Those making less than 12,000 ZŁ a year in Poland shouldn't be taxed - proposal went to the Polish parliament

PiS and two small allied parties have submitted a proposal to the Sejm to exempt those earning less than 12,000 złotys a year from paying income tax. As every PF-er knows, that is a starvation income for one person and many of those try ot support families on that amount. PiS is always thinking about the little guy. PO brown-noses the well-to-do who can always be counted on for kickbacks.

That is welcome news if it is true. However, one of the problems we face in Poland is tax evasion and under-the-table economy. Maybe if this becomes a reality it will encourage people that conceal their income to declare it or at least declare some of it.

A lot of issues here, but very very few people are on that amount of money.

So it won't make a big dent in the budget. Can you imagine only those who make less than 3100 zł a year are now exempt. Actually all OAPs should be exempt. They worked all their lives,contrituted to ZUS, have a meagre pension and the taxman is still sticking his hand in their pocket.

Depends. Some counties do tax OAPs and some don't. Poland has always been very tight with personal allowances.

3091 and I agree, this limit does not make any sense. You can't even eat with that in Poland let alone live. Who came up with such a flawed and arbitrary figure anyway?

I have one advise to a OP (Polonius3), there is no such currency like Z£. The abbreviation of złoty is PLN. I live in Poland and I see zł only in some small groceries or ads.

In defence of Polonius You are wrong.

Zł is the currency sign for the Polish Złoty.

PLN is ISO 4217 code. It's like $ and USD.

No. PLN is like GBP, USD, EUR, SEK etc. Zł is like £, $, €.

Not that this helps people who are on a very low income (12,000 zl per year is basically a part time wage for unskilled work) and get no tax allowance.

I certainly could agree to a 12,000zł tax free amount if it meant also cleaning up the black economy in which many low-paid workers reside.

It would be a good step but the main issue should be rather "why do some people get so little paid?". It is not normal that some people must "survive" with so little.

It just like the current government's "brilliant" idea to drop the address mention on ID and some people say it "would help the homeless" (pathetic!). No, what could help the homeless whould be to put them back on the tracks, and enable them to live "normally".

Yes it is 3091PLN or to put it another way if your tax calculation is 556,02 (five hundred + fifty six and a couple of gry) PLN in tax then it's not payable. That figure has not changed in probably a decade and some.

Well done PiS for tackling this, though biz so very quiet for the past 10-14 days (for some reason was a sudden burst of orders for a week or 2 after the presidential election) that probably not going to need to worry about paying much or any tax this year anyway, just the flaming ZUS raid on my pocket each month which also needs reforming ...

Yes I agree Gosc, definitely seeing more homeless this year or so it appears, with many more begging for money for food, booze or cigs. Just yesterday a woman asked for money for a bus ticket which she then used. Seeing more of that than before, for sure.

@eh?: yes, unfortunately it is worse and worse. Even people who don't look "kloszard" come to us and ask for money. How many elderly stand in front of pharmacies begging for money in order to buy their medecine? All this freaks me out but of course I cannot give money to everybody. Central areas of towns are pitiful with all those homless and those dirt poor (how many guys in their 50's do I see digging into the trashcans???). And what does the governement do? Nothing What is their program to relieve poverty other than telling people to move abroad?

Yes Gosc, every week someone asks someone I know for money outside an apteka some where in Wroclaw. Of course I know some are lying and go buy booze but most don't according to what Im told by people I know. Also yesterday I saw a man pretending to be looking at the bus timetable but he actually glanced briefly into the bin. He was then gone.He looked normally dressed, clean, I must add, but I think he is one of the many i see who check the bins for things to eat or to sell like cans.

@eh? yes true but the very rich get richer and richer and the governement does not give a da..... about all this poverty. I often read that Poland is among the most unequal countries.

Which PiS will increase to pay for higher personal allowances.

The government doesn't have an unlimited pot of money, and all these populist PiS proposals can only be funded by raiding SME's.

As for homeless begging in Wrocław, it's a peculiarly Wrocław problem. It doesn't happen much in other cities, but for some reason, Wrocław seems to have real issues. Those looking in bins have problems with alcohol, not with poverty.

this thread is wandering OT