Poland’s Finance Ministry is preparing a major overhaul of VAT reporting that would allow the tax administration to generate pre-filled VAT settlements for businesses using information already held in government systems.
The government legislative project UD473 was entered into the Council of Ministers’ legislative programme on 15 September as part of the government’s Deregulation 2.0 package.
It proposes two connected systems: e-VAT, which would give taxpayers a pre-filled JPK_VAT settlement, and KeKR, a free electronic tool for recording retail sales and issuing fiscal receipts.
The changes could eventually alter significantly how Polish businesses prepare VAT returns, but they are still at an early legislative stage.
The government currently plans to begin introducing e-VAT to selected taxpayers only in the fourth quarter of 2029, while the retail digitalisation measures associated with KeKR are intended to start on 1 July 2028.
e-VAT would pre-fill the existing JPK_VAT
At present, active VAT taxpayers prepare and submit their own JPK_VAT file with declaration.
Monthly taxpayers use JPK_V7M, while quarterly taxpayers use JPK_V7K. The file combines the VAT sales and purchase records with the information that previously formed the VAT declaration.
The current Finance Ministry guidance on JPK_VAT confirms that active VAT taxpayers remain responsible for preparing and submitting these electronic records themselves.
UD473 would add a new option.
Instead of starting with a blank settlement assembled entirely from the company’s own records, taxpayers choosing e-VAT would receive a pre-filled JPK_VAT with declaration prepared by the National Revenue Administration, or KAS.
The system is intended to work through e-Urząd Skarbowy, Poland’s online tax office, in a model broadly comparable to the pre-filled e-PIT service used for personal income tax.
It would not be an automatically filed VAT return
The term “automated VAT settlement” needs an important qualification.
According to the Finance Ministry’s explanation of the e-VAT proposal, KAS would prepare the proposed settlement using data it already possesses.
But the taxpayer would still have to:
- review the information;
- add or correct information that KAS does not hold;
- approve the proposed settlement; and
- actively submit it.
There would be no automatic filing simply because a deadline passes.
The pre-filled settlement would have no legal effect until the taxpayer actively accepts and submits it.
Businesses would also remain able, under the current proposal, to continue preparing and submitting JPK_VAT through the existing process instead of using the pre-filled e-VAT service.
That makes the initial version of e-VAT better understood as an optional government-prepared draft return rather than a system in which the tax authority calculates and files VAT entirely on the taxpayer’s behalf.
KSeF would provide part of the data
Mandatory electronic invoicing through KSeF is one of the foundations on which e-VAT is intended to be built.
Since February 2026, the current JPK_V7M and JPK_V7K structures have already included fields connected with KSeF invoice numbers and the treatment of invoices issued outside the system in permitted circumstances, as the Finance Ministry’s current JPK technical guidance explains.
UD473 would take that integration further.
The government says there is currently no single system capable of combining KSeF data with all the other information needed to prepare a taxpayer’s VAT settlement.
The planned e-VAT architecture would gradually combine information from KSeF and other KAS systems so that more of the JPK_VAT can be prepared before the taxpayer sees it.
However, not every piece of information required for a correct VAT settlement is available automatically to KAS.
Businesses would therefore retain responsibility for checking the proposed return and adding information that the tax administration does not possess.
First rollout planned for late 2029
The government is not proposing a nationwide switch to e-VAT immediately after the law is passed.
The official UD473 timetable envisages a gradual rollout beginning in the fourth quarter of 2029.
The first group is expected principally to comprise taxpayers whose sales data can already be captured comprehensively through online cash registers and other digital systems.
The government estimates that no more than around 5% of VAT taxpayers — up to approximately 100,000 entities — would use e-VAT during its first year.
Additional information sources and system modules would then be connected progressively.
The long-term ambition is much broader. The government says that once retail reporting has been fully moved onto online systems, pre-filled VAT settlements could eventually be available to around 80% of taxpayers by 2035.
Those figures are planning assumptions rather than guaranteed participation levels or statutory deadlines.
Invoice deadlines may also have to change
Introducing e-VAT could require changes beyond the JPK filing process itself.
The government says VAT invoice-issuance deadlines may have to be shortened so that information reaches the tax administration early enough to place transactions in the correct settlement period before the pre-filled JPK_VAT is prepared.
The UD473 description says this direction is also broadly consistent with the EU’s VAT in the Digital Age, or ViDA, reforms.
The detailed rules have not yet been finalised, so businesses should not treat a particular new invoice deadline as agreed legislation at this stage.
KeKR would digitalise retail receipts
The second major part of the project concerns transactions with consumers.
The government plans to introduce KeKR — Krajowa e-Kasa Rejestrująca, or National e-Registration Cash Register.
KeKR would be a free application provided by KAS that businesses could use to record retail sales and issue fiscal receipts.
It is intended as an alternative to existing physical and virtual cash registers rather than simply another invoicing platform.
The proposal matters because a large portion of Poland’s retail infrastructure remains outside real-time digital reporting.
According to the government’s UD473 project description, more than 44% of cash registers currently in use are older devices that cannot transmit sales information automatically to the head of KAS.
The government wants those systems progressively replaced by online cash registers, virtual cash registers or KeKR.
What KeKR would do
The proposed application would allow businesses to generate fiscal receipts without buying a conventional cash register.
It would also:
- store fiscal receipts;
- prepare daily and monthly fiscal reports;
- record returns and obvious transaction errors; and
- transmit the relevant sales information electronically to KAS.
The resulting digital retail-sales data would then become another source for preparing future e-VAT settlements.
For businesses, this creates a direct relationship between the retail digitalisation project and the longer-term VAT automation programme.
KSeF supplies structured invoice information, while online cash registers and KeKR would increasingly supply consumer-sales data.
Combining those sources is what could eventually allow KAS to produce significantly more complete VAT settlements.
Customers could demand an e-receipt
The proposal would also change how electronic receipts work.
Paper receipts would remain available, but customers would gain the right to request an electronic fiscal receipt.
Under the current concept, where a customer asks for an e-receipt, the seller using the relevant system would be required to provide one rather than the availability of an electronic receipt depending principally on the retailer’s existing arrangement.
For customers who still need paper, businesses using KeKR would retain the ability to print receipts.
Printer relief proposed for KeKR users
Because some customers will continue to require paper receipts, businesses using KeKR may still need a printer.
UD473 therefore proposes tax relief covering 90% of the purchase price of a receipt printer, capped at PLN 200 per device, for a maximum of two devices.
The amount is relatively small compared with the wider compliance project but illustrates the government’s intention to make KeKR a lower-cost alternative to traditional fiscal hardware.
Retail changes targeted for July 2028
The Finance Ministry says the retail digitalisation measures are currently planned to take effect from 1 July 2028.
That is earlier than the first planned e-VAT rollout.
The sequence is deliberate: more retail sales need to become digitally visible to KAS before the tax administration can generate sufficiently complete pre-filled VAT settlements.
Businesses operating older cash registers should therefore pay particular attention to the detailed transition rules when the draft legislation is published.
The government has said replacement would be phased and businesses would retain a choice between compatible online cash registers, virtual systems and KeKR.
What this means for accounting and ERP systems
For accounting teams, e-VAT would not eliminate the need for reliable internal VAT data.
A company would still need to reconcile the government-prepared version against its accounting records before accepting it.
That could make discrepancies between ERP data, KSeF invoices, retail records and the information held by KAS much more visible.
Large businesses and international groups may therefore need systems capable not only of submitting Polish tax data but also of reconciling their internal records against a tax-authority-generated version of the VAT return.
Accounting and software providers serving Poland will also need to follow the technical architecture closely as it develops.
The proposal remains early-stage
UD473 is currently listed in the government legislative programme rather than as an enacted bill.
It has not yet completed the government process or parliamentary procedure.
That means the architecture, timetable and detailed obligations can still change.
There is therefore no date on which businesses can say that JPK_VAT will simply disappear.
Under the proposal, the initial e-VAT service would still produce a JPK_VAT settlement, with taxpayers retaining responsibility for checking, supplementing and submitting it.
The longer-term change is more structural: Poland is moving towards a tax system in which increasingly large parts of the VAT return can be assembled from transaction data already flowing through KSeF, digital cash registers and other government systems.
