Poland to launch tax-free personal investment accounts up to PLN 100,000

Poland's finance ministry has announced plans to launch a new type of account that will allow individuals to invest up to 100,000 zlotys (€23,400) without paying capital gains tax.

“More than half of Poles' savings are still held in cash and bank deposits – instruments that have offered no real returns for decades,” said the finance ministry, announcing the plans for Personal Investment Accounts (OKI) on Tuesday. “This is the highest level among large EU economies.”

Meanwhile, although Poland's economy has been booming, “the investment-to-GDP ratio remains low”. In order to “maintain economic competitiveness, Poland needs a significant increase in investment and innovation spending”.

Through an OKI – which are modeled on Sweden's similar Investment Savings Accounts (ISKs) – an individual would be able to invest in regulated markets and other instruments up to the value of 100,000 zlotys without paying capital gains tax. Up to 25,000 zloty of that amount could be used for deposits and savings bonds.

The accounts would be offered to customers by banks and brokerage houses and would be optional, with clients able to withdraw money at any time.

“For an investment of PLN 50,000 with a 5% rate of return, the current capital gains tax would be PLN 475. If you use an OKI, this tax would be zero,” explained finance minister Andrzej Domański. “If the return on investment is 10%, this benefit for the same amount invested is even greater.”

Meanwhile, for investments above PLN 100,000, a lower tax rate of 0.8-0.9% will be applied and will only be levied on the value above that threshold. The tax rate will be variable and announced on November of each year.

Currently, profit on investments is taxed at a rate of 19% and the finance ministry estimates that the new OKIs would reduce tax revenue by 250 million to 300 million zlotys, Business Insider reports.

Before coming to power in December 2023, Poland's main ruling group, Prime Minister Donald Tusk's centrist Civic Coalition (KO), had included abolishing that capital-gains tax among its 100 pledges for its first 100 days in power . However, like most of those promises , that remains unfilled.

The plans announced this week by the finance ministry still need to undergo interministerial and public consultations. It is expected that the relevant legislation will be presented this autumn.

That would then need to be approved by parliament and signed into law by the president. Domański says that a realistic implementation date for OKIs is mid-2026.

“I believe that the changes will become a significant incentive to popularize investing, which will contribute to the growth of innovation and competitiveness of Polish enterprises and, consequently, the entire economy,” declared the minister.

The idea has also been welcomed by Tusk, who tweeted on Tuesday that it “will be a big relief for savers”.

Commentators and analysts were, however, more skeptical about the plans.

Lukasz Bugaj, an investment advisor at Bank Millennium, told business newspaper Parkiet that OKIs would “further complicate the entire system” and offer only “relatively modest” benefits “for the average person”.

Piotr Arak, chief economist at VeloBank, called OKIs “an interesting product” but one that would appeal mainly to those who already actively invest. “It does not create a new group of savers,” he wrote.

Grzegorz Siemionczyk, chief analyst at financial news service Money.pl, likewise wrote that “investors for whom this product is beneficial are already [investing]”. He expressed concern that OKIs would “negligible benefits to the economy and will reduce budget revenues”.

Main image credit: Ministry of Finance/X