POLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Wiesław Oleś, Krzysztof Rysz, Joanna Sarkowicz and Kamil Kania, Oleś, Rysz, Sarkowicz
Surrogacy Surrogacy lacks legal recognition in Poland; the legal mother is always the woman who gave birth to the child. This may prevent “intended parents” and the child from having automatic inheritance rights unless a formal adoption or paternity recognition is com- pleted. Without these measures, children born via surrogacy remain legally detached from the intended estate, necessitating proactive legal intervention and bespoke testamentary solutions to secure their suc- cession. Posthumously Conceived Children Under the “nasciturus” principle, a child already con- ceived before a parent’s death inherits provided that they are born alive, which generally includes embryos implanted shortly after the death. Conversely, children resulting from fertilisation occurring after the father’s death lack statutory inheritance rights under current judicial consensus. This distinction requires families using assisted reproductive technologies to utilise specific testamentary provisions to ensure future pro- vision for posthumously fertilised children. 11.2 Conflicts and Divergent Laws Foreign Documents and the Public Policy Clause While foreign official documents generally enjoy evi- dentiary value equal to Polish documents, their sub- stantive effects in succession are often limited by the “public policy clause” (Article 7 of the Private Interna- tional Law Act). Polish courts and tax authorities may refuse to recognise non-traditional family relation- ships established abroad if their effects are deemed contrary to the fundamental principles of the Polish legal order. This barrier frequently results in the appli- cation of Polish domestic law instead of the foreign law originally chosen, often excluding non-traditional partners from statutory inheritance or preferential tax treatment. The public policy clause is consistently applied to deny recognition of same-sex marriages, polygamy, and marriages involving minors, as these are viewed as incompatible with the Polish constitutional frame- work. Consequently, heirs from non-traditional fam- ilies face high legal risks and must rely on precise testamentary planning to bypass statutory limitations,
though such measures cannot currently bridge the gap in tax exemptions. Impact of European Jurisprudence and Transcription Recent CJEU jurisprudence, notably case C-713/23, has initiated a shift by requiring Poland to allow the transcription of foreign same-sex marriage certificates into the national civil status register. As of early 2026, a draft regulation is under consultation to introduce gender-neutral templates – replacing “husband/wife” with “first spouse/second spouse” – to facilitate these administrative registrations. While these changes are currently technical in nature, they may provide sig- nificant future arguments against the “public policy” defence, though substantive inheritance and tax ben- efits remain under the exclusive purview of domestic courts and tax bodies. Litigation Risks and Non-Economic Rights Beyond financial inheritance, non-traditional partners face significant practical hurdles regarding non-eco- nomic rights, such as burial decisions and access to medical records, where biological relatives often hold statutory priority. In the absence of formal recogni- tion, these post-mortem rights can become the first stage of a broader legal conflict between the surviving partner and the biological heirs. Effective succession planning in Poland must therefore include specific mandates and authorisations to ensure the survivor’s standing in these sensitive matters, thereby mitigating the risk of immediate post-mortem litigation. 12. Cross-Border Succession Planning 12.1 Taxation of Cross-Border Estates and Transfers The Global Reach of Polish Tax Authorities When planning succession and intergenerational wealth transfers, it is important to bear in mind that Poland asserts broad informational and taxing rights. As a general rule, any acquisition of assets or prop- erty rights by way of inheritance or gift triggers liability under Polish inheritance and gift tax if the recipient holds Polish citizenship or has a permanent residence in Poland. This obligation has a worldwide scope, meaning that, in principle, assets located anywhere in
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