Living in Poland (telecommute to London)

Czesc,

I'm 27 and working in Telecommunications. I have the ability to work anywhere in the world and I am currently earning about $5,200 USD a month after the taxes in my "home" country (Australia).

I was thinking of spending a year working from Krakow, and doing some studies on the side. My parents are Polish, I have a passport and can speak it well. Writing and reading I would find difficult.

Has anyone tried this?

- David

you will have a blast. consider wroclaw as well, its as nice as krakow and prague is not too far away.

Bear in mind that you'll have to pay Polish taxes.

I have family in Zawiercie. So somewhere close is good.

Regarding taxes. If I continue to be "Employed" in Australia. I would just have my Australian taxes?

I have no office in Poland, technically work would be on our servers in Sydney. I would report to someone in London for any issues (say if I had to visit for a meeting).

If your 'centre of vital interests' is in Poland, then you would be considered tax resident by the Poles. Or if you stay for more than 185 days, you'll also be tax resident.

The time restriction may be the issue, but I have a residence in Australia as well to maintain.

I would say my vital interests would remain in Australia, as source of income and investment.

You can think all you want, but without a judgement from the Polish tax office to declare this, you won't have a leg to stand on if they come calling for the tax owed.

It's certain that if you live and work from Poland, then your centre of vital interests will be judged to be Poland. Holding a Polish passport will also count against you in this sense.

Thank you for information.

Australia has tax treaty with Poland so I only pay the difference in taxes so would not be much, may be 10%.

Would the polish tax office also want to tax any interest he earns in his Aus savings account if he is in Polska >185 days per tax year? Or is there some treaty agreement meaning it's not taxable? I think I'm right in saying Polska is less generous with personal tax allowances.

I pay about 27% here, plus 10% into "pension", 1.5% for health.

I would prefer to remain Australian for taxation, in fact. Work doesn't even have to know where I am.

Why not pay the tax in Poland? 19% flat rate (with all your costs of doing business as deductibles).

27+10+1.5+19 is far too much. No government is worth that.

+VAT

telecomute what sort of IT work are you doing specifically, if you don;t mind me asking.

Customer Analytics Lead.

Reporting systems / process / analysis. We use this in business improvement work.

It isn't that much here. You'd pay 19% flat tax on whatever is left after you deduct your business expenses from your income (if you're working from home that means a percentage of your rent and bills is deductible). On top of that tax, you'd have ZUS but that would only be a net of 200zl per month for the year that you'd be here.

They certainly would be very interested, and if his lifestyle in Poland suggests that he isn't declaring the right amount of tax, they'll go ahead and make a few assumptions.


You might prefer, but the Polish taxman will insist, and he's not a generous lover.

Modest Apartment, modest car, I will be studying too.

I don't see how the connection can be made, I will be saving money.

If you don't register your stay (meldunek) and posses nothing in Poland - no bank account, no assets, then it's unlikely that any tax office will get interested about you. Because of Schengen they will not know weather you're in Poland or in Portugal.

which is illegal....


which the OP has already said he doesn't want to do....


which is impractical, inconvenient and expensive....


A Polish citizen comes back to Poland and appears to not exist? That's far more interesting to the tax office than one who chucks them a grand or two a month and submits very simple tax returns.

Not much appearing there. they will only know that he flew here. Could be as a tourist, not even knowing where he lives.

And yes, it is illegal, that is why you shouldn't do that.

He's talking about owning a car, which means registering himself somewhere.

If a person from the UK is registered here with a PESEL and/or the blue registered stay card, is completing a tax return mandatory even if there's no job income to tax and only very little or no bank account deposit interest? Because I don't think Poles in the UK have to send in a tax return unless they start earning and it's not PAYE.

I think in EU one must fill tax statement only in the country where he is tax resident and include all income from other countries there.

Yes, you should submit it. Even if the interest is minimal, you should still declare it - it will avoid problems later.

Thanks for the replies :o)

If a Brit becomes taxable under the Polish system, do they lose the tax-free status of their UK ISA account? Not good news if so. "Hello, Ryan Air? Er a ticket to Stansted sharpish, please..."

" To have a Cash ISA Saver, you must be at least 16 years old and either (a) resident in the United Kingdom for tax purposes or (b) subject to United Kingdom tax under Section 28 of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003, or married to, or in a civil partnership with, such a person. You must inform us if these conditions no longer apply to you."

So if you don't meet these I guess you should not have an ISA at all.

Just checked the HMRC site and it looks like you may be OK...

"You can only open an ISA if you are resident in the UK for tax purposes (ask your Tax Office if you are in any doubt about this)."

If you start an ISA in the UK and then go abroad, you cannot continue putting money into the ISA (unless you are a Crown employee working overseas or the spouse or civil partner of a Crown employee working overseas). However, you can keep your ISA and you will still get tax relief on investments held in the ISA. When you return, you can start putting money in again (subject to the normal annual limits).

ISAs have been around a long time and they allow Brits to save a sum each year tax-free, building on that sum each year. A lot of Brits will have had ISAs going back 20 years. If a Brit becomes tax resident in Poland, it is a worry if the ISA account has to be closed because that can be many years of past allowance gone, because if the person returns to the UK to again become tax resident there, it could be that they'd have lost the right to the accumulation of perhaps 20 years' of tax-free allowances. When interest rates are reasonable again for depositors, that's quite a lot to lose in tax-free interest each year. I'd not wish to lose UK tax resident status unless I found a job in Poland that made staying on in Poland financially the better option.

Thanks for checking the info., I've not put any money in the ISA for 1 or 2 years because I simply have been using up my savings to live, so that's a happy coincidence maybe :o)