum private pension contribution which are often not included in basic tax calculations. And in the UK the student loan repayment effectively functions as a kind of payroll tax. I’m not even touching council tax, which is not a payroll tax, but it’s mandatory and it is a tax.
Differences like these make comparisons between countries extremely hard in abstract, without concrete examples.