Thermomodernisation tax relief in Poland: 53,000 zł limit
Short answer: House owners can deduct energy-saving costs up to 53,000 zł in total. Finish the work within 3 years, keep a VAT invoice, claim on PIT/O, and use any unused part for up to 6 years.
Owners of a house in Poland can deduct part of the cost of energy-saving work from their income tax. The deduction is called ulga termomodernizacyjna. This page follows the official tax portal podatki.gov.pl, on a page published on 15 December 2025 and updated on 12 October 2026, checked on 19 October 2026.
Who can use it
The relief is for owners or co-owners of a single-family house. Terraced and semi-detached houses count too. It is a tax deduction for the owner, so it does not help tenants or people who own a flat in a block.
What counts as thermomodernisation
The portal describes work that reduces the energy a home needs for heating and hot water, work that cuts losses in local heat networks, connecting a house to a central heat source in place of a local one, and switching fully or partly to renewable sources or high-efficiency cogeneration.
The list of eligible materials, devices and services for the 2025 and 2026 tax years includes, among others:
- insulation of walls, roofs, balcony slabs and foundations
- windows and doors, including roof windows and garage doors
- heat pumps, solar collectors and photovoltaic cells, with the infrastructure they need
- energy storage and heat storage, and energy management systems
- heating and hot water installations, and mechanical ventilation with heat recovery
- an energy audit, a thermographic analysis and design documentation
The portal says the catalogue for 2026 comes from the 2018 regulation of the Minister of Investment and Development, and it also prints the list. The list for 2024 was different, for example it named gas and oil condensing boilers, which are not on the 2025 and 2026 list shown on the page.
The limit and the deadlines
You can deduct the expenses, but no more than 53,000 zł in total. The limit covers all such projects in buildings you own or co-own. If the costs included VAT, you can deduct the amount with VAT, as long as you did not already deduct that VAT under the VAT act.
The project must be finished within 3 consecutive years counted from the end of the tax year in which the first expense was paid. If it is not, the relief must be returned: the amounts deducted earlier are added to the income of the year in which the deadline passed. If your income in a year is too low to use the whole deduction, you can use the rest in later years, for up to 6 years counted from the end of the tax year of the first expense.
Spouses with joint property can split the deduction as they choose, even if the invoice names only one of them. The page says each spouse can deduct up to 53,000 zł, but together they cannot deduct more than the expense they paid.
What you cannot deduct
- costs financed or co-financed by the NFOŚiGW or the voivodeship environmental funds
- costs that were refunded to you in any form
- costs already counted as business costs or deducted in another return
- costs used for other tax reliefs
If you get money back for a deducted expense in a later year, such as a grant, you add the refunded amount to your income in the year you receive it. If you have not yet filed the return, you can lower the expenses by the grant you will get later.
How to claim it
You document the relief with an invoice issued by an active VAT payer. An invoice with VAT from a business in another EU country also works. You claim the deduction in PIT-36, PIT-37, PIT-36L or PIT-28, with the PIT/O attachment. It applies to income taxed on the tax scale, to the 19% flat tax, and to revenue taxed with the lump sum on recorded revenue. An energy audit before the work is not required for the relief.
If you pay social security contributions out of salary, the portal says those are deducted from income first, and the thermomodernisation relief is applied to what remains.
* Photos: cover "Carver, Route 44 Solar Array, October 5, 2012" and body "Thermosiphon solar water heating system", both public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
What the source does not say
The page does not say anything specific about foreign owners, tax residents versus non-residents, or people paying tax in two countries. It does not cover grants such as Czyste Powietrze, and it does not give a worked example of the tax saved. Check the official explanatory notes of 30 June 2025 named on the page, or ask the tax office, before a large purchase. This is general information, not tax advice.
Frequently asked questions
What is the maximum deduction?
The official portal gives 53,000 zł in total for all projects in buildings you own or co-own.
Can I use the relief if I get a grant?
Not for costs funded by the NFOŚiGW or voivodeship environmental funds. For other refunds, you add the money back to your income when you receive it.
How long do I have to finish the work?
Within 3 consecutive years counted from the end of the tax year of the first expense.
