DriveHubCountry guide · Poland
Poland's "five years" for an ewidencja przebiegu pojazdu runs about six
The Polish rule reads as five years, but the clock starts late, so a 2026 register is kept to the end of 2032. On full books a second clock can run longer still.
The short answer
A Polish ewidencja przebiegu pojazdu kept for 2026 is kept until 31 December 2032 — about six years after the driving, not five.
- Ordynacja podatkowa art. 86 § 1 keeps the books and their documents "do czasu upływu okresu przedawnienia zobowiązania podatkowego" — until the tax liability is time-barred. There is no fixed term of years in it.
- Art. 70 § 1 puts that limitation at five years from the end of the calendar year in which the payment deadline fell.
- The last deadlines for a year's tax fall in the year after it, so the five years start a year late.
Why does five years become six?
The clock does not start at the end of the year you drove in. It starts at the end of the year in which the deadline for paying the tax fell. The last deadlines for 2026 — December's VAT and the annual PIT return — fall in 2027, so the register as a whole is kept to the end of 2032.
Anyone who counts five years from the end of 2026 and disposes of the register on 1 January 2032 has thrown it away a year before the tax office stops being able to ask for it.
Ustawa o VAT art. 112 restates the same period for the VAT registers — and the ewidencja przebiegu pojazdu under art. 86a ust. 7 is a VAT register, the one that keeps your input-VAT deduction at 100 % rather than 50 %. There is no employee/self-employed split: art. 86a ust. 7's register is a księga podatkowa either way.
Another clock, for full books
A filer who keeps full books also answers to ustawa o rachunkowości art. 74 ust. 2 pkt 8, which counts five years "od początku roku następującego po roku obrotowym" — from the start of the year after the financial year. That is a different starting point from the tax limitation. In practice the longer of the two governs.
One citation to leave out: KKS art. 60 § 2 is sometimes given as the sanction for the retention period. It is about the place where books are kept, not the period.
What losing the register costs
Two things, and they compound:
- The input-VAT deduction drops from 100 % to 50 % — the consequence described in the article on Poland's two registers.
- The tax office may estimate the tax base under Ordynacja podatkowa art. 23 § 1.
The deduction is a separate question
The income-tax share of a car's costs is set elsewhere: ustawa o PIT art. 23 ust. 1 pkt 46 and 46a leave 20 % deductible for a privately owned car and 75 % for one held in the business. What the register itself decides, input VAT at 100 % or 50 %, is set out in Poland's two vehicle registers.
Before you delete the register
- Count retention from the end of the year the payment deadline fell in, not the year you drove in. A 2026 register is kept to 31 December 2032.
- On full books, check the accounting-act clock too and keep to the longer of the two.
- For VAT, keep the art. 86a ust. 7 register complete, including the counter reading at the end of every settlement period.
What an automatic register changes
The Ordynacja is satisfied just as well by a paper register kept for six years. What software changes is what the register holds when it is finally asked for: the route of a trip three years back, its date, and who was driving.
DriveHub records each trip in the background and asks afterwards which were business. The register it prints carries a sequential entry number, the date, the purpose, the route from–to, the kilometres, the odometer at the start and end of each trip and the driver's name, with the registration number in the header and a page to sign. It exports as a PDF and as a spreadsheet; keep the exported register, not only the trips on your phone, for as long as the Ordynacja keeps the tax open.
The one item it cannot supply is the period-end counter — a reading taken off the car on the last day of each settlement period. Read the odometer that day and note it on the exported register; the report names it as the one item you add yourself. Poland's other requirements are on the Poland page. Germany's retention period has its own misreading; see Fahrtenbuch retention: ten years, not eight.
This page states what the Ordynacja and the other Polish acts say, and names the articles so you can check. It is not tax advice. It can't account for your circumstances. Where money is involved, ask your księgowy — and bring the register.
The full rule for Poland, with the instruments it comes from: mileage log requirements in Poland.