Verification of Seafarers’ Tax Settlements by Tax Authorities
It should be borne in mind that when examining entitlement to reliefs, such as abolition relief, the tax authority relies on documents. For a seafarer, this means the necessity of gathering evidence concerning the form and employer under which they worked, and – should doubts arise – providing clear and precise explanations to the tax authority.
To this end, one should prepare employment contracts, the seafarer’s discharge book, relevant certificates of employment, ship certificates, and similar documentation.
Detailed Documentation Checklist – What the Authority Requires
The judgment of the Regional Administrative Court in Gdańsk of 18 February 2026 (I SA/Gd 951/25) illustrates how critical completeness of documentation is. The seafarer lost the case in part because he failed to submit:
– a certificate from the shipowner or crewing agency as required by Art. 21(35)(2) of the PIT Act (the seafarer’s personal data, PESEL number, number of days worked with dates of employment, vessel name and flag, amount of income, and full shipowner details),
– documents confirming the manner in which the vessel was used (e.g., cargo manifest, freight invoices, master’s statement),
– sworn translations of English-language documents – the court expressly stated that documents in a foreign language “cannot be subject to evaluation,”
– certified copies – uncertified photocopies submitted with the appeal were disregarded.
Documents should accompany the application from the very outset. Supplementing deficiencies at the appeal stage – particularly in the form of uncertified copies – is risky and frequently ineffective.
Documents That Can Turn Against the Taxpayer
The judgment of the Regional Administrative Court in Gdańsk of 4 February 2026 (I SA/Gd 935/25) confirms that documents submitted by a seafarer are assessed holistically – and may constitute evidence not only in the taxpayer’s favour but also against them. In that case, payslips issued by a Singaporean employer – showing no deductions for tax – became evidence for the court that no tax liability arose in the United Kingdom. The Seafarer Employment Agreement confirmed that remuneration was paid “without deductions for taxes and social security contributions.”
For this reason, before filing an application for limitation of advance payments or an annual return with abolition relief, it is advisable to analyse the entirety of available documentation to determine whether it confirms – rather than undermines – the existence of a foreign tax liability.
Tax Authorities’ Position on Specialist Vessels
As demonstrated by the issues addressed in tax proceedings that subsequently reach the administrative courts, disputes concern, among other things, whether the unit on which the seafarer works is or was operated in international transport.
For several years, tax authorities have consistently treated all atypical vessels as not operated in international transport – in particular FPSO, FSO, FLNG units, cable-laying vessels, pipe-laying vessels, seismic, research and drilling vessels (drillships, jack-up rigs). This position – initially controversial – has been confirmed by the Supreme Administrative Court in an established line of case law spanning judgments from 2019, 2022, 2025 and 2026. The most recent ruling is the NSA judgment of 29 January 2026 (II FSK 702/23), in which the court unequivocally held that an FPSO unit – as designed for the extraction, storage and offloading of crude oil – does not participate in international transport.
On the other hand, it should be noted that work on a vessel travelling in a shuttle pattern between two ports of a single state (so-called “small cabotage”) is not classified as international transport.
Increasing Number of Verification Procedures
Given the year-on-year increase in verification procedures conducted by tax authorities vis-à-vis seafarers – including those resulting in unjustified demands for corrections of properly filed tax returns entailing additional tax – considerable prudence is recommended as regards the content of explanations provided to tax authorities, or alternatively, engaging the services of a professional representative such as a tax advisor.
In light of the established NSA case law, seafarers working on offshore units are advised to exercise particular diligence in documenting the circumstances of their work – including the nature of the tasks performed by the vessel, the area of operations, and the shipowner’s status. In the event of verification proceedings or tax proceedings being initiated, it is important to obtain professional tax advisory services from the very beginning – explanations submitted in the initial phase of proceedings may determine the outcome.
Electronic Service of Process (PURDE) – a Word of Caution
Technical issues with the electronic service platform do not release the taxpayer or their representative from the obligation to respond to the authority’s summonses. In the judgment of 18 February 2026 (I SA/Gd 951/25), the Regional Administrative Court in Gdańsk rejected the argument that the representative had failed to respond to a summons due to problems with the PURDE platform. If the platform is not functioning – the taxpayer should contact the authority directly or submit documents in person. A passive stance means an absence of evidence, and an absence of evidence means refusal.
Robert Nogacki is a Polish attorney at law (radca prawny), the founder and managing partner of Kancelaria Prawna Skarbiec (Skarbiec Law Firm), which has operated continuously since 2006.
The law is equal for everyone, but the parties rarely are: on one side stands an organization with time, money, and lawyers, on the other a person with one business, one nest egg, and one life.
Clients rarely come to him with a legal problem. They come with a problem that also has a legal side: an audit that began with a single invoice, money entrusted to someone who has disappeared, a company that has to be passed on before it is too late. Most such matters are decided long before the first letter is written, in decisions made without asking and in deadlines nobody remembered. So he begins by asking how the client got here, not what the client should have done.
He advises entrepreneurs and families from more than a dozen countries, including those whose accounts the tax office has just seized and who do not know what to do tomorrow morning. He defends them in tax audits, customs and fiscal inspections, disputes with the tax authorities, and criminal tax proceedings. He represents victims of investment fraud and Ponzi schemes. He helps families set up family foundations and plan succession, so that a life’s work outlasts a single generation.
Not every case can be won. Every case can be run so that the client knows where they stand. Since 2006 he has represented the victims in the WGI case (Warszawska Grupa Inwestycyjna, the Warsaw Investment Group), one of the longest criminal cases in the history of the Polish financial market, because some things must not be left half finished, even when they take two decades. In the case of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange Zonda (Zondacrypto, operated by BB Trade Estonia OÜ), he represents several hundred victims in the criminal investigation conducted by Poland’s National Prosecutor’s Office and in the Estonian bankruptcy proceedings.
Kancelaria Prawna Skarbiec is listed in the rankings of Poland’s largest tax advisory firms published by Dziennik Gazeta Prawna and Rzeczpospolita, and it is a four-time recipient (2015 to 2018) of the European Medal awarded by the Business Centre Club and the European Economic and Social Committee. Robert Nogacki publishes regularly, in the press and on the firm’s website, for people who have a problem rather than a law degree, because a legal opinion the client cannot understand protects only the lawyer.
He believes that the best legal advice is the kind that means the client never has to appear in court.
