Poland: A Private Wealth Law Overview

First-Generation Wealth Transfer

Poland’s private client market is shaped by the ongoing significant transfer of wealth between generations. As the founders who built their businesses following the economic transformation of the early 1990s reach the age at which succession must be addressed, the demand for structured planning and wealth management has grown accordingly. The legislature has kept pace, providing solutions designed specifically for this purpose.

The practice itself is correspondingly young. With no deep-rooted family traditions to draw on and few settled patterns to repeat, each solution is individually tailored rather than fitted to a template. This type of planning inevitably requires navigating the client’s unique circumstances and considering family relationships, expectations and the tensions that occasionally arise. Increasingly, it involves the delicate task of mediating difficult intergenerational conversations. Good Polish advisers have come to regard this as a standard part of their work rather than an addition to it.

Polish Family Foundations

Most notable among these instruments is the family foundation, available since May 2023. It allows the creation of a domestic legal entity for holding family wealth, functionally comparable to the trusts and private foundations known from other jurisdictions. Its purpose is to keep family wealth together and to provide succession a clear framework by consolidating assets within a single entity and enabling the separation of management from beneficial ownership. In just three years, over 3,500 family foundations have been registered, reflecting their widespread popularity as a succession solution in Poland.

A distinctive feature of the Polish regime is how lightly it is regulated. Unlike in most European countries with similar vehicles, family foundations are not supervised by any financial-market regulator, and those who manage them do not need any licence or specific qualifications. There is also no need to appoint an outside professional administrator. The founder may sit on the management board and be a beneficiary simultaneously – an arrangement the law expressly allows. This makes the structure easier to set up and keeps the founder directly involved in the wealth they have built.

Family foundations benefit from a tax regime designed to support the accumulation of capital. Their income is exempt from corporate income tax, provided the source activity remains within the scope permitted under the Family Foundation Act. This includes the disposal of assets, leasing of property, participation in companies and similar entities, dealings in securities and certain lending activities within the family group. Income earned within this scope can be reinvested without taxation. Corporate income tax of 15% is due only upon a payout to the beneficiaries. Subsequently, the personal income tax rate depends on the closeness of the beneficiary to the founder, with members of the immediate family fully exempt.

To withstand scrutiny by the tax authorities, the foundation must serve a genuine succession purpose rather than operate as a tax device alone. Used with this in mind, it should prove resilient to future changes in the law – a consideration that matters as the regime remains under active review.

Planning Around Forced Heirship

Polish law protects the closest relatives through a reserved share. A person left out of a will who would have inherited on intestacy may claim a portion of the estate’s value – typically half of what they would have received under statutory succession – which sets a limit on how freely wealth can be allocated. The entitlement takes the form of a monetary claim rather than a right to a share of assets. This leaves greater freedom in arranging how the estate itself is divided, though the resulting payment obligation may raise liquidity concerns for testamentary heirs.

The reserved share can, however, be managed with foresight. A prospective heir may enter into a formal notarial agreement with the testator, renouncing their future entitlement. This may serve as a tool for orderly, low-conflict arrangements. To similar effect, assets contributed to a family foundation do not, in principle, count towards the reserved share once ten years have passed since the transfer. Recent legal changes have also introduced more flexibility, allowing reserved-share payments to be spread over time or reduced in justified cases, helping to prevent the forced liquidation of family businesses.

Tax Framework for Families

When it comes to taxation of gratuitous transfers within the closest family – including inheritance as well as gifts – Poland stands apart from most other jurisdictions. Unlike most European countries, which tax inheritances and gifts at rates of up to several dozen per cent, Poland offers a full exemption. Transfers between the nearest relatives, such as spouses, descendants, ascendants and siblings, are fully tax-exempt regardless of the value of the acquired property or rights. The only requirement is for the acquisition to be disclosed to the tax authorities within a prescribed six-month period. Debates about limiting this exemption come up occasionally, but they have never led to actual law-making. Otherwise, tax rates range from 3% to 20% depending on the degree of kinship between the donor and the recipient.

A Flat-Rate Tax Regime for New Residents

Poland also offers a special tax regime for individuals who move their tax residence to the country, available to those who were not Polish tax residents for five of the past six years. Conceptually, this solution mirrors the regimes from other European jurisdictions, yet it comes at a markedly lower cost. Foreign-source income may be taxed at a fixed annual amount of PLN200,000 (approximately EUR50,000), without ongoing detailed reporting obligations. This regime can be extended to family members at PLN100,000 (approximately EUR25,000) each. It applies for ten years and requires a minimum additional expenditure of PLN100,000 per year towards supporting domestic economic development, academia, culture or sports. This, however, may be channelled into assets that remain the taxpayer’s possession – such as a registered historic building or units in an alternative investment fund – as well as towards chosen public causes, so it is, in large part, not an irrecoverable expense. Polish-source income is still taxed under general rules.

Ensuring Structural Integrity

A general anti-avoidance rule (GAAR) is in force in Poland. Consequently, any arrangement should rest on an economic rationale extending beyond its tax consequences. Where certainty is required, taxpayers may obtain a protective ruling from the tax authorities, confirming that the GAAR will not be applied to the planned arrangement. For this reason, planning carried out in advance and with proper advice is not merely a formality, but what makes a solution effective and secure. This also applies to those relocating from abroad, whose existing arrangements are best reviewed against Polish rules prior to the move rather than after the fact.

Taken together, the family foundation, the flat-rate regime for new residents and the tax exemption for wealth transfers between close family members offer a strong set of tools for both domestic and international clients. However, using them effectively requires planning ahead under Polish law rather than reacting to it.