Ryczałt for lawyers and tax advisers in Poland (2026): 17% or 15%?

The ryczałt (lump-sum tax on revenue) rate for a lawyer or tax adviser is not automatically 14%. You need to check whether the revenue comes from practising a liberal profession (wolny zawód) and who actually does the substantive work.

Liberal profession: 17%

Revenue earned from a liberal profession is taxed at 17%.

The statutory definition covers, among others, an advocate (adwokat), a notary, an attorney-at-law (radca prawny), a tax adviser and a translator, but it sets its own conditions about the profession being practised personally.

Holding a professional licence does not end the analysis. What matters is how the practice is organised and whether other people carry out work that goes to the core of the profession.

Legal and tax services outside the liberal-profession definition

The Act sets a 15% rate for specified legal, accounting and bookkeeping, and tax advisory services provided other than as a liberal profession.

So 14% should not be presented as the standard rate for a lawyer or tax adviser. The 14% rate applies to other groups of services listed in Art. 12, including healthcare, architecture, engineering and specialist design.

A practice with a team

Employing a secretary, or someone who only does support work, does not automatically change how your revenue is classified. The position may be different when other people do work that goes to the core of the profession and produce the service sold to the client.

The contract with the client, the scope of the team's work and the qualifications of the people doing it should all be consistent with the rate you apply.

Business consulting

Management consulting services may be taxed at 15%, but not every drafted letter or legal explanation counts as business consulting. First establish what the service actually is and its PKWiU code.

VAT: no standard exemption for legal and advisory services

Art. 113 of the VAT Act excludes, among others, legal and advisory services from the small-business (subjective) VAT exemption, subject to the exceptions set out in the law.

A lawyer or adviser should not assume they can stay unregistered for VAT up to PLN 240,000 just because their sole proprietorship is new. Check the scope of your services before your first sale.

Foreign clients

For a B2B service to a foreign taxable person, the place of supply is often determined under Art. 28b of the VAT Act. If the service is taxed in the client's country, the Polish provider issues an invoice without Polish VAT, with the appropriate annotation.

This is not an "import of services". Import of services is accounted for by a Polish buyer who purchases a service from a foreign provider.

For qualifying B2B services to a taxable person in the EU, you may need VAT-UE registration and to file the VAT-UE recapitulative statement. For a client outside the EU, you do not file VAT-UE just because the invoice goes abroad.

Comparing forms of taxation

You cannot simply compare revenue × 17% with income × 19%. You also need to factor in:

• the costs of the practice and the team,
• the health contribution,
• other income and tax reliefs,
• the option of filing jointly with a spouse on the tax scale,
• the correct rate, 17% or 15%.

Translators

Translators are named in the liberal-profession definition. If you meet its conditions, the rate is 17%. Under a different business model, check the item that covers translation services and how the services are actually provided.

Do not pick the rate based only on whether the translation is "sworn".

Sources

• Lump-Sum Tax Act, ELI, Art. 4 and 12
• VAT Act, ELI, Art. 28b and 113

Do you run a law practice?

Oxyok handles accounting for Polish sole traders, from PLN 49 + VAT a month.

Write to Paweł or see Oxyok accounting.

This article is general information. The rate depends on how you practise and on the service you actually provide.