InPost chief calls on government to address lower taxes paid by foreign rivals in Poland

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

The head of Poland’s largest private delivery firm, InPost, has complained that foreign competitors such as FedEx, DPD and DHL pay disproportionately low taxes in the country. He urged politicians to act, publishing what he called a “tax list of shame” on social media.

“As Polish businesses, we expect decisive action against dishonest taxpayers,” said Rafał Brzoska, founder and CEO of InPost, a company which pioneered the use of parcel lockers in Poland and has since expanded its operations to western Europe.

Brzoska said that foreign delivery firms paid a combined total of 89.8 million zloty (€21 million) in corporate income tax in 2024 in Poland. By contrast, InPost alone paid 375 million zloty from its domestic operations, after bringing in revenue of 10.9 billion zloty

Brzoska called out global players such as French-owned DPD and America’s FedEx for declaring little or no profit in Poland, thereby minimising their tax bills.

“Many of these companies officially report no profits in Poland or declare minimal profits to avoid taxes, paying record taxes in their home markets,” he claimed.

He pointed specifically to DHL, stating that Polish subsidiaries owned by the German logistics group reported 5.5 billion zloty in revenue in 2024 but paid only 20.2 million zloty in income tax. That meant it paid tax equivalent to less than 0.4% of revenue, compared to 3.4% for InPost.

He added that DHL eCommerce, which directly competes with InPost, paid no corporate income tax at all in 2024 despite booking 2.8 billion zloty in revenue. Brzoska said DHL paid the equivalent of 6 billion zloty in taxes globally outside Poland.

“Such tax solutions [are] not only unfair, [they] mean billions in losses for the entire country,” said Brozska.

Addressing Polish political leaders across the spectrum, he asked: “How long will the Polish tax system treat foreign competitors better than Polish companies?” and “How long will the Polish authorities allow tax evasion in Poland – to the detriment of all of us, of society as a whole?”

He also said that InPost pays taxes locally in all markets where it operates and does not shift profits back to Poland.

Brzoska made similar remarks last year, prompting a response from finance minister Andrzej Domański, who acknowledged the need to tackle profit shifting in Poland. He noted, however, that structural differences between InPost and some of its competitors partly explain the variation in their tax burdens.

He told broadcast Radio Zet that it was mainly due to InPost’s “extensive network of parcel lockers…which are highly profitable and contribute to higher tax payments”.

This year, however, similar complaints have come from Wirtualna Polska Holding, which owns news websites including Wirtualna Polska and Money.pl.

It had to pay 55.5 million zloty in corporate income tax for 2024. “That’s more than Google Poland and Facebook Poland combined, even though their combined revenues are three times higher than ours,” said CEO Jacek Świderski.

In response to growing criticism, Domański announced today that the government is stepping up efforts to tackle aggressive tax optimisation, including the use of transfer pricing – a practice in which multinational corporations shift profits abroad by inflating the costs of internal transactions.

“Polish companies and taxpayers have the right to fair competition. The aggressive use of transfer pricing distorts this,” Domański said during a press conference.

The minister claimed that the government’s measures are yielding results. A state body responsible for managing and collecting taxes discovered that, in 2024 alone, the income audited companies reported was half of what it should have been, had they not tried to shift profits abroad.

InPost is among the biggest Polish companies. The firm has, in particular, been a pioneer of automated parcel delivery lockers, which allow customers to easily collect and drop off packages. In recent years, it sped up its expansion abroad with a series of acquisitions in the UK, Spain, France and Portugal.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: InPost press material

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.