POLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Piotr Augustyniak, Nash Concept Ltd
2.6 Transfer of Assets: Vehicle and Planning Mechanisms The foundation of intergenerational planning is the unlimited immediate-family exemption: gifts of any size between spouses, parents, children, grandchil - dren and siblings are exempt from transfer tax provid - ed the notification and documentation requirements are observed. Donations of shares or real estate with a retained usufruct allow the older generation to trans - fer ownership while keeping the income and, through attached voting arrangements, a measure of control. Because the exemption is unlimited, no programme of periodic giving within allowances – familiar from other jurisdictions – is necessary among the closest family members. The family foundation extends this logic across gen - erations: the contribution of assets is neutral, accumu - lation within the foundation is untaxed, and benefits paid to beneficiaries in the founder’s immediate family are free of personal income tax, bearing only the 15% corporate charge at the foundation level. Complemen - tary mechanisms include: • the vindicatory legacy, which passes specific assets directly to a named person at death; • life insurance, the proceeds of which pass outside the estate to the designated beneficiary and are exempt from both income and transfer tax; and • for sole traders, succession administration, which allows the enterprise to continue operating between death and the completion of succession formalities. 2.7 Transfer of Assets: Digital Assets Poland has no dedicated legislation on the digital estate. Crypto-assets and other tokenised property rights form part of the estate under the general rules, pass by universal succession and are subject to the inheritance and donation tax at market value, the immediate-family exemption applying in the usual way; the practical difficulties concern valuation at the date of acquisition and, above all, access, since without private keys the succession is a title without a remedy. Bank accounts are eased by a statutory death-payment instruction, which permits an account holder to designate recipients of a limited amount out - side the succession.
The position of e-mail, social media and platform accounts is governed in practice by providers’ terms of service, and Polish courts have not yet produced a body of case law comparable to the German juris - prudence on the inheritability of accounts. Careful practice therefore treats the matter as one of drafting and custody: an inventory of digital assets, secure arrangements for keys and credentials, express tes - tamentary provisions – including vindicatory legacies of specific wallets – and, in family foundation struc - tures, the contribution of digital assets to the founda - tion during the founder’s lifetime so that access does not depend on succession formalities at all. 3. Trusts, Foundations and Similar Entities 3.1 Types of Trusts, Foundations or Similar Entities The family foundation, introduced by the Act of 26 January 2023, is the vehicle of Polish private wealth planning. It is a legal person established by one or more founders (natural persons only), endowed with a founding fund of at least PLN100,000, whose purpose is to hold assets and to provide benefits to beneficiar - ies defined in its statute. Its economic activity is con - fined to a permitted catalogue – in essence, holding and disposing of property, participating in companies and funds, dealing in securities, letting property and lending within the group – and activities falling outside that catalogue are subject to a punitive 25% corporate income tax rate rather than being treated as void. Within the permitted sphere, the foundation is not subject to current taxation; 15% corporate income tax arises on benefits to beneficiaries and on hidden profits, and beneficiaries in the founder’s immediate family receive benefits exempt from personal income tax. Registrations have increased steadily since 2023, and the foundation has largely displaced foreign foundations and trusts, whose use is now confined to situations with a genuine non-Polish rationale. The principal recent development is legislative: the tight - ening amendment vetoed on 27 November 2025 (see 1.6 Stability of Tax Laws ), which leaves the original regime in force while signalling the likely direction of future proposals. Charitable foundations and associa -
540 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook