DriveHubCountry guide · Poland
Poland has two vehicle registers, they are not interchangeable, and one of them halves your VAT
Two registers, and picking the wrong one is not a formality
Polish guidance about ewidencja przebiegu pojazdu describes two different documents under almost the same name, and a lot of it does not say which one it means.
For a car used only for the business, the one that decides real money is the VAT register: art. 86a ust. 7 ustawy o VAT, kept so that input VAT can be deducted at 100% rather than 50%. It is kept, not filed; beside it goes a one-time VAT-26 notice (art. 86a ust. 12). The 100% is only for a car "wykorzystywane wyłącznie do działalności gospodarczej podatnika" (art. 86a ust. 3 pkt 1 lit. a), used in a way, confirmed by the register, that "wyklucza ich użycie do celów niezwiązanych z działalnością gospodarczą" (ust. 4 pkt 1). A car also driven privately gets 50%, and no register changes that.
If you are keeping a careful record aimed at income tax and expecting it to serve for VAT as well, check which list you are working from before the settlement period ends rather than after.
What the VAT register must contain
- The registration number of the vehicle
- The date the register was opened and the date it was closed
- The odometer reading at opening, at the end of every settlement period, and at closing
- The total number of kilometres driven
- And per use of the vehicle, an entry by the driver: the date, the purpose, a description of the route (from where, to where), the number of kilometres, and who was driving
Where the driver is not the taxpayer, the taxpayer countersigns at the end of each period.
The counter reading at the end of each period
This is the requirement that gets missed, because it is not a per-trip field and not a per-year field. It is a reading you have to take at the close of every settlement period — monthly or quarterly, depending on how you settle. A register with an opening and a closing figure and nothing in between is incomplete on its face, and it is incomplete in a way that is impossible to repair later: nobody can reconstruct what the odometer said on 30 September.
What it costs
For a car used only for the business, input VAT drops from 100% to 50%. On a vehicle and its running costs, over a year, that is not a rounding error.
The register is one of three conditions for the 100%, beside written rules of use and the VAT-26 notice. All three are in VAT on a car in Poland: 50% or 100%.
Why an app rather than a notebook
Nothing above requires software; a paper register with those columns satisfies the article. What software changes is the failure mode. What goes missing is never the kilometres — it is the route description for a trip three months ago, the exact date, and the period-end counter that had to be read on a specific day.
DriveHub records each trip in the background with both endpoints, the route and the times, 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 — where art. 86a ust. 7 puts it — and a page to sign.
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 enter it; the report names it as the one item you add yourself.
This page states what the article itself requires and names it 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.
Do it in DriveHub
Ownership, vehicle details, odometer readings and multiple cars.
The full rule for Poland, with the instruments it comes from: mileage log requirements in Poland.