How to Prepare for a Tax Audit in Poland

The tax authorities check businesses through several procedures, and four of them are the main ones. The first, czynności sprawdzające, is a check of your tax returns: the urząd skarbowy (tax office) reviews them and may ask for explanations. If questions remain, a kontrola podatkowa or postępowanie podatkowe may follow.

Czynności sprawdzające cover deadlines for filing returns and paying tax, as well as formal errors (art. 272 Ordynacji podatkowej). The tax office can correct an obvious slip in a return on its own if the tax changes by no more than 10,000 zł (from October 1, 2026; previously 5,000 zł). However, you can file a sprzeciw (objection) to such a correction within 14 days, and it is then canceled (art. 274 § 3).

During a kontrola or postępowanie, the tax office may request documents on your transactions from your counterparties (art. 274c Ordynacji podatkowej).

For a kontrola podatkowa, you first receive a notice (zawiadomienie). The audit starts no sooner than 7 and no later than 30 days after you receive it (art. 282b Ordynacji podatkowej). It can start earlier than 7 days only with your consent or at your request. The notice includes a preliminary list of the documents they want to see and states that you can file a corrected return before the audit begins.

A kontrola podatkowa starts without notice only in the cases listed in art. 282c, for example when checking a VAT refund, unregistered business activity or income from undisclosed sources, or when a tax offense needs to be prevented. A kontrola celno-skarbowa, on the other hand, always starts without notice (art. 62 and 93 ustawy o KAS).

The audit begins when you are handed the upoważnienie (authorization) and shown an official ID. The upoważnienie sets out the scope of the audit, and the inspector cannot go beyond it.

All audits by one authority at a business in a calendar year are limited in time. The limit depends on the size of the company (art. 55 Prawa przedsiębiorców).

• micro-enterprise (fewer than 10 employees and turnover or balance sheet total of no more than 2 million euros): 6 business days;
• small: 18 business days;
• medium-sized: 24 business days;
• all others: 48 business days.

The limit does not apply, for example, when a VAT refund is checked before it is paid out. If the tax office finds that tax was understated by more than 10%, the time limit can be extended, but at most doubled. Two kontrole cannot be run at one business at the same time, except in certain cases, for example with your consent or when a VAT refund is being checked (art. 54 Prawa przedsiębiorców).

These limits do not apply to a kontrola celno-skarbowa (art. 93 ustawy o KAS). It must be completed within 3 months, and the deadline can be extended by stating the reason and the new date in writing.

The law is general: the tax office may request books and any documents related to the subject of the audit. A preliminary list will be in the notice, and the inspector will ask for the rest as the audit goes on. It usually includes the following documents.

• tax books: KPiR or ewidencja przychodów for a JDG, księgi rachunkowe for a sp. z o.o.;
• ewidencja VAT (VAT records) and returns in JPK_V7M or JPK_V7K files;
• issued and received invoices (the tax office can already see the ones that went through KSeF);
• annual returns: PIT-36, PIT-36L or PIT-28 for a JDG, CIT-8 for a sp. z o.o.;
• contracts, bank statements and other documents that support your transactions.

If your books are kept in software, you export them in JPK format on request. Documents in a foreign language must be translated into Polish at your own expense if the inspector requests it.

The statute of limitations on a tax liability is 5 years. It runs from the end of the year in which the tax payment deadline passed (art. 70 Ordynacji podatkowej). For example, PIT for 2020 was due on April 30, 2021, so the liability expires on December 31, 2026, unless the period was suspended or interrupted. Keep books and documents until the end of this period. A sp. z o.o. is also subject to a requirement of the ustawa o rachunkowości (Accounting Act): 5 years, counting from the start of the year following the financial year. Keep them until the later of the two deadlines.

A mistake in a return is fixed with a corrected return (korekta), and you pay the extra tax with late-payment interest. If you file the correction within 6 months of the filing deadline and pay the tax within 7 days, interest is charged at a reduced rate. Once you have been notified of an audit, the reduced rate no longer applies.

You can also file a correction after the notice, as long as the audit has not started. During a kontrola podatkowa, a correction concerning its subject has no effect; you can correct the return again once the audit is over. A correction with payment of the extra tax can release you from liability under the Kodeks karny skarbowy (Fiscal Penal Code), but not once fiscal criminal proceedings have begun. Whether to file a separate czynny żal (voluntary disclosure) is something to decide with a tax adviser (doradca podatkowy) or an advocate (adwokat).

The rules below apply to a kontrola podatkowa; a kontrola celno-skarbowa has its own rules in the ustawa o KAS. You have the right to be present for all of the inspector's actions and can waive this only in writing. If you will not be on site, the law requires you to appoint a pełnomocnik (proxy) for the time you are away (art. 284). Any adult with full legal capacity can be your proxy, but only a tax adviser (doradca podatkowy), advocate (adwokat) or legal counsel (radca prawny) can represent you before the tax office professionally and for a fee.

The audited party's obligations are listed in art. 287 Ordynacji podatkowej.

• show documents related to the subject of the audit;
• give explanations by the deadline the inspector sets;
• provide working conditions, including a separate room if possible;
• on request, hand over a JPK export from your accounting software and translations of documents into Polish.

Employees give explanations within the scope of their duties. Tell your staff in advance who is responsible for documents during the audit and whom the inspector should contact if you are not there. You will be notified of witness interviews at least 3 days in advance, and you can attend them and ask questions. A książka kontroli (inspection book), paper or electronic, is kept at the company's registered office (siedziba) and shown to the inspector as soon as the audit starts.

You must not obstruct the audit: refusing to let the inspector in or to show documents is in itself an offense under art. 83 Kodeksu karnego skarbowego.

The outcome of a kontrola podatkowa is recorded in a protokół (audit report), and the audit ends on the day you receive it. If you disagree with the findings, you can file zastrzeżenia (objections) with evidence within 14 days (art. 291), and the inspector responds to them within 14 days. If you raise no objections, you are considered not to dispute the findings.

The protokół is not a decision and cannot be appealed in court. If irregularities are found and you have not fixed them with a correction, the tax office opens a postępowanie podatkowe within 6 months. It ends with a decision (decyzja). An odwołanie (appeal) against the decyzja is filed within 14 days (art. 223) and is reviewed by the dyrektor izby administracji skarbowej. That ruling can be challenged before the voivodeship administrative court (WSA) within 30 days (art. 53 ustawy Prawo o postępowaniu przed sądami administracyjnymi).

A kontrola celno-skarbowa has no stage for objecting to the protokół. At the end, you receive the wynik kontroli (audit result), and within 14 days you can file a return or a correction if you agree with the findings in full or in part. If irregularities are found and you have not filed a correction or agreed only in part, the audit turns into a postępowanie podatkowe, and you can dispute the findings there.

A mistake in a return usually means paying the extra tax with late-payment interest. In addition, for VAT the tax office can impose a dodatkowe zobowiązanie (additional tax liability, art. 112b ustawy o VAT) of up to 30% of the understated amount, or up to 20% if you filed a correction and paid after the audit. It is not imposed if the correction was filed and the tax and interest were paid before the audit started.

A fine under the Kodeks karny skarbowy applies to intentionally understating or concealing tax. The court sets it in daily rates, from 10 to 720 rates (art. 23 KKS), and determines the amount of one rate based on the offender's income and assets. In 2026, one daily rate ranges from 160.20 to 64,080 zł, so the fine can range from 1,602 zł to 46,137,600 zł. If the tax was understated by no more than 24,030 zł, this is usually a wykroczenie skarbowe (fiscal petty offense) with a fine of up to 96,120 zł. Under the KKS, liability falls on a person: the owner of a JDG, a management board member of a sp. z o.o. or anyone else who manages the company's finances by law, under a contract or in practice (art. 9 § 3 KKS).

If we keep the books for your JDG or sp. z o.o., we prepare the documents for the audit. When the tax office requests them, we pick out and export invoices, contracts, bank statements, books, registers and JPK files from your records and hand them to you, and you submit them to the inspector. You give explanations to the inspector and file objections and appeals yourself or through your representative. Under the law, a tax adviser (doradca podatkowy), advocate (adwokat) or legal counsel (radca prawny) can represent you before the tax office and advise you on disputed issues.