A new ruling by the Polish tax authority regarding the taxation of computer software development – Judgment I SA/Kr 146/23
Publication date: December 02, 2025
Planning, analysis, and software design; work on program development and its implementation; integration of the software with other systems and support for the implementation of system updates – taxation issues
Facts in the case
The complainant ran a business whose primary purpose was to produce computer programs and implement programming projects. As part of this business, based on his knowledge of information technology and experience in developing solutions related to computer program development, he accepted programming assignments for his clients. He requested an individual tax ruling from the Director of the National Tax Information Service regarding personal income tax. For the purposes of describing the factual circumstances, the complainant divided his business into individual stages, including: planning, analysis, and software design; work on program development and its implementation; integration of the software with other systems and support for the implementation of system updates. As a result of this work, computer programs were created, understood as works under Article 1 of the Polish Copyright and Related Rights Act. Considering the broad definition of a computer program, the complainant stated that each of the indicated results of the work constituted a work and was protected (Article 74 of the Copyright and Related Rights Act). According to the complainant, the software he produced was based on individual, original ideas, thus creating new applications.