The Belka tax remains, but there will be a new product

As announced by the Minister of Finance, Andrzej Domański, at Tuesday’s press conference, it will be possible to transfer funds from:

(For the investment part, i.e. up to PLN 100,000 of investment value excluding tax)

• shares, bonds and other instruments admitted to trading on a regulated market or introduced to an alternative trading system
• investment funds

(For the savings part, i.e. up to PLN 25,000 of savings value without tax)

• deposits
• savings bonds

After exceeding the value threshold of PLN 100,000, a tax of 0.8% - 0.9% will apply.

Changes to the Belka tax are one of the promises of the Tusk government

As we pointed out this morning, changes to the capital gains tax, also known as the Belka tax (named after Marek Belka, who introduced it as Minister of Finance over 20 years ago), are one of the Civic Coalition's election promises. In fact, other politicians have promised to abolish or reduce this tax in previous years, but it never materialized.

Minister Domański has already clarified that he does not intend to eliminate the tax, but only wants to remodel it.

It's impossible to completely eliminate the tax because it's too valuable to public finances. Budget revenues from capital gains tax exceeded PLN 10 billion last year, over 16 percent higher than the previous year. Of this amount, PLN 7.4 billion came from taxing interest on bank deposits and investment funds, and PLN 3.2 billion from profits from investing in stocks.

The difference between the two is that in the former case, the taxpayer doesn't have to do anything to settle the tax, as banks and funds do it for them. In the latter case, the settlement is done independently. This also means that additional costs, such as brokerage commissions, can be included. Generally, however, it's the same tax, governed by the same act.

More information coming soon.