Limitation of PIT Liabilities
In practice, a personal income tax payer must wait over 6 years for their tax liability to become time-barred. For example, the obligation to pay PIT for 2023 will not lapse until the end of 2029. This is because PIT is settled as an annual liability (not monthly, as in the case of VAT).
Additionally, the annual PIT return must be filed by the end of April of the following year – i.e. for 2023, no later than 30 April 2024 – and the tax must be paid or supplemented by that date.
Under the applicable provisions (Art. 70 § 1 of the Tax Ordinance Act), a tax liability lapses after 5 years from the end of the calendar year in which the tax payment deadline fell. The limitation period outlined above applies to tax liabilities arising by operation of law – for instance, PIT settlements in respect of income from salaried work performed abroad.
In light of the above, seafarers wishing to claim abolition relief in PIT-36 for 2023 (filed in 2024) must bear in mind that the tax authority may verify the return until 31 December 2029. This deadline also applies to taxpayers who have not filed any tax return despite being obliged to do so.
Furthermore, this already lengthy period of over 6 years may easily be extended by suspension or interruption of the limitation period. For example, this may result from the initiation of proceedings for a fiscal offence or fiscal misdemeanour, or from the service of a decision on the acceptance of security for the liability arising from a tax authority decision.
Moreover, the limitation period may also be interrupted by the application of any enforcement measure by the tax authority.
Example: Limitation and the 2026 NSA Judgment Concerning the 2017 Tax Year
In the case decided by the NSA judgment of 29 January 2026 (II FSK 702/23), the dispute concerned income tax for 2017. The payment deadline for PIT for 2017 fell on 30 April 2018, and accordingly the 5-year limitation period would have expired on 31 December 2023. However, tax proceedings were initiated earlier – the first-instance decision was issued in 2022. A seafarer in an analogous situation who delayed correcting their return until 2024 or later could face a situation in which the limitation period is suspended (e.g., as a result of the initiation of fiscal criminal proceedings) – extending the period of liability by several further years.
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.
