According to the announcement of the Ministry of Finance of February 28, 2025, changes to the regulations governing the application of the R&D relief are expected to be introduced from January 1, 2026. The possibility of applying the planned amendment retroactively, i.e. to costs incurred in 2025, is also being considered.
Global minimum tax
On January 1, 2025, the regulations on a compensatory taxation of constituent units of international and domestic groups came into force, which implements the provisions of the EU Directive on ensuring a global minimum level of taxation of international groups of companies and large domestic groups in the Union (Pillar 2) into the Polish legal system, which is based on the OECS Global Anti-Base Erosion (GloBE) Model Rules. According to the act, the obligation to pay the compensatory tax applies to capital groups whose consolidated annual income in at least two of the last four tax years was equal to or higher than EUR 750 million, and the effective tax rate is less than 15%.
Impact of Pillar 2 on the application of the R&D tax incentive
First of all, it is worth mentioning that the application of the R&D relief allows the taxpayer to obtain additional benefits thanks to the double or even triple deduction of expenses constituting the so-called eligible costs. Thus, the application of the R&D relief in its current form lowers the effective tax rate, which is a key criterion for the obligation to pay compensatory tax. At the same time, according to data from the Ministry of Finance, a significant part of the eligible costs settled under the R&D relief are generated by entities covered by the Pillar 2 regulation in Poland. This means that for many taxpayers, taking advantage of the R&D relief will result in an obligation to pay compensatory tax.
Finance Ministry consultation
On February 21, 2025, the Minister of Finance met with entrepreneurs and tax advisors as part of a pre-consultation on proposals to adapt the R&D tax relief to the global minimum tax system. During the meeting, three possible directions for changes in the regulations regarding the R&D tax relief were presented:
- cash refund of unused R&D tax relief, deducted from the tax base;
- cash refund of unused R&D tax relief, deducted from the tax (R&D Tax Credit);
- splitting the current R&D tax relief into two components: (1) a component for payroll costs settled outside of CIT (based on the mechanism of the tax relief for innovative employees) and (2) a component for material costs settled as part of the CIT tax relief.
It is also worth noting that on March 26, 2025, the National Council of Tax Advisers (KRDP) submitted an opinion and detailed comments on the proposed changes to the R&D tax relief to the Ministry of Finance.
Then, during the second meeting with representatives of the Ministry of Finance, which took place on April 9, 2025, ministry officials proposed two (A and B) updated scenarios for the proposed changes, each with two variants (1 and 2):
Scenario A – consisting in the separation of two alternative reliefs, of which the taxpayer will be able to apply only one:
(A1) Maintaining the existing R&D relief with the current catalog of eligible costs, without the possibility of settling its unused part under the relief for innovative employees. At the same time, this scenario prvovides the possibility of utilizing unclaimed eligible costs in subsequent years;
(A2) Limitation of the relief for innovative employees to the personnel costs, deductible on the same terms for all eligible taxpayers as part of PIT advances calculated for all employees (not only for employees who perform R&D activities);
Scenario B – provides the division of the current R&D relief with the relief for innovative employees into two separate, coexisting components with complementary (but not overlapping) catalogs of eligible costs:
(B1) Limitation of the current R&D relief to material costs, with the possibility of a cash refund of non-deductible eligible costs within 4 tax years;
(B2) Limitation of the relief for innovative employees to the personnel costs of personnel conducting B+R works, deductible on the same terms for all eligible taxpayers as part of PIT advances calculated for all employees (not only for employees who carry out R&D activities), with no possibility of refunding unused amounts;
Ministry representatives emphasized that the presented solutions are only an introduction to further discussion, while declaring their openness to other proposals in order to jointly develop solutions that will enable Poland to remain competitive and attractive for investment on the international arena as much as possible. The parallel functioning of several solutions is also not excluded.
According to the Ministry of Finance’s announcement, the planned changes will come into force on January 1, 2026, with consideration also being given to the possibility of applying them to the current year. The estimated date of publication of the draft amended regulations has been set for the end of May or beginning of June.
