What Is Abolition Relief?
It is available to those earning income abroad – specifically in a country not covered by the exemption under Art. 21(1)(23c) of the PIT Act, with which Poland has concluded a double taxation treaty providing for the proportional credit method. The relief reduces the amount of tax payable in Poland. In 2021, abolition relief was capped at PLN 1,360.
Certain taxpayers, however, are not subject to this cap. These are individuals who perform work outside the land territory of states. Seafarers, pilots, flight attendants, and those working on drilling platforms could claim the relief without limitation in their annual returns. This means that seafarers’ foreign income is still effectively exempt from taxation in Poland, allowing them to avoid double taxation where they have already paid tax on that income abroad.
In practice, taxpayers claiming unlimited abolition relief are typically summoned to their tax offices in connection with the annual return in which the relief was applied. This may be because the tax authority is unaware that a particular taxpayer is a seafarer. It is advisable – when claiming unlimited abolition relief – to include at least a brief note regarding the source of income in the filed return, e.g. in the “Additional information” section (PIT-36 – box 524).
The position that taxpayers earning foreign income outside the land territory of states – including seafarers – are entitled to claim abolition relief in full (without the cap) was confirmed in Tax Clarifications issued by the Minister of Finance in August 2021 concerning Art. 27g of the PIT Act. The situation of seafarers was addressed in the Clarifications on two occasions:
Example 1
Mr Wojciech is a Polish tax resident working on board a seagoing vessel sailing on the Indian Ocean. The vessel on which the Taxpayer works is operated in international transport by an enterprise with its registered office in the United Kingdom. Is Mr Wojciech entitled to claim abolition relief in full (without the PLN 1,360 cap) in respect of income earned in 2021?
Yes. The Taxpayer performs salaried work outside the land territory of states. Accordingly, the tax calculated under the proportional credit method may be reduced by the full amount of abolition relief.
Example 2
Mr Jakub is a Polish tax resident. The Taxpayer is employed by an enterprise with its registered office in Norway on a drilling platform located in the North Sea, within Norway’s territorial waters. Is the Taxpayer entitled to claim abolition relief in full when calculating tax on income earned in 2021?
Yes. The Taxpayer’s place of work is outside the land territory of states. Accordingly, when settling income for 2021, the Taxpayer is entitled to deduct the full amount of abolition relief.
In summary, the Ministry of Finance Clarifications state that seafarers’ entitlement to abolition relief is not dependent on the type of unit on which the work is performed. It must, however, be clearly emphasised that the Clarifications address the condition of “work outside the land territory” (Art. 27g(5) of the PIT Act), and not the condition of “operation of the vessel in international transport” – and it is precisely the latter condition that is challenged by tax authorities and confirmed by the NSA with respect to offshore units.
The Ministry of Finance also confirmed in the Clarifications that abolition relief (without the cap) applies to seafarers working on vessels as well as other floating units, including drilling platforms.
It must be noted, however, that the analysed Ministry of Finance Clarifications, while favourable for seafarers, do not constitute a source of law in Poland and may be applied at the discretion of officials.
Abolition Relief and Seafarers on Offshore Units – the Courts’ Position
The 2021 Clarifications do not, however, resolve all doubts. In practice, what proves decisive is not the type of unit on which the seafarer works, but whether that unit is operated in international transport. The Supreme Administrative Court in its judgment of 29 January 2026 (II FSK 702/23) confirmed the established line of case law, according to which FPSO, FSO, cable-laying, pipe-laying and research vessels do not participate in international transport – and consequently, the income of seafarers employed on them does not qualify for abolition relief under the Polish-Norwegian Convention.
This means that even if a seafarer meets the condition of performing work outside the land territory (Art. 27g(5) of the PIT Act), the entitlement to unlimited abolition relief may prove moot if, at the prior stage of determining the rules of taxation, the very fact of work in international transport is challenged.
Art. 27g(5) of the PIT Act – a Common Misunderstanding
Many seafarers and their advisors treat Art. 27g(5) of the PIT Act as a standalone basis for entitlement to abolition relief – reasoning that since they work outside the land territory of states, the relief is available to them automatically and without the cap. The Regional Administrative Court in Gdańsk in its judgment of 4 February 2026 (I SA/Gd 935/25) categorically rejected this interpretation.
Art. 27g(5) does not create a standalone right to the relief – it merely removes the PLN 1,360 cap from paragraph 2. Before the question of the cap even arises, the conditions of Art. 27g(1) must first be met, and these require that the foreign income be settled under the rules of Art. 27(9) or (9a) of the PIT Act. In other words: paragraph 5 addresses “how much” – but paragraph 1 addresses “whether at all.”
The 2021 Ministry of Finance Clarifications are not inconsistent with this position – they simply do not articulate it explicitly, as they deal exclusively with the question of the cap, not the underlying entitlement to the relief.
Does Payment of Tax Abroad Condition Entitlement to the Relief?
The case law does not provide a uniform answer to this question.
The WSA in Gdańsk in its judgment of 4 February 2026 (I SA/Gd 935/25) held that the absence of a conflict of taxing claims – i.e. a situation where the taxpayer failed to demonstrate the probability of a foreign tax liability – precludes the application of a double taxation treaty and, consequently, abolition relief. In a treaty-free situation, the general tax ruling of the Minister of Finance (No. DD4.8201.1.2019) expressly requires actual payment of tax.
The NSA, however, in its judgment of 15 December 2025 (II FSK 785/22), delivered by a seven-judge panel, took a different view – holding that neither the arising of a tax liability in the other state nor actual payment of tax condition the applicability of a double taxation treaty. It is sufficient that the income “may be taxed” within the meaning of the convention. The NSA simultaneously issued a signalling order to the Minister of Finance, pointing to the divergence of positions within the tax administration.
This divergence does not affect offshore seafarers working on vessels not operated in international transport – in their case the convention does not apply for a different reason (absence of the transport condition). For seafarers on transport vessels whose income satisfies the treaty conditions, however, the judgment in II FSK 785/22 may be of significant importance.
The practical consequences of the current state of affairs are further confirmed by the WSA in Gdańsk in its judgment of 18 February 2026 (I SA/Gd 951/25), where a seafarer who relied on the exemption under Art. 21(1)(23c) was unable, at the appeal stage, to “switch” to abolition relief under Art. 27g – the court held that the application defines the scope of the proceedings.
Robert Nogacki – licensed legal counsel (radca prawny, WA-9026), Founder of Kancelaria Prawna Skarbiec.
There are lawyers who practice law. And there are those who deal with problems for which the law has no ready answer. For over twenty years, Kancelaria Skarbiec has worked at the intersection of tax law, corporate structures, and the deeply human reluctance to give the state more than the state is owed. We advise entrepreneurs from over a dozen countries – from those on the Forbes list to those whose bank account was just seized by the tax authority and who do not know what to do tomorrow morning.
One of the most frequently cited experts on tax law in Polish media – he writes for Rzeczpospolita, Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, and Parkiet not because it looks good on a résumé, but because certain things cannot be explained in a court filing and someone needs to say them out loud. Author of AI Decoding Satoshi Nakamoto: Artificial Intelligence on the Trail of Bitcoin’s Creator. Co-author of the award-winning book Bezpieczeństwo współczesnej firmy (Security of a Modern Company).
Kancelaria Skarbiec holds top positions in the tax law firm rankings of Dziennik Gazeta Prawna. Four-time winner of the European Medal, recipient of the title International Tax Planning Law Firm of the Year in Poland.
He specializes in tax disputes with fiscal authorities, international tax planning, crypto-asset regulation, and asset protection. Since 2006, he has led the WGI case – one of the longest-running criminal proceedings in the history of the Polish financial market – because there are things you do not leave half-done, even if they take two decades. He believes the law is too serious to be treated only seriously – and that the best legal advice is the kind that ensures the client never has to stand before a court.
