Poland vs Portugal for employees 2026

Every rule below is real and is left out on purpose. Modelling it would need information this form does not ask you for, or a mechanism we have not built yet. What matters is not that something is missing, but which way it moves your number, so that is what we tell you.

• May not apply to you: Poland: The 9% health insurance contribution is charged on gross pay minus your social security contributions, not on gross pay. Until the calculator applies that reduced base, the health contribution shown is slightly too high and the net take-home slightly too low. Your income tax is unaffected, because the health contribution is not deductible from it. Applies to: All employees (affects the net-pay figure, not the tax).
• Your real tax may be LOWER: Poland: Married couples and single parents may elect joint or single-parent taxation, which can lower total tax when incomes are unequal. We model a single taxpayer only. Applies to: Couples and single parents filing jointly.
• Your real tax may be LOWER: Poland: The child relief (ulga na dzieci) is a tax credit of at least PLN 1,112.04 per child, higher for a third and further child, and is partly refundable. We do not model it, so families pay less than shown. Applies to: Taxpayers with dependent children.
• Your real tax may be HIGHER: Poland: For a taxpayer under 26 earning above the PLN 85,528 exemption, the standard employee costs and social contributions attributable to the exempt income are not deductible in reality. We apply the full amounts to the remaining taxable income, so the tax just above the cap is slightly understated. Applies to: Under-26s earning more than PLN 85,528 who claim the relief for young.
• Your real tax may be LOWER: Portugal: Tax credits for documented expenses (health, education, rent, and the general family expenses credit) are not modelled, and neither is the income-dependent cap on them. The tax shown is therefore an upper bound: it is what you would pay if you claimed nothing. This also means a small tax is shown at incomes just above the minimum-existence threshold, where the general family expenses credit would in practice cancel it. Applies to: Residents who file receipts, which is nearly everyone.
• Your real tax may be LOWER: Portugal: Married couples and civil partners may elect to be taxed jointly, which splits the income between two taxpayers and usually lowers the total tax when one partner earns much more than the other. We model a single taxpayer only. Applies to: Couples filing jointly, especially where incomes are unequal.
• Your real tax may be LOWER: Portugal: Madeira and the Azores replace the national IRS scale with their own, lower one. Select your region in the form and the calculator applies it. Two island details stay approximate: the mínimo de existência (the low-income abatement) is applied with the national parameters, because no citable regional norm settles how the islands adjust it; and the Azores scale's average-rate column is derived from the statutory 30% reduction formula, since no official table of it exists, so the tax authority's own software could round a step differently, a cents-level effect. Applies to: Residents of Madeira or the Azores, though the abatement point only matters on low salaries.
• Your real tax may be LOWER: Portugal: The dependant credit is higher for a second and further child aged up to six, and the ascendant credit is higher when only one ascendant lives with you. We apply the base amounts only. Applies to: Families with more than one young child, or with a single ascendant in the household.
• Your real tax may be LOWER: Portugal: The specific deduction can be raised above the fixed amount for fees paid to a professional order, when membership is required for the job. We apply the standard amount. Applies to: Employees who must belong to a professional order: lawyers, doctors, engineers, architects.
• : Portugal: The official average-rate column for the Azores is not published anywhere we found. The law prescribes '30% off the national rates in force each year', so the average_rate values here are 0.7 × the printed national column B. Rounding of the final printed figure by the tax authority could move the tax by a few cents. Applies to: All Azores residents (cents-level effect).
• : Portugal: The minimum-existence abatement (art. 70.º CIRS) references the first-bracket rate and limit of art. 68.º; whether the reduced regional rate feeds that formula for Azores residents is unverified, so the national minimum_existence parameters may misstate the tax of low earners in the region. Applies to: Azores residents with income near the minimum-existence range.
• Your real tax may be LOWER: Portugal: The minimum-existence abatement (art. 70.º CIRS) is adapted in Madeira so that the regional minimum wage, which is higher than the mainland one, stays fully exempt; the national parameters in pit.json would overstate the tax of low earners in the region. The exact regional rule is not yet sourced. Applies to: Madeira residents with income around or below the regional minimum wage.
• : Portugal: The solidarity surcharge (2.5% above EUR 80,000, 5% above EUR 250,000) applies in Madeira at the full national rates. It is not part of the regional reduction. Applies to: Madeira residents with taxable income above EUR 80,000.