Poland's 22% CIT for large firms clears parliament in two days

Poland's Sejm voted 236 to 207 on 5 November to raise corporate income tax to 22% for firms with revenue above €50 million and to cut income tax for about 3.5 million taxpayers.

Two weeks earlier, motions by Ryszard Petru (Centrum, Warsaw) had struck the same CIT rise from the government's first version. The Senate passed the new law unamended on 6 November, by 63 votes to 31 with one abstention, and it went to the President the same day.

A 220–214 defeat, reversed in two days

On 22 October the Sejm adopted motions by Petru and Janusz Kowalski (unaffiliated, Opole) deleting article 2 of print 3147, the CIT change, by 220 votes to 214. Seventeen of PSL-TD's 32 deputies sided with PiS, Rozwój Plus and Konfederacja. The House also adopted Petru's motion to index income-tax thresholds to inflation, 217 to 200. Both motions are set out in the committee report.

The government filed the package again as print 3293 on 4 November, which Deputy Finance Minister Jarosław Neneman said would avoid legal doubts about the October procedure. The next morning the Sejm voted 228 to 184 to shorten a Standing Orders time limit for the first reading, and a motion to reject the bill failed, 192 to 216.

The result by club:

• for: KO 151, PSL-TD 30, Lewica 19, Centrum 14, Polska 2050 13, Razem 4 and five unaffiliated;
• against: PiS 144, Rozwój Plus 40, Konfederacja 14, Demokracja Bezpośrednia 3, Konfederacja Korony Polskiej 3, one Centrum deputy and two unaffiliated;
• 17 deputies did not vote, and nobody abstained.

Large firms pay more, middle earners less

From 1 January 2027:

• Income tax: 12% up to PLN 130,000, a new 24% band to PLN 150,000 and 32% above that, replacing a single PLN 120,000 threshold. The tax-free amount stays at PLN 30,000.
• Solidarity levy: 5%, up from 4%, on income above PLN 1 million, paid by about 39,000 people and first due on 2 May 2028.
• CIT: 22%, up from 19%, for taxpayers and tax capital groups whose prior-year revenue exceeded €50 million, and for members of groups with consolidated revenue of at least €750 million under the global minimum-tax law. If a qualifying taxpayer splits off or contributes more than 10% of its assets, both parties pay 22% that year and the next two.
• Lump-sum tax on recorded revenue: the eligibility limit falls from €2 million to €250,000, judged on 2026 revenue. In 2024, 43,000 lump-sum taxpayers had revenue above €250,000.

Article 5(2) applies the new income-tax scale only if the CIT and lump-sum changes take effect on 1 January. The law drops the October version's 17% lump-sum rate above €300,000 and contains no indexation.

Next: the President has until 27 November

The law reached President Karol Nawrocki on 6 November; under Article 122 of the Constitution he has 21 days to sign it, refer it to the Constitutional Tribunal or return it to the Sejm, which can override a veto only by a three-fifths majority with at least half of all deputies present.

The 236 votes of 5 November fall short of three-fifths of the 443 cast, which is 266. A veto would send back the whole law, income-tax cut included. The President's website lists his own initiative, "PIT Zero. Rodzina na Plus", as 456 days in the Sejm.

The October law remains open. The Senate amended it on 27 October to restore the CIT rise and strike the indexation (print 3270); the Sejm has not voted on those amendments, and its 17–19 November agenda does not list them.

KO says big firms can bear it; the opposition calls it a rerun

Katarzyna Kierzek-Koperska (KO, Poznań) defended the CIT rise at the 5 November first reading: "to, że podnosimy o 3 punkty procentowe ten podatek, naprawdę nie zrujnuje firm, które są największymi podmiotami w tym segmencie podatników" (raising this tax by 3 percentage points really will not ruin the firms that are the largest in this group of taxpayers).

Sylwester Tułajew (Rozwój Plus, Lublin) moved to reject the bill: "Czy za każdym razem, gdy większość sejmowa przegra głosowanie, dostaniemy nowy druk z tymi samymi przepisami - i tak do skutku?" (every time the Sejm majority loses a vote, will we get a new print with the same provisions, and so on until it gets through?).

Henryk Kowalczyk (PiS, Siedlce) said: "Ja wiem, że pewne poprawki wam się nie podobały, ale to oznacza chyba tyle, że straciliście większość parlamentarną" (I know you did not like certain amendments, but that probably means you have lost your parliamentary majority).

What to watch

• 17–19 November: the Sejm's 69th sitting; its agenda can still be supplemented and does not yet list the Senate's amendments to the October law.
• 27 November: the President's deadline to sign, refer or veto.
• 1 January 2027: the law takes effect if signed.

Follow this law to the President's desk on PoliData.