Let's see how good is your Polish income tax law knowledge :-)

I'm a double EU (not Polish) and US citizen, starting up operations for a non-EU, non-US company (my employer) in Poland. I reside in Poland legally with my EU passport (without any Polish registration). My employer doesn't have a legal entity in Poland. My employment contract with my employer is under non-EU, non-US law. I declare my income in the US, but do not pay tax there under the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (2555-EZ) rules. I do not get taxed in the country of my employer, because I do not reside in that country. Do I have to pay tax in Poland? If so, where and how?

I will take a shoot. Since you reside in Poland (for more than 180 days a year) you are a tax resident here. That means that you have "unlimited tax duty" (nieograniczony obowiązek podatkowy) and you should report all your income (including money you earned elsewhere, bank interest, dividends etc) to Polish tax authorities and pay income tax on it. Now how this can be done technically I don't know. Since your employer does not have a legal entity in Poland it can not issue a PIT-11 to you (kind of like W-2 in the US). I guess from the Polish tax authorities point of view you can not be recognized legally as an employee of a company if that company does not have a legal presence in Poland.

I'm in the same situation.

US citizen married to a polish woman living in Poland but just beginning work for a US company which has no designated branch or office in Poland or Europe. They hired me as an independent contractor.

From my research it seems that I will have to go through the paperwork and establish self employment in Poland in order to pay my income taxes and ZUS? Does this sound correct in your opinions?

If you're not a resident of a foreign country, you don't qualify for the exclusion. You have to be registered in Poland (or some other foreign country) to qualify (which is a requirement anyway after 90 days, but no one really cares if you're self employed).


You're exactly right.

yes as you're resident here and your income arises from activities in Poland. I think you need to submit your taxes on a PIT53 form and you'll need to find an accountant to prepare it for you. I was paid gross into Poland a few years back by a non Polish entity for work in Poland and my taxes were submitted each month on a PIT53 form, I then had to go to the bank and make a transfer for the TAX and ZUS each month and I didn't have to register (NIP etc) to do this.

Very interesting considering how things are done by the revenue office in this country i wonder how you can pay taxes using the PIT 53 form without being a registered resident for a long time.It is possible that you could pay your taxes like this but after some time considering how long you're going to be in this country and whether you're an EU citizen or not they will advice you to get registered. Infact by EU laws you're obliged to register yourself inorder to live and work here after your initial 90days have expired. I heard about someone who got into trouble after he had been here for over 2years without registering himself. To be on the safe side with the EU laws get yourself registered.


Infact you're not legal you're actually violating the EU laws once you've been living here for more than 90days.

In my experience the system works thus: work your behind off, pay loads of tax each month and then at April you get told you owe them even more...

I managed for a few years, the thing to remember about Poland is that there is little, if any, cross referencing between the tax office, labour office etc.