Polish gift tax on money sent to Australia

Poland exempts a gift or an inheritance passing between close family from its gift and inheritance tax. The exemption sits in article 4a of the inheritance and gift tax Act. It carries two conditions everyone talks about. Tell the tax office within six months, and show the money arrived through an account. There is a third, in the article immediately before it. It turns on your own citizenship rather than the family relationship, and in Australia it is often the one that decides the answer.

Key Takeaways

• Article 4a exempts a gift from a spouse, a child or grandchild, a parent or grandparent, a stepchild, a sibling, a stepfather or a stepmother, on a six-month notification, plus, where the gift is money, documented transfer to an account once the aggregated value passes 36,120 zloty.
• Article 4 paragraph 4 makes that exemption available only where, at the moment of acquisition, you held Polish citizenship, the citizenship of a European Union member state, or the citizenship of an EFTA state that is a party to the European Economic Area agreement, or lived in Poland or in one of those states.
• Article 1 taxes things located in Poland and property rights exercised in Poland. Article 3 point 1 releases only movable property and rights exercised there, and only where neither you nor the giver or the person who died was a Polish citizen, and neither had permanent residence or a seat in Poland.
• Article 2 reaches things and rights abroad, and its test is on you alone: Polish citizenship or permanent residence in Poland at the time.
• Article 4c, in force from 7 January 2026, lets the six-month deadline be restored where you make it plausible that missing it was not your fault.

Two tests, and which one applies depends on where the money sits

Article 1 sets the first reach. It taxes what an individual acquires, where the thing is located in Poland or the property right is exercised there. The titles it lists are inheritance, a legacy, a gift, an instruction of a donor, and others.

Article 3 point 1 is an exit from article 1, and it is narrow twice over. It reaches only movable property in Poland, and rights exercised in Poland. And it takes the acquisition out of the tax only where, on the day of acquisition, neither you nor the giver or the person who died was a Polish citizen, and neither had permanent residence or a seat in Poland. In a family corridor the giver is in Poland, so that second limb fails.

Article 2 covers the other side. Things located abroad and rights exercised abroad are taxed where, at the moment the estate opened or the gift was made, you were a Polish citizen or had permanent residence in Poland. That test attaches to you rather than the giver, which is not the intuitive reading. It means a Polish citizen in Melbourne can be inside Polish gift tax on money that never touched Poland.

Which article catches a transfer depends on where the thing or the right sits when the gift takes effect. That is a question about the asset, not the family, and this guide does not answer it. It is one for a tax agent who can see the account and the timing.

The two conditions everyone knows about

Article 4a exempts what is acquired by a spouse, a child or grandchild, a parent or grandparent, a stepchild, a sibling, a stepfather or a stepmother.

The first condition is notification. You must report the acquisition to the competent head of the tax office within six months of the tax obligation arising. Where you inherit, article 6 paragraph 1 point 1 dates that obligation to one of three events: the court order confirming the succession becoming final, registration of the notarial certificate, or issue of a European Certificate of Succession.

The second condition applies to money only. Where the gift is funds, and their value added to everything you received from the same person in the year of the last gift and the five years before it passes the amount in article 9 paragraph 1 point 1, you must document receipt. The evidence is a transfer to your account at a bank or credit union, or a postal order. That figure is 36,120 zloty for a group I acquirer.

Two things follow. Below the threshold there is no documentation condition, and under article 4a paragraph 4 point 1 no notification duty. The Ministry of Finance states that the absence of a notification duty below 36,120 zloty applies where the tax obligation arose on or after 1 July 2023. Above it, a cash gift produces no evidence of transfer, so article 4a paragraph 3 applies and the gift is taxed on the scale set for group I. That is the ordinary scale, not a penalty.

The condition that has nothing to do with your family

Article 4 paragraph 4 decides this corridor, and it appears nowhere in the popular description of the exemption. It provides that the exemptions in article 4 paragraph 1 and in articles 4a and 4b apply only if, at the moment of acquisition, the person acquiring had one of these:

• Polish citizenship
• the citizenship of a European Union member state
• the citizenship of a European Free Trade Association state which is a party to the European Economic Area agreement
• a place of residence in Poland or in one of those states

The qualifier on the EFTA branch is doing real work. The Association has four members and only three are parties to that agreement, so the set is Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. The government service page for the form restates it in the same terms: citizenship of, or residence in, Poland, the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway.

Note the last row: the test is taken at the moment of acquisition, so having lived in Poland years ago does not satisfy it.

That produces two different people out of what looks like one situation. If you hold one of those citizenships, Polish gift tax reaches you wherever articles 1 and 2 catch the transfer, and filing on time can bring the liability to nothing. If you are not a Polish citizen and have never been permanently resident in Poland, article 2 does not reach you, so property abroad is not caught. On property inside Poland you are still inside article 1, and if you hold none of the citizenships in article 4 paragraph 4 the exemption is closed to you, however perfectly you file.

Six months, and the deadline that stopped being absolute

Article 4c was added by the amending Act of 21 November 2025 and is in force from 7 January 2026. It provides that the deadlines in article 4a paragraph 1 point 1 and paragraph 2, and in article 4b paragraph 1 point 1, are restored on your application, where you make it plausible that missing them was without your fault. A second paragraph covers restoration won on appeal to an administrative court: the authority must set aside any assessment and discontinue the proceedings. Before that date the Act had no restoration provision.

If you had no reason to know a Polish notification duty existed, that is a real change. The same amendment moved the inheritance trigger to the three events in article 6 paragraph 1 point 1.

You make the notification on the form the Ministry publishes as SD-Z2. Where article 4a is not available, the return is SD-3, due within a month. Which office is competent for someone who has never had a Polish address is not answered on the face of the Ministry's guidance, and it is one for a tax agent rather than a form.

What the Polish bank does either way

None of this stops the money moving. The Foreign Exchange Law begins from permission, not prohibition. Dealings in foreign exchange are allowed, subject to the restrictions in article 9 and any introduced under article 10. The limb of article 9 that reaches a resident sending money to a country outside the Union is aimed at taking up or expanding a business there. A parent supporting a child is not that purpose.

There is a report, and it is the bank's. The obligation is written without direction, the part most often got backwards. Article 72 of the Act of 1 March 2018 on counteracting money laundering requires an obliged institution to tell the General Inspector of Financial Information, the financial intelligence unit, about any transfer worth more than the equivalent of 15,000 euro, within seven days. A further paragraph adds inbound transfers on top, rather than limiting the duty to them. So a transfer leaving Poland above the figure is reported whatever the family relationship behind it.

How Australia treats the money once it lands is a separate question of Australian law, not covered here. This guide sets out what Poland does at its own end. The rate the zloty converts at is on the corridor rate page.

Where to look next

• Receiving money from Poland - the live rate page.
• How international transfers work - the route the payment takes once the Polish position is settled.
• Understanding transfer fees - the separate cost of moving the money.
• How to find an accountant - checking a tax agent is registered, which matters when a deadline runs overseas.
• AUD to PLN - the convert page for this pair, and why Poland has kept the zloty.

Sources

• Ustawa o podatku od spadków i darowizn, consolidated text, Dziennik Ustaw 2026 item 478 - articles 1, 2 and 3 point 1, article 4 paragraph 4, article 4a and its conditions, article 4c with the footnote dating it to 7 January 2026, article 6 paragraph 1 point 1, and article 9 paragraph 1.
• Nabycie spadku lub darowizny w najblizszej rodzinie, Ministry of Finance - the six-month rule, the consequence of not reporting, the documentation requirement, and the 36,120 zloty reporting exemption from 1 July 2023.
• Zglos otrzymanie majatku ze spadku lub darowizny, form SD-Z2, gov.pl - the six-month window, the confirmation required for a gift of money, and the citizenship and residence test.
• Ustawa o przeciwdzialaniu praniu pieniedzy, consolidated text, Dziennik Ustaw 2025 item 644 - article 72 on the 15,000 euro information duty, the paragraph adding inbound transfers, and the seven-day deadline.
• Prawo dewizowe, consolidated text, Dziennik Ustaw 2024 item 1131 - article 3 paragraph 1 permitting foreign exchange dealings, and the limb of article 9 covering money sent outside the Union to take up or expand a business.

General information about Polish gift and inheritance tax as it reaches money sent to a person in Australia. Not financial advice, not tax advice, and not a recommendation of any product or institution. Reviewed by the Tradergy editorial team, September 2026.