Law / Tax in Poland? [57]

You can check how much money You pay for tax and ZUS on this site:

wynagrodzenia.pl/index.php?page=calculator

Surprising...If You get 2500 per month, You will pay nearly 800 for tax and Zus, and
Your employer additional 500!!!

Actually, Your employer pay 3000 to You, ant THEY take nearly 1300 out of You!!!

Law / Tax in Poland? [57]

3500 USD in Poland - good salary, in my opinion. She will get nearly 7000 PLN net pay.
Actually I don't know whether She will be employed by polish employer or american employer. Also not sure about regulations regarding tax for foreigners from USA.

Eg. in UK I'm also obliged by polish law to provide polish tax office with information about my incomes in UK, and to pay tax in accordance with polish rules...

I'm surprised that polish school offers such a good pay...

Law / Tax in Poland? [57]

There are some tricks - but our tax offices have better tricks, too. There are many stories about people destroyed by them. One of my father's collegues committed suicide (really sad story including the way he did it) after he decided to leave company and set up his own business. Tax office and ZUS killed him.. I know it is off topic - but...

Let's go to the point.
In Poland there are two government institution looking for Your money:
Urzad Skarbowy - responsible for collecting tax from employees and businesses.

ZUS - Zaklad Ubezpieczen Spolecznych - responsible for collecting money for social insurance purposes, like pensions, benefits, sick pays etc.

As long as You are employee Your employers takes care of all deductions due from Your wage, based on pay as You earn system. Employees responsibility is limited to sending once a year PIT form to local tax office, informing them about incomes, You can also apply for tax relief - there are few, every year less and less of them...

As I said before, Your wife's salary is quite good, so will be taxed proportionally, but we all pay taxes, so there is nothing to worry about.

Law / Tax in Poland? [57]

I would not expect that she will get back anything back, unless You, as her partner don't have any source of income, so You can be taxed together.

If You travel to work from another city (no matter what distance) there is small tax relief, but employer takes it into account automatically, deducting less tax from wage.

Tax reliefes and other deductions are changing every year, causing many difficulties. I'm now in UK so don't know how it works now.

Try contact Americans members of this forum who live in Poland now to get information about special tax rules for foreigners - if there are any.

Life / Poland's Environment, recycling [79]

In my neigbourhood (UK) the choice of recycling is determined by local council - some areas are environment friendly, some not. In my place there is one large bin for 3 1 bedroom flats emptied on daily basis - I wouldn't call it recycling .

About 7-10 years ago polish local housing where I lived introduced recycling in my area, and it works well since then.
Wasting water is typical for UK, but not for Poland. Some time ago after water alerts in UK one company wanted introduce meters for resident. They did not agree with this idea.10 years ago my parents in Poland asked housing office for permission to put personal water meter in their flat.

When I lived in Netherlands, we didn't have any bins at all - apart from small ones in our own kitchen. We were supposed to place one black bag with organic wastes once a week on the street, the rest (glass, paper, plastic, cans) was to be placed in special containers (some of them about 5 minutes on foot from our flat). We used to do that - noone wants to keep litters inside. For me Netherlands is perfect example.

I used to recognize Polish people in UK, when they placed litters in bin...not only because there are so many Poles.

Law / Tax in Poland? [57]

I know what You mean - but as I said employers takes care of deduction, and normally You pay as much as it is required by tax regulation, therefore there is no tax refund at the end of tax year, unless You use one of tax reliefes, file Your tax together with partner, worked less than full year etc.

I do live in UK now, on my first year i had some refund because I did not work full year, and my eployer used so called emergency tax code, which allowed them to take more money than I should have paid. As soon as I sorted it out in tax office, I pay every month exactly as much as I should, eg. if in this month I earned more than in previous one due to bonus or overtime pay - I pay more tax, but in next month due to 2 unpaid leaves I pay less tax. At the end of tax year the balance is 0. That's why they call it Pay as You Earn, and it is very similiar to polish system.