In the annual tax return for 2023, as many as 273 thousand taxpayers reported increased costs of obtaining income. This is a solution that allows for a significant increase in the net remuneration of employees, without increasing the employment costs for employers. Of course, like all other preferences, the use of 50% of the tax deductible costs is also associated with the obligation to meet certain conditions.
50% of the tax deductible costs in 2025
The growing popularity of the 50% tax deductible costs solution is also associated with greater awareness of the existence of this mechanism among employees. Quite often, at the stage of job interviews, potential candidates may ask questions about the use of such a solution by companies. It can therefore be an important recruitment element, increasing the chances of obtaining highly qualified specialists.
The maximum deduction for applying 50% of the tax deductible cost depends on the amount that is the upper limit of the first tax bracket, i.e. the so-called tax threshold. In 2025, this amount is as much as PLN 120,000. In 2023, only 3,414 taxpayers used this limit in full, which, with the number of 273,000 taxpayers, is slightly above 1% of taxpayers.
Like any tax preference, it also requires meeting certain requirements, one of which is the need to allocate a royalty for transferring property copyrights to the employer. Such a royalty must be specified separately from the basic salary in the employment contract, which is necessary for the possibility of applying 50% of the tax deductible costs. In addition, the moment of transfer of copyrights to the created works is important. Often, the employer initially acquires copyrights to the work (i.e. the employer becomes the owner at the time of creation of the work), which does not allow the application of 50% of the tax deductible costs. In order to benefit from 50% of the tax deductible costs, the employee must be the owner of the created works for at least a short while, which they then transfer to the employer for a royalty.
The general interpretation issued on September 15, 2020 by the Minister of Finance regarding the application of author’s tax costs may also be helpful in interpreting the regulations.
Who can benefit from 50% tax deductible costs in 2025?
50% of the tax deductible costs should be applied to the remuneration of taxpayers who are creators (performing creative activities) and who obtain income from the transfer of copyright to created works.
The Act contains a closed list of income from:
- payment to the creator for the transfer of ownership of an invention, an integrated circuit topography, a utility model, an industrial design, a trademark or an ornamental design;
- a royalty for the transfer of the right to use an invention, an integrated circuit topography, a utility model, an industrial design, a trademark or an ornamental design;
- the use of copyright by authors and related rights by performing artists, within the meaning of separate provisions, or their disposal of these rights;
- creative activity in the field of architecture, interior architecture, landscape architecture, construction engineering, urban planning, literature, visual arts, industrial design, music, photography, audio and audiovisual works, computer programs, computer games, theatre, costume design, stage design, directing, choreography, artistic violin-making, folk art and journalism;
- artistic activity in the field of acting, stage, dance and circus arts as well as in the field of conducting, vocal and instrumental studies;
- audio and audiovisual production;
- journalistic activities;
- museum activities in the fields of exhibitions, science, popularization, education and publishing;
- conservation activities;
- translations;
- research and development, scientific, scientific and teaching activities, research, research and teaching activities conducted at the university.
This is a closed catalogue, which means that 50% of the tax deduction can only be applied to the above-mentioned revenues. The most commonly used categories are creative activity in the field of computer programs and research and development activity.
Determination of royalty
Questions arise not only in the scope of determining the amount of the royalty, but also in the scope of its definition. The regulations do not specify how such a royalty should be allocated, but three methods of determining the royalty for transferring property rights to works have been adopted:
- According to the number of hours spent on creating the work,
- As a specific fixed fee amount;
- The amount paid for each created work (individual valuation of each work).
The most popular model is to set a fixed monthly fee. Of course, with this option, you should also pay attention to employee absences or months in which no work was created. Hence, it is important to properly regulate all legal and tax aspects in the organization to ensure the proper application of all these rules and avoid the tax office questioning such an approach.
Documentation
Like any other preference, also with the 50% tax deductible costs it is important to properly document all events in order to be able to present objective evidence, first of all, of the creation of the work.
The work itself determines, as one of the elements, the possibility of applying the author’s costs of obtaining income. It is therefore the taxpayer’s responsibility to present evidence allowing the determination that the employee was in fact the author of the work and that the copyright to that work was transferred to the employer.
The Ministry of Finance addressed some of the doubts in the general interpretation issued regarding 50% of the tax deductible costs, which we wrote about in more detail HERE.
Computer programs
It is also worth paying attention to individual interpretations in which the Director of the National Tax Information agrees with the broad approach to creative activity in the field of creating computer programs. As an example, we can indicate a fragment of the individual interpretation of June 13, 2024, reference number 0112-KDIL2-2.4011.258.2024.1.AG, in which the tax authority indicated that “[…] the phrase “creative activity in the field of computer programs” used in art. 22 sec. 9b item 1 of the Personal Income Tax Act means that the analyzed return refers to all activities that have the feature of novelty and are undertaken for the purpose of creating computer programs.
It should be borne in mind that the process of creating computer programs itself consists of a whole series of activities necessary to create the final IT product (work). At the individual stages of this process, the resulting work effects usually have a novelty feature. However, this feature is not a sufficient condition for recognizing a given activity as creative and applying 50% of the costs of obtaining income on this account. The interpretation of art. 22 sec. 9b and sec. 9 item 3 of the Personal Income Tax Act indicates that creative activity must – in addition to the novelty feature – also have an individual character. Only the results of such activity can be recognized as a work.”
In summary, the author’s costs of obtaining income are an important solution available to employers and employees, which allows for a significant increase in net remuneration, without increasing employment costs. In our experience, almost every company has a dedicated team whose members can be beneficiaries of 50% of the tax deductible costs.
| Gross revenue | 90 000,00 | 120 000,00 |
| Minimum wage in 2025 | 55 992,00 | 55 992,00 |
| Royalty | 34 008,00 | 64 008,00 |
| Net salary with 50% tax deductible costs | 67 352,51 | 89 603,68 |
| Net salary without 50% tax deductible costs | 65 312,51 | 85 762,68 |
| Tax savings | 2 040,00 | 3 841,00 |
Minimum wage
An important aspect of planning the implementation of the 50% tax deductible costs is also the minimum wage, as this remuneration cannot be part of the royalty paid to the employee. Therefore, even if the employee creates only works (i.e. is not involved in other activities) while performing their duties, we still cannot assume that 100% of such an employee’s remuneration is a royalty. The minimum wage must be paid without applying the author’s costs. In 2025, the minimum wage is PLN 4,666.
Combining with R&D relief
Finally, we would also like to draw attention to the possibility of applying the research and development relief (so-called R&D relief) to the remuneration of persons entitled to use 50% of the tax-deductible costs. This then allows employers to also obtain benefits in the form of an additional deduction of the remuneration of these employees as a cost of obtaining income. In 2025, the amount of the deduction of employee remuneration is 200%, which in practice means that with an employment of PLN 5,000 and a fee of PLN 5,000, the employer can include PLN 15,000 in the fee as a cost of obtaining income – PLN 5,000 as a standard cost of obtaining income and PLN 10,000 as R&D relief. The basic remuneration would be a cost only once in the amount of PLN 5,000. These are complementary solutions and are not mutually exclusive.
AUTHORS: Łukasz Boszko and Karolina Nieścior, Tax Advisory
