The tax office deals with a specific group. They will pay higher taxes

The Director of the National Tax Information in the latest individual interpretation attacks a specific professional group in Poland. This concerns steamers who have not yet settled their accounts for the so-called donations, treating them as a donation. According to the tax office, they must pay tax on every zloty they receive, reports Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

Will streamers pay more tax?

Streamers have three main sources of income. The first are subscriptions and ads displayed on a given platform (e.g. Twitch). The second is all kinds of collaborations with brands. The third source is donations from viewers. So far, they have been treated as donations, on which you do not have to pay income tax up to a certain amount. In the case of donations, this was not a problem, because in most cases they amount to several zlotys.

However, the Director of the National Tax Information believes that this is a wrong approach. In the latest individual interpretation, he stated that donations cannot be treated as a donation and streamers should pay for every zloty received. The main problem is that they are anonymous, so it is impossible to determine who the donor is and therefore set a tax-free ceiling. For example, for strangers it is PLN 5,733 over 5 years.

Piotr Leonarski, tax advisor and attorney at LSW, notes that this approach was unfair to other entities that sell electronic services and have to pay all taxes. At the same time, he emphasized that such provisions should not be patched with interpretations and it would be useful to adapt the regulations to the digital reality.