Prokurat - legal aspects of new technologies

For the costs of developing a computer game to be tax-deductible, they must meet certain criteria. Tax-deductible costs are costs incurred for the purpose of earning revenue from a source of revenue or retaining or securing a source of revenue, except for costs expressly excluded from tax-deductible costs. The method of accounting for these costs depends on whether work on the creation of a new game can be regarded as development work.

The instrument popularly known as the “IP Box,” introduced on 1 January 2019, allows taxpayers to claim a lower, 5% rate of corporate income tax or personal income tax in their annual tax settlements for income generated from commercialisation of qualified intellectual property rights they have created or developed through R&D activity. In this article we discuss how to benefit from the IP Box in the game development industry, who is eligible for the IP Box, and the conditions that must be met.

R&D relief was included in Poland’s income tax law from 1 January 2016. A year later, under the “Small Innovation Act,” major changes were introduced to make the incentives more attractive.

The Act of 29 August 2014 Amending the Corporate Income Tax Act, the Personal Income Tax Act and Certain Other Acts went into force on 1 January 2015.