Polish income tax brackets 2026: when the second one starts

The 2026 scale: two rates and one reducing amount

Article 27(1) of the Personal Income Tax Act contains a two-row table. Up to PLN 120,000 of taxable base, tax is 12 % minus the tax-reducing amount of PLN 3,600. Above PLN 120,000, tax is PLN 10,800 plus 32 % of the excess. That PLN 10,800 is simply the tax on the first PLN 120,000, already reduced by the tax-reducing amount. The relief therefore stays with people in the second bracket too: the Polish scale does not phase it out.

The same scale covers pay from employment, mandate contracts (umowa zlecenie) and specific-work contracts (umowa o dzieło), and the profits of sole traders who have not opted for the flat tax or the lump-sum tax. Someone on the flat tax pays 19 % on every złoty of profit, with no brackets and no reducing amount.

The threshold is about income, not gross pay

This is the most common misunderstanding. PLN 120,000 does not mean a salary of PLN 10,000 gross a month. Before anything counts towards the threshold, gross pay is reduced by the pension, disability and sickness contributions (13.71 % together) and by work-related costs (koszty uzyskania przychodu): PLN 3,000 a year on one job, or PLN 3,600 with the higher costs for people who commute from another town. The health contribution does not reduce the base.

An example: PLN 10,000 gross for twelve months is PLN 120,000 gross, yet the taxable base is only PLN 100,548. That person stays in the first bracket all year. On one job with a steady salary, the second bracket only appears from about PLN 11,880 gross a month, and only in December.

The month you start paying 32 %

Your employer does not wait for the end of the year. Under article 32 of the Act it calculates advances cumulatively: it adds up the taxable base from January and, in the month the total passes PLN 120,000, applies 32 % to the part above the threshold. In later months the whole base is taxed at the higher rate. The table shows that month for five salaries with PLN 250 costs, PIT-2 filed, no PPK and no reliefs.

On PLN 25,000 gross the drop in December's take-home pay is smaller than the bracket alone would suggest, because in the same year the salary also passes the PLN 282,600 cap on pension and disability contributions. Their disappearance partly offsets the higher tax rate. The annual salary calculator shows both effects month by month.

The crossover month on PLN 15,000 gross

On PLN 15,000 gross a month, the taxable base grows by about PLN 12,694 each month. In the month before the crossover (September), the cumulative base is PLN 114,246 and the advance PLN 1,223. In October the total passes PLN 120,000: part of the base is still taxed at 12 %, the rest at 32 %, and the advance rises to PLN 2,611. From the following month the whole base is taxed at the higher rate and the advance is PLN 3,762.

In take-home terms that is a fall from PLN 10,556 to PLN 8,017. Many people read it as a pay cut, and payroll departments field questions about errors at this time of year. There is no error; in January the advance goes back to 12 %, because the threshold starts again from zero each tax year.

Several incomes and the PIT-37 return

Each payer sees only its own payments. If you have two jobs, a job plus a mandate contract, or changed jobs during the year, no single payer may reach the threshold even though your combined income does. The missing tax then shows up in your PIT-37 annual return, which adds up income from every source.

Take two employment contracts of PLN 8,000 gross each, all year. Each employer withholds advances at 12 %. In the return the combined base is about PLN 161,177, and work-related costs from two jobs are capped at PLN 4,500 a year. Tax on the scale comes to about PLN 23,977, while both employers withheld PLN 15,552 in advances, with PIT-2 filed at only one of them. That leaves roughly PLN 8,425 to pay with the return. It is worth putting that amount aside during the year so the bill does not come as a surprise.

What you keep from each PLN 100 raise

The second bracket shows most clearly at the margin. On PLN 15,000 gross, each extra PLN 100 of gross pay leaves PLN 67.53 take-home in January and only PLN 50.53 in December, once you are in the second bracket. The gap is not only 32 % instead of 12 %: a raise also attracts ZUS and health contributions, which ignore the bracket. That is why a raise negotiated late in the year feels smaller than it is, and regains its full value in January.

A bonus brings the second bracket forward

The threshold is measured on the cumulative base, so a one-off payment moves the crossover month. On a steady PLN 12,000 gross, the second bracket starts in December. If the same person receives a PLN 30,000 bonus in June, they cross the threshold in October, and tax for the year rises to PLN 19,491. Splitting the bonus into instalments within the same year does not help, because what counts is total pay in the year. The bonus calculator shows what is left of the bonus itself.

The solidarity levy: 4 % above PLN 1,000,000

The highest incomes carry one more charge. Article 30h of the PIT Act imposes 4 % on income above PLN 1,000,000 in a year (danina solidarnościowa). It is not a third bracket of the scale but a separate levy on total qualifying income, paid alongside the tax on the scale. On income of PLN 1,200,000 it comes to PLN 8,000. The vast majority of employees never meet it, since it requires income averaging more than PLN 83,333 a month.

Softening the second bracket

On employment the room for manoeuvre is limited, but it exists. People under 26 benefit from the youth tax relief, which exempts income up to PLN 85,528 a year and pushes back the month they reach the second bracket. If part of your salary pays for the transfer of copyright, your employer can apply 50 % creative-work costs, which lower the base, up to PLN 120,000 a year. Some people with income well above the threshold consider running a business on the flat tax; our B2B versus employment comparison sets out the numbers.

Your year, month by month

The second calculator shows net pay for the whole year, the highest and lowest monthly net and the monthly average. The gap between them is largely the second bracket at work.

It assumes a steady salary with one employer, PIT-2 and standard costs. With a bonus or a change of job during the year, run the full calculator instead.