Rental income tax in Poland for non-residents 2026: renting out a flat as a foreigner

As a non-resident, you pay rental income tax in Poland: rent from a flat located in Poland is income earned on Polish territory, so it is subject to limited tax liability regardless of your citizenship and country of residence. Private rental is taxed at the same flat rate (ryczałt) as for residents – 8.5% on revenue up to PLN 100,000 a year and 12.5% on the excess – with monthly or quarterly payments and a PIT-28 tax return. Below we explain what a double tax treaty changes, how to get a NIP (tax identification number) without a PESEL, which tax office handles your settlements and how much tax you will pay on a studio from our listings.

Key facts

• A non-resident is liable for tax in Poland on income from real estate located in Poland (Article 3(2a) and (2b)(4) of the Personal Income Tax Act) – including rent.
• The flat-rate tax rates are the same as for residents: 8.5% of revenue up to PLN 100,000 and 12.5% on the excess, with no deduction of costs.
• You pay the flat-rate tax yourself by the 20th day of the month following the month (or quarter) in which you received the rent, and you file PIT-28 between 15 February and 30 April of the following year.
• Double tax treaties generally leave Poland the right to tax rental income from real estate; you avoid double taxation in your country of residence – by the exemption or the credit method for the Polish tax.
• Without a PESEL (Polish national identification number) you need a NIP – you apply on form NIP-7, with no stamp duty.

When is a foreigner renting out a flat a non-resident?

How you settle your tax depends on your tax residence, not your citizenship. Under Article 3(1a) of the Personal Income Tax Act, a person is resident in Poland if their centre of vital interests (centre of personal or economic interests) is here, or if they stay in Poland for more than 183 days in a tax year. Such a person – including a foreigner who has moved to Warsaw or Wrocław – settles all of their income in Poland as a resident.

If you live permanently abroad and only have a rental flat in Poland, you are a non-resident and subject to limited tax liability (Article 3(2a)). It covers only income earned in Poland, and the Act expressly includes in this group income from real estate located in Poland or rights to it, including from its sale (Article 3(2b)(4)). Rent from a studio in Mokotów or Krzyki is therefore taxed in Poland, even if the tenant transfers it to an account in another country. The residence rules apply subject to double tax treaties (Article 4a) – these resolve, among other things, situations in which two countries both consider you their resident.

Your status can change: if you move to Poland for a longer period, the flat-rate tax rates stay the same, but you then settle all of your income in Poland. We cover the purchase itself, including the MSWiA permit (from the Ministry of the Interior and Administration), in our guide buying an apartment in Poland as a foreigner.

Double tax treaties and rental income from real estate

The double tax treaties Poland concludes are usually based on the OECD Model Tax Convention. Its Article 6 ("income from immovable property") provides that income from real estate may be taxed in the state in which the property is located. This is the case, for example, in the Poland–Ukraine treaty – its Article 6(3) expressly covers rental income – and in the Poland–Germany treaty (Article 6(1)). In practice, this means the treaty does not exempt you from the Polish flat-rate tax; instead, it determines how you avoid double taxation in the country where you live.

What about a certificate of residence? This is a certificate of your place of residence for tax purposes issued by the tax administration of your country (Article 5a(21) of the Personal Income Tax Act). When you rent a flat to a private individual or a company, nobody withholds tax from you – rental of real estate is not on the list of non-residents' revenue from which a withholding agent deducts flat-rate tax (Article 29(1)). So the certificate does not reduce the rate, but it is worth having: it confirms that you have limited tax liability in Poland if the tax office asks about your status, and in your country of residence it is sometimes needed to settle the Polish tax.

Flat-rate tax for non-residents – rates, payments and PIT-28

The Flat-Rate Income Tax Act covers all individuals earning revenue from private rental (Article 1(2)) and does not introduce separate rules for non-residents. The rates (Article 12(1)(4)(a)), no deduction of costs, the rules for spouses and the treatment of utilities work the same as for a resident – we describe them in detail in rental income tax 2026 (in Polish). The differences mainly concern formalities.

Obligation	Deadline	What to watch out for as a non-resident
Obtaining a tax identifier (NIP, if you do not have a PESEL)	before your first flat-rate tax payment	NIP-7 application; without an identifier you cannot generate your individual tax micro-account (mikrorachunek podatkowy)
Monthly flat-rate tax	by the 20th day of the following month; for December – by 20 January	payment to the tax micro-account (Article 61b of the Tax Ordinance), also by transfer from abroad
Quarterly flat-rate tax	by the 20th day of the month following the quarter; for the fourth quarter – by 20 January	you indicate the choice of quarterly payments in PIT-28
PIT-28 tax return	from 15 February to 30 April of the following year	a letter sent from outside the EU counts only from its delivery to a Polish post office – send it well in advance

A document is filed with the tax office on time if you post it at a Polish branch of the designated postal operator or with a postal operator in another EU country. If you send PIT-28 from, for example, Ukraine, the United Kingdom or Georgia, what counts is only the moment a Polish post office receives the item (Article 12 § 6(2) of the Tax Ordinance). It is safer to file the return electronically, at a Polish consulate or through an attorney.

NIP for non-residents and the competent tax office

The tax identifier of an individual who does not run a business and is not an active VAT payer is their PESEL number. If you do not have one – and many investors from abroad do not – you need a NIP. You apply on form NIP-7; there is no stamp duty, and the office assigns the number within 3 days. We describe it step by step in our checklist PESEL, NIP and a bank account for foreigners.

Which office? The Act on the Registration and Identification of Taxpayers distinguishes two situations (Article 4(3)). A person without a place of residence in Poland who is not an income taxpayer (e.g. who has bought a flat but is not yet renting it out) files the application with the Second Tax Office Warsaw-Śródmieście (Drugi Urząd Skarbowy Warszawa-Śródmieście). However, once you earn rental revenue, you are an income taxpayer – and then the NIP is assigned by the office competent for that tax.

That competence is determined by the Minister of Finance's regulation on the competence of tax authorities. For people without a place of residence in Poland, what generally counts is their place of stay in Poland (§ 4(1)), and for non-residents the regulation designates specialised offices in each voivodeship (§ 5) – for the Mazowieckie voivodeship this is the Third Tax Office Warsaw-Śródmieście (Trzeci Urząd Skarbowy Warszawa-Śródmieście), and for Dolnośląskie the Urząd Skarbowy Wrocław-Psie Pole. If you earn revenue in several voivodeships, the Third Tax Office Warsaw-Śródmieście is competent (§ 5(3)). Because determining the competent office depends on the details (your stay, where the flats are located), confirm it with the National Tax Information service (Krajowa Informacja Skarbowa) before your first payment.

If you have no place of residence in Poland or in another EU country and the tax office opens proceedings against you, you must appoint an attorney for service of documents in Poland – unless documents are served electronically (Article 138f of the Tax Ordinance). A rental management company can deal with the tenant and rent collection, but it does not take over your tax obligations: you remain the taxpayer. How working with a management company works and how much it costs, we explain in rental management – cost and is it worth it (in Polish).

Example: how much flat-rate tax will a non-resident pay on a studio from our listings?

Let's take apartments from our catalogue based on TM Invest listings data as of 27 September 2026, and assume rent based on the NBP (National Bank of Poland) average rental rates for the first quarter of 2026: PLN 85.1/m² in Warsaw and PLN 67.5/m² on average in six large cities (including Wrocław – the NBP does not publish a separate figure for Wrocław alone, so this is an approximation). The NBP rates do not include service charges and utilities, which in the example are paid by the tenant under the agreement – in that case they are not the landlord's revenue.

Apartment (median in our listings)	Price and area	Rent (NBP rate × m²)	Annual revenue	Flat-rate tax 8.5% per year	Gross yield / after flat-rate tax
Studio, Praga-Południe	PLN 571,536, 29.6 m²	PLN 2,519/month	PLN 30,228	PLN 2,569 (approx. PLN 214/month)	5.3% / 4.8%
Studio, Wrocław-Krzyki	PLN 525,512, 30.4 m²	PLN 2,052/month	PLN 24,624	PLN 2,093 (approx. PLN 174/month)	4.7% / 4.3%
2 rooms, Warsaw	PLN 755,824, 39.4 m²	PLN 3,353/month	PLN 40,236	PLN 3,420 (approx. PLN 285/month)	5.3% / 4.9%

Timeline for the studio in Praga-Południe: if the tenant pays the first rent of PLN 2,519 on 10 November 2026, with monthly settlement you pay flat-rate tax of PLN 214 by 20 December 2026, and for December – by 20 January 2027. You file PIT-28 for 2026 by 30 April 2027 at the latest. With three such studios, revenue will be about PLN 90,700 and you will still stay within the 8.5% rate. Only above PLN 100,000 a year is the excess taxed at 12.5% – e.g. with revenue of PLN 120,000 the flat-rate tax will be PLN 8,500 + PLN 2,500 = PLN 11,000.

Buying a flat in Poland from abroad? We will help you choose a buy-to-let apartment from a developer in Warsaw or Wrocław and guide you through the purchase – remotely too. Usually no commission – our fee is normally paid by the developer.

Settling tax in your country of residence – exemption or credit?

The Polish flat-rate tax is not the end of the story. The country where you live usually also requires you to declare income from foreign rental, and the double tax treaty determines how you avoid paying tax twice. There are two main methods.

Method	How it works	Example from a treaty with Poland
Exemption with progression	income from Polish real estate is not taxed in your country of residence, but it may increase the rate applied to your other income	treaty with Germany – Article 24(1)(a) and (d) (person living in Germany)
Tax credit (deduction)	the income is taxed in your country of residence, and you deduct the tax paid in Poland from the tax due there – usually up to the amount of tax attributable to that income	treaty with Ukraine – Article 24(1) (Polish tax credited against Ukrainian tax)

With the credit method, the outcome depends on the rates in your country. If the tax due there on rent of PLN 30,228 is higher than the Polish flat-rate tax of PLN 2,569, you will pay the difference in your country of residence; if it is lower, you usually pay nothing extra, but you will not recover the excess Polish tax either. For settling abroad you will need proof of payment of the flat-rate tax and a copy of PIT-28; check the details of your treaty with a tax specialist in your country of residence.

We discuss property tax and PCC (civil law transactions tax) or VAT on purchase in taxes when buying property in Poland, and preparing the flat for tenants in our guide how to rent out a flat after handover from the developer (in Polish).

Frequently asked questions

Summary

When renting out a flat in Poland as a non-resident, you pay the Polish flat-rate tax of 8.5% (12.5% above PLN 100,000), pay it by the 20th day of the month and file PIT-28 by 30 April. Without a PESEL, first get a NIP, confirm the competent tax office and find out how your country of residence will take the Polish tax into account. On a studio from our listings costing about PLN 525–572 thousand, the flat-rate tax is roughly PLN 2.1–2.6 thousand a year – factor it into the yield before you buy, alongside the costs described in our guide for foreigners buying an apartment.

Planning to buy a flat to rent out in Warsaw or Wrocław? We will find a developer's apartment within your budget and help you through the entire purchase process. Usually no commission – our fee is normally paid by the developer. We have been on the market since 2016.

Legal status as of September 2026. The calculations are indicative, and the rents in the examples are based on average NBP rates, not on offers for specific flats. This article does not constitute tax advice – for your individual case, consult a tax specialist in Poland and in your country of residence, or apply for an individual tax ruling.

Sources

• Personal Income Tax Act (Ustawa o podatku dochodowym od osób fizycznych) – consolidated text Dz.U. 2026 item 592 (Article 3(1a), (2a), (2b)(4), Article 4a, Article 5a(21), Article 29(1)).
• Act on Flat-Rate Income Tax on Certain Revenue Earned by Individuals (Ustawa o zryczałtowanym podatku dochodowym od niektórych przychodów osiąganych przez osoby fizyczne) – consolidated text Dz.U. 2025 item 843, as amended (Article 1(2), Article 12(1)(4)(a), Article 21).
• Tax Ordinance Act (Ustawa – Ordynacja podatkowa) – consolidated text Dz.U. 2026 item 622 (Article 12 § 6, Article 61b, Article 138f).
• Act on the Registration and Identification of Taxpayers and Remitters (Ustawa o zasadach ewidencji i identyfikacji podatników i płatników) – consolidated text Dz.U. 2026 item 151 (Article 3, Article 4(3)).
• Regulation of the Minister of Finance on the competence of tax authorities (Rozporządzenie Ministra Finansów w sprawie właściwości organów podatkowych) – consolidated text Dz.U. 2026 item 152 (§ 4(1), § 5); amended by Dz.U. 2026 item 1247.
• Convention between the Government of the Republic of Poland and the Government of Ukraine for the avoidance of double taxation – Dz.U. 1994 No. 63 item 269 (Articles 6, 24).
• Agreement between the Republic of Poland and the Federal Republic of Germany for the avoidance of double taxation – Dz.U. 2005 No. 12 item 90 (Articles 6, 24).
• Obtaining a NIP as an individual (NIP-7) – biznes.gov.pl.
• Settling revenue from private rental – Ministry of Finance, podatki.gov.pl.
• Information on housing prices and the real estate market situation in Poland in the first quarter of 2026 – National Bank of Poland (rental rates).
• Apartment prices: TM Invest developments catalogue, as of 27 September 2026.