Income on the part of the employees in the form of non-salary (gratuitous) benefits in the Polish personal income tax – uniform interpretation of administrative courts and tax authorities after the judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal?

Abstract

In addition to salaries, many employees receive non-salary benefits. The issue of recognition of these benefits for the purpose of the personal income tax presented inconsistencies between the judiciary and the tax authorities until the judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal. Due to the lack of a uniform treatment of non-salary benefits, each time employers were forced to decide whether to reduce the employee’s income by the amount of the personal income tax payment for non-salary benefits. This article attempts to verify how the judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal dated July 8, 2014 (nb 7/13) influenced the interpretation of the administrative courts and the tax authorities regarding the recognition of tax-free treatment of the non-salary benefits. The purpose of this article is also to try to answer the question: what are the non-salary benefits and which of them are subject to taxation? Do they non-salary benefits include: participation in training, integration events, purchase of medical packages? This article points to the changes that have taken place as a result of the Constitutional Tribunal’s ruling by showing the interpretation of the administrative courts and tax authorities before July 8, 2014, and describes today’s landscape in the area of tax treatment of non-salary benefits.