When can a taxpayer take advantage of the credit for the purchase of a payment terminal?
The relief is provided for entrepreneurs engaged in non-agricultural business activities who use one of the listed forms of taxation:
- tax scale,
- flat tax,
- lump sum on registered income.
You can also take advantage of the relief if you are a partner in a non-corporate company.
Which expenses are eligible for relief?
As we mentioned in the introduction, the allowance includes expenses incurred in acquiring the device, but also fees resulting from the necessary handling of transactions, such as merchant fees, system fees, interchange fees or fees for using the payment terminal (if it is subject to a lease, rental or similar agreement).
For a full list of fees subject to relief, see Art. 2 pts. 19a-19ab Law of August 19, 2011 on payment services .
Important!
The credit for a payment terminal applies only to the purchase of a payment terminal, i.e. a device that allows non-cash payments to be made using a payment card or other payment instrument, as defined in the Act of. August 19, 2011. On payment services. This means that cash registers (cash registers) do not fall within this definition.
For the purposes of the payment terminal allowance, the gross amount is considered an expense, but only if the value added tax has not been previously deducted. The allowance also covers expenses that the company has included as deductible expenses. This group includes depreciation deductions.
How to deduct the credit for a payment terminal?
Settlement of the relief is made on the PIT-36, PIT-36L or PIT-28 form. It is also worth remembering that the relief is not indefinite – it can be used in the year of purchase of the terminal and in the six years immediately following the year in which the expense was incurred.
Example:
Mr. Thomas purchased a payment terminal in 2025. He will therefore settle the relief for that year and for subsequent years until 2031.
The deduction can be settled in part or in full. However, it is worth remembering that the amount of the deduction cannot be greater than the amount of income that the taxpayer earned in the tax year from non-agricultural business activities. This is important for taxpayers who receive income from more than one source. They cannot deduct expenses for a payment terminal from a type of income other than the aforementioned business activity.
Business income is calculated with each year in which the taxpayer deducts the allowance.
Important!
The credit for the payment terminal is deductible from income, which means that the taxpayer will gain:
- 12% of the expenses incurred if taxed according to the scale,
- 19% of expenses incurred for flat tax payers,
- a percentage of the expenses incurred equal to the flat rate applied by the taxpayer of the lump sum on registered income.
Remember that in order to account for the relief, it is necessary to have an invoice or other document confirming the purchase of the terminal and incurring expenses related to payment processing using a payment terminal.
What is the maximum value of the relief?
There are three deduction limits for the terminal purchase allowance:
- The maximum amount of PLN 2,500 in a tax year will be deducted by taxpayers who are exempt from the obligation to keep records of sales to individuals who do not conduct business activity and lump-sum farmers using cash registers (the relevant provisions can be found in the VAT Act and in the Regulation of the Ministry of Finance on exemptions from the obligation to keep records of sales using cash registers.
- The amount of PLN 1,000 in a tax year will be deducted by other taxpayers – not mentioned in the paragraph above.
- An amount representing 200% of the expenses incurred, but not more than PLN 2,000 in a tax year, will be deducted by small taxpayers (according to the PIT Law) who have been entitled to a VAT refund for no less than seven months or two quarters in a year within 15 days of the deadline for filing a return – so-called non-cash taxpayers.
Important!
The above limits cannot be combined in any way, and the purchase of several payment terminals does not entitle the taxpayer to a multiple of the relief. The payment terminal relief in question is per taxpayer, not per device.
When can you not take advantage of the terminal relief?
You cannot take advantage of the relief in question – even if you meet the criteria listed at the beginning of the article – if:
- Your company has already deducted under the allowance the same expenses in another tax return,
- expenses incurred for the purchase of the device were reimbursed to your company (for example, after returning the device for warranty),
- Your company accepted payments using a payment terminal in the 12 months immediately preceding the month in which you started accepting payments using a terminal again.
The latter restriction does not apply to so-called cashless taxpayers.
Summary
The criteria that must be met to qualify for the payment terminal relief are not demanding. However, it is worth remembering that the relief is per taxpayer, not per device. With this facility, however, you will also deduct expenses related to processing non-cash payments – up to a set limit (PLN 1,000, PLN 2,000 or PLN 2,500), of course.
