Who is entitled to family relief?
Family relief, also known as child relief, is one of the most commonly used tax deductions. For the 2024 PIT tax return, it is available to:
✅ parents exercising parental authority,
✅ legal guardians of the child (if the child resides with them),
✅ foster parents.
Parents deprived of parental authority cannot use this relief.
The relief applies to children who are:
- minors,
- receiving a care allowance or social pension, regardless of age,
- under 25 years of age, who continue their education and whose annual income (after deducting costs of obtaining income) did not exceed 21,371.52 PLN.
Joint deduction of relief by parents
Parents may divide the relief in any proportion. In the absence of an agreement or in cases of alternating care, the court orders the relief to be divided equally. In other cases, the full relief is deducted by the parent with whom the child permanently resides.
Relief for an adult child
- post-secondary schools;
- teacher training colleges and teacher training colleges of foreign languages;
- public and private universities;
- higher military academy.
Parents’ income limit
The relief is available to taxpayers filing under the tax scale (PIT-36, PIT-37), and income must not exceed:
- 112,000 PLN – for married couples filing jointly and single parents,
- 56,000 PLN – for taxpayers not in a marriage.
If parents have two or more children, the income limit does not apply.
Amount of family relief
The relief depends on the number of children:
- one child – 92.67 PLN per month (1,112.04 PLN annually), provided the income limit is not exceeded (56,000 PLN for an individual filer, 112,000 PLN for spouses filing jointly),
- two children – 92.67 PLN for each child (2,224.08 PLN annually),
- three children – 92.67 PLN for the first and second child, 166.67 PLN for the third child (4,224.12 PLN annually),
- four or more children – 92.67 PLN for the first and second child, 166.67 PLN for the third, 225 PLN for the fourth and subsequent children (6,924.12 PLN annually for four children).
Specific situations
- High school graduates – the relief also applies to summer vacation months, even if they do not continue their education, and if they do continue – the relief applies for the entire year.
- Students – In the case of students who, after completing their bachelor’s degree, pursue a master’s degree – the relief applies for the entire year. If the student does not pursue a master’s degree – the relief applies only for the months of study, including the month in which the diploma examination was taken.
- Newborn children – the relief applies for full months from birth.
Additional refund of unused relief
If the taxpayer was unable to fully utilize the relief, they may receive a refund equal to the unused portion, but not exceeding the total amount of social and health insurance contributions paid.
Required documents
The taxpayer must retain documents confirming entitlement to the relief for 5 years, such as:
- birth certificate,
- certificate of school attendance,
- court ruling on child custody.
