How Transfer Pricing Has Become Key to Business Survival – A New Era of TP Audits
Today, it can be said with confidence that transfer pricing in Poland has evolved from a formal documentation requirement into a key area of tax risk management. For companies belonging to groups of related entities, this represents a fundamental shift in approach — from reactive compliance to proactive risk mitigation aimed at preventing tax audits that may result in multi-million-zloty income adjustments.

Growing Effectiveness of Tax Audits
In 2024, the Polish National Revenue Administration (KAS) doubled its effectiveness in detecting transfer pricing irregularities compared to the previous year.  
In the first half of 2025 alone, the value of identified understatements exceeded the total amount recorded for the entire year 2023 by 30%.
While the number of audits has decreased — from over 350 in 2020–2023 to approximately 270 in 2024 — their effectiveness has increased significantly.
In 2024, more than 50% of audits resulted in income adjustments, with total adjustments exceeding PLN 750 million — twice the amount recorded in 2023.
A notable difference in effectiveness can be observed between customs and fiscal offices (UCS) and regular tax offices. The UCS accounted for over 90% of the identified income understatements, becoming highly specialized units in the field of transfer pricing audits.

Profiles of Taxpayers Most Frequently Audited
Tax authorities select entities for audit based on financial patterns suggesting potential transfer pricing manipulation, including:

• companies reporting losses for more than one tax year, particularly routine entities,

• businesses with profitability levels inconsistent with industry trends,

• entities incurring high intra-group service costs,

• companies with a high level of debt financing.

Particular attention is paid to financial transactions. Authorities analyze not only interest rates but the entire financing structure.
In cases of excessive indebtedness, part of the debt may be recharacterized as equity, leading to the disallowance of a portion of interest expenses and an upward adjustment of taxable income.
Example: The Podlaskie branch of KAS revealed that a consumer electronics company overstated its costs by PLN 186 million, reporting a loss instead of taxable income, resulting in nearly PLN 4 million in additional corporate income tax (CIT) payable.

New and Existing Data Sources Available to Tax Authorities

Transfer Pricing Information (TPR) and CIT Returns
TPR data enables authorities to compare applied prices with market ranges and detect manipulation of benchmarking analyses.
Authorities may also verify correlations between related-party transactions and reported tax losses in CIT filings.

IFT Forms
These disclose financial flows from Poland to other jurisdictions, such as payments for intangible services, interest, and income subject to withholding tax (WHT).

JPK_CIT and KSeF – A Data Access Revolution
With the mandatory use of the National e-Invoicing System (KSeF) and submission of JPK_CIT files, tax authorities are gaining unprecedented access to financial data.
This enables analysis of, among others:

• cost structures and related-party transactions,

• changes in profitability,

• unit prices of goods and services,

• relationships between counterparties,

• potential business restructurings without compensation.

Public Country-by-Country Reporting (Public CbCR)

From 2026, large multinational groups (with revenue exceeding EUR 750 million or PLN 3.5 billion) will be required to publicly disclose tax data broken down by jurisdiction — creating another source of insight into cross-border settlements.

Global Minimum Tax (Pillar II)
New reporting obligations concerning the top-up tax will disclose the effective tax rate of entities operating in particular jurisdictions.
This applies to groups with revenues exceeding EUR 750 million and introduces a minimum 15% CIT rate.

A New Phase in Combating Aggressive Tax Planning
In August 2025, the Minister of Finance established a Task Force on Combating Aggressive Corporate Tax Planning, tasked with developing recommendations in four areas:

• international CIT systems,

• harmful tax planning structures,

• resilience of the tax system,

• international cooperation.

At the same time, a KAS Competence Centre for Combating Aggressive Tax Planning was established in Kraków, using advanced data analytics based on TPR, CIT, JPK_CIT and KSeF data.

Increasing Specialization of Tax Officials
KAS auditors are becoming increasingly specialized. They have been trained in OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines and rely on multiple data sources: financial statements, TPR, CIT, IFT, and soon also JPK_CIT, KSeF and Public CbCR.
This enables authorities to benchmark taxpayers against comparable entities with similar business profiles.

Proposed Presidential Strengthening of Audit Powers
In August 2024, a presidential bill was submitted to Parliament under which CIT taxpayers with revenues exceeding PLN 5 billion would be subject to mandatory transfer pricing audits at least once every three years.
The proposal also provides for:

• doubling tax sanctions (from 10% to 20%),

• expanding the scope of publicly disclosed financial data.

Key Takeaways for Businesses
The conclusions are clear:

• The primary objective for businesses should be to minimize the risk of triggering an audit — as defensive options become significantly more limited once proceedings begin.

In practice, this requires:

• a proactive approach to transfer pricing documentation,

• pricing transactions before execution,

• regular updates of benchmarking studies,

• implementation of benefit tests,

• incorporating transfer pricing considerations into business decision-making.

How Legal Link Can Support You
At Legal Link, we have specialized in transfer pricing advisory for years, offering comprehensive support in:

• preparation of transfer pricing documentation and analyses,

• development of transfer pricing policies,

• implementation of benefit test mechanisms,

• business advisory with a focus on transfer pricing risk.