At the beginning of 2025, revolutionary changes to the real estate tax came into effect, posing new challenges for businesses. Despite the Ministry of Finance’s announcements expressing a desire to maintain fiscal status quo, for many taxpayers this means the need to update the list of facilities that must be reported for taxation.
The applicable definitions of “building” and “structure” no longer refer to construction law. As a result, taxpayers should now be able to determine what is subject to real estate tax without needing to be familiar with construction regulations.
However, the new regulations may carry a risk of error in situations where businesses have previously relied on construction documentation to determine what should be taxed. From this year onward, such an approach will be inappropriate, although construction documents may still serve as a useful source of detailed information.
The impact of these changes on the amount of tax due will depend not only on the content of the new provisions but also on how real estate and construction facilities are recorded in the fixed asset register. Any discrepancies in the register may also lead to errors in tax settlements (overpayments or arrears).
The amended real estate tax regulations are not limited to the revised definitions of buildings and structures—separated now from construction law—but also include the introduction of terms previously undefined in the tax law, such as “construction facility” and “permanent attachment to the land”.
Such a comprehensive change in the regulations should be reflected in tax returns filed starting in 2025; however, not all taxpayers are aware of this.
The new regulations mean that some assets will fall outside the scope of taxation, others must be included in the return, and still others will change their classification. Practice shows that the approach of tax authorities is becoming increasingly restrictive. More and more often, detailed explanations are requested both from taxpayers who have not made any changes to their settlements and from those who, in 2025, included previously existing assets in their returns for the first time.
In this context, it becomes important to conduct an early verification of the correctness of your approach to real estate taxation and of the procedures concerning the settlement of expenditures on fixed assets.
MDDP experts are at your disposal to help plan the scope and timing of a tax audit. The results of an audit conducted by MDDP will provide you not only with reliable information regarding the need to file a potential correction to your tax declaration, but also with arguments to support your current position in case of any doubts raised by the tax authorities.
Feel free to contact us
Rafał Kran
Partner | Tax adviser E: rafal.kran@mddp.pl T: +48 693 290 919
Łukasz Szatkowski
Manager E: lukasz.szatkowski@mddp.pl T: +48 570 898 499