You will have to pay additional tax for previous years. All because of the change in definition

• From the beginning of 2025, new definitions of buildings and structures, introduced in the amendment to the Act on Local Taxes and Fees, will apply.
• The new definition of a structure increased taxpayers’ awareness and helped to assign properties to specific categories.
• The new regulations raise so many doubts that they will require clarification in interpretations by tax authorities and in court rulings.

Since the beginning of 2025, new definitions of buildings and structures have been in force, introduced in the amendment to the Act on Local Taxes and Fees . To make it easier for entrepreneurs to file a property tax return, the legislator has given them an additional two months - until March 31 - writes Prawo.pl.

The declarations are currently being analyzed, but it is already clear that they amount to higher amounts than in previous years . As Prawo.pl writes, in the case of the City of Łódź Office, taxpayers reported buildings worth a total of PLN 250 million more than in the previous year. If these settlements are correct, this will mean an additional PLN 5 million in tax (PLN 250 million x 2%).

- The new definition of a structure has certainly increased taxpayers' awareness and helped to assign properties to specific categories. At the same time, entrepreneurs have conducted an inventory of facilities and have included structures in their declarations that they had not included before. However, the question arises whether the same facilities should not have been taxed as structures in previous years , and taxpayers have only just learned about it. In such a situation, it will require submitting a correction for previous years - explains Sebastian Potocki from the Łódź City Office to the Prawo.pl portal.

Lawyers estimate that the new regulations raise so many doubts that they will require clarification in the interpretations of tax authorities and in the case law of administrative courts, and as Prawo.pl notes - the formation of a line of case law will take time.

The portal lists that many issues of the new law are controversial, such as the taxation of transformers, the premise of "permanent connection with land" or "execution as a result of construction works". The new definition of a construction device is also unclear. Taxpayers' doubts are certainly raised by the definition of a permanent connection with land.

As Prawo.pl reminds, during the work on deregulation of tax regulations, postulates were also made regarding interpretations in the field of real estate tax - centralization of issuing individual interpretations and the issuance of a general interpretation by the Ministry of Finance.

However, large cities, associated in the Union of Polish Metropolises, are against the idea of ​​centralizing the issuance of individual interpretations on property tax . In their opinion, this is an attempt to take away from local governments the competences resulting from the Constitution and autonomy in terms of their own revenues.