Investing from Poland: Belka tax, PIT-38, IKE, IKZE and OKI

• 19% on gains from securities, derivatives and fund units (Art. 30b) and on dividends and interest (Art. 30a).
• PIT-38: you declare gains in a separate return, filed from 15 February to 30 April of the following year.
• PIT-8C: the provider's information. Only if it is in the tax administration's system can a prepared PIT-38 be accepted automatically.
• 2026 limits: IKE PLN 28,260, IKZE PLN 11,304 (self-employed PLN 16,956), OIPE PLN 28,260.
• OKI from 1 January 2027: instead of income tax, a tax on the value of the assets, 0.85% in 2027.

Under Art. 30b(1) of the Personal Income Tax Act (Dz.U. 2026 poz. 592, legal state as of 1 April 2026), the tax on gains from securities, derivatives, shares and fund units is 19%. Art. 30b contains no exemption after a holding period.

Dividends and interest are also taxed at a flat 19% under Art. 30a(1); the payer collects the tax.

Losses: you can carry a loss forward for 5 years, using at most 50% of the loss per year, or deduct up to PLN 5,000,000 in one go (Art. 9(3)).

No transfer tax through a broker: the civil-law transactions tax (PCC) on the sale of other property rights is 1% (Art. 7(1)(1)(b) PCC Act). Exempt, however, is the sale of financial instruments to or through investment firms, foreign ones included, and within organised trading (Art. 9 pt 9). A purchase or sale through a broker therefore does not trigger it.

• PIT-8C: under Art. 39(3), businesses, legal persons and organisational units must send you and the tax office information on your income under Art. 30b. The form is called PIT-8C; the name appears on podatki.gov.pl, not in the Act. It is an information duty: the provider does not withhold tax on capital gains.
• PIT-38: gains under Art. 30b go on a separate return (Art. 45(1a) pt 1), filed from 15 February to 30 April of the following year (Art. 45(1)).
• Twój e-PIT: for tax year 2025, a PIT-38 prepared from PIT-8C data was accepted automatically on 30 April 2026 at 23:59:59 if a correct PIT-8C was in the system and the other conditions were met. If there is no PIT-8C in the system, there is no automatic acceptance; you file the PIT-38 yourself.
• Income from abroad: part C, column b of the PIT-38 also covers income earned abroad, for example from selling shares. You convert amounts in foreign currency into zloty at the National Bank of Poland (NBP) average rate of the last business day before the day the income is received. For income from abroad you attach the PIT/ZG form to the return.

What the providers write: XTB describes the PIT-8C as a tax document prepared by XTB showing your income and costs from investing. Saxo promises on its Polish page a free tax report for the return and support in Polish; it does not say this is a PIT-8C. eToro lists the countries for which it provides a tax report; Poland is not among them. For DEGIRO and the other brokers we have no verified statement on the PIT-8C.

• Credit: you deduct tax paid abroad on dividends and interest, at most up to the Polish tax of 19% on that income (Art. 30a(9)). You show the income and the foreign tax in your return (Art. 30a(11)).
• United States: under the convention between the United States and Poland of 8 October 1974, in force since 22 July 1976, US withholding tax on dividends is 15% (Art. 11(2)(b)); 5% applies only to companies with at least 10% of the voting stock.

Worked example (our own calculation): on a US dividend of USD 100, the United States withholds USD 15. The Polish tax is 19% of it, USD 19; after deducting the USD 15, USD 4 remains to be paid in Poland, converted at the NBP rate. The difference is therefore 4 percentage points.

Under Art. 8(1) pt 2 of the IKE/IKZE Act, a brokerage firm may also run an IKE, with a securities account and a cash account.

Of the brokers in our comparison, XTB offers IKE and IKZE. We have not verified an OIPE offer at any broker. Two Polish providers that we do not compare and do not rate: mBank's brokerage office (eMakler, with IKE and IKZE), which says it is supervised by the KNF, and the brokerage house DM BOŚ (bossa.pl), which says it operates under a KNF permit of 18.08.1994.

The act of 3 July 2026 on personal investment accounts (Dz.U. 2026 poz. 1098) enters into force on 1 January 2027. So in 2026 the OKI does not exist yet.

• Tax: the Personal Income Tax Act does not apply to income from OKI assets (new Art. 2(1) pt 10). Instead a tax on the value of the assets applies: 19% of the NBP reference rate on 31 October of the previous year, at least 0.1% (Art. 25(1)). For 2027 the act sets 0.85% (Art. 43).
• Exemptions: an average value of up to PLN 25,000 in a list of certain assets is exempt (Art. 26(1) pt 1). Together, the exempt average values may not exceed PLN 100,000 a year (Art. 26(2)).
• Who: only natural persons aged 18 and over; more than one OKI is allowed (Art. 3).
• Providers: among others banks and brokerage houses; a foreign investment firm only if it operates in Poland through a branch (Art. 2(1) pt 16).

Worked example (our own calculation): with an average value of PLN 200,000 in 2027 and no exempt assets, 0.85% would mean a tax of PLN 1,700.

The pages of XTB, mBank, DM BOŚ, PKO BM and Saxo that we retrieved did not yet mention an OKI.

• Scheme: the KDPW runs the statutory compensation scheme; the KNF supervises it.
• Amount: under Art. 139(1) of the Act on Trading in Financial Instruments (Dz.U. 2024 poz. 722), you receive 100% of the covered funds up to the equivalent of EUR 3,000 and 90% of the excess; the covered funds are capped at the equivalent of EUR 22,000. By arithmetic that is at most EUR 3,000 + 90% of EUR 19,000 = EUR 20,100.
• Per investor: the limits apply per investor, however many accounts they hold (Art. 139(4)).
• Reporting to the NBP: individuals whose non-business foreign assets and liabilities together exceed PLN 7 million at year end report them to the NBP quarterly, within 26 days after the end of the quarter. We found no general duty to report foreign accounts.

• IKE and IKZE: XTB.
• PIT-8C: XTB. A tax report for the return, with no statement on the PIT-8C: Saxo.
• No country tax report for Poland: eToro.
• Website in Polish: XTB, Saxo, DEGIRO, Trade Republic, eToro, LYNX (through a Polish branch), Capital.com and Bitpanda.

The overview with source and date for every entry is on the page brokers for investors in Poland. All brokers that accept clients resident in Poland: broker directory for Poland; for ETF investors: ETF brokers for Poland.

• which other brokers in our comparison issue a PIT-8C, DEGIRO and Trade Republic among them;
• the Polish pages of Trading 212, Revolut, Admirals, Freedom24 and Interactive Brokers;
• providers of the OIPE and, before 2027, of the OKI;
• the exact condition on the payments for an IKE payout, and the payout from the OIPE;
• whether there is a newer edition of IRS Table 1 than the one from May 2023.

1. 1Before opening an account, ask whether the provider issues a PIT-8C. Without one you file the PIT-38 yourself, with the PIT/ZG form for income from abroad.
2. 2For every transaction in foreign currency, record the NBP rate of the previous business day.
3. 3Decide whether you want to use the 2026 limits for IKE and IKZE; a second IKE costs you the exemption.
4. 4Watch which providers open an OKI from 2027.

• Sejm (ELI), Personal Income Tax Act, Dz.U. 2026 poz. 592
• Sejm (ELI), IKE and IKZE Act, Dz.U. 2026 poz. 91
• Sejm (ELI), 2026 limits: IKE, M.P. 2025 poz. 1202, IKZE, M.P. 2025 poz. 1156, OIPE, M.P. 2025 poz. 1151
• Sejm (ELI), Act on personal investment accounts (OKI), Dz.U. 2026 poz. 1098
• Sejm (ELI), PCC Act, Dz.U. 2026 poz. 191 and Act on Trading in Financial Instruments, Dz.U. 2024 poz. 722
• Sejm (ELI), regulation on reporting to the NBP, Dz.U. 2024 poz. 1746
• podatki.gov.pl, PIT-38 za 2025 rok
• KDPW, System rekompensat; KNF, home page
• IRS, US–Poland convention and Tax Treaty Table 1
• XTB, IKE, IKZE and PIT-8C
• Saxo, Poland; eToro, Tax report; DEGIRO, Poland
• mBank, eMakler; DM BOŚ, news item of 09.10.2026

This article is for information only and does not constitute investment, legal or tax advice.