New Polish president presents bills to cut income tax for parents and protect farmers

Aug 10, 2025 | Business, Featured, Law, Politics

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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.

Poland’s new president, Karol Nawrocki, who was sworn into office on Wednesday, has presented two further bills for consideration by parliament, fulfilling promises made on the campaign trail.

One would end income tax on earnings up to 140,000 zloty a year for parents of two or more children. The other would seek to protect Polish farmers from agricultural imports, especially from Ukraine and South America, and to extend restrictions on foreigners buying agricultural land.

While Poland’s president has the right to initiate legislation, it must then be approved by parliament. Given that Nawrocki is aligned with the right-wing opposition, that will make gaining support in parliament – where the more liberal ruling coalition has a majority – a challenge.

“I am fulfilling another campaign promise,” declared Nawrocki at a meeting in the village of Krąpiel, northwest Poland, on Saturday, at which he presented a bill on “protecting the Polish countryside”.

It was the third legislative initiative he had announced in three days, following a bill presented on Thursday intended to ensure the government completes construction of a planned “mega-airport” and one on Friday to cut incoming tax for parents of two or more children.

The bills are intended to fulfil some of the 21 policies that Nawrocki pledged during his campaign to introduce once he came to power.

 

Under the tax proposal, the threshold for earnings that remain untaxed would be raised from 30,000 zloty (€7,075) to 140,000 zloty (€33,015) a year for parents with two or more children. The measure would apply to each parent, so, for a couple, the combined total of untaxed earnings would be up to 280,000 zloty.

The relief would be available for parents of children up to 18 years of age, or up to 25 if they are still in education and not earning money themselves.

“Financial resources must be found for Polish families,” said Nawrocki, who noted that Poland is facing a demographic crisis. Last year, the number of births in Poland fell to a new postwar low. The country’s fertility rate is one of the lowest in the world.

“The personal income tax exemption for parents of two or more children is not only my promise, but also my obligation to the continued existence of Poland and the independence of the Polish state,” declared the president.

The bill to “protect the Polish countryside”, unveiled the following day, has four main aims. The first is to extend the restrictions on selling Polish land to foreign owners for another ten years, up to 2036.

The second is to “oblige public authorities to protect [Poland] from the effects of” the EU’s proposed trade deal with the South American Mercosur bloc and from the import of agricultural products from Ukraine. Both are issues that Polish farmers have repeatedly protested against in recent years.

The bill also seeks to prevent the abolition of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, which provides subsidies for farmers, and any reduction of Poland’s own state budget devoted to agriculture.

“Polish land should be in the hands of Polish farmers!” declared Nawrocki. “This is crucial for our food security.”

The president said that he was “reaching out, beyond politics, to all groups in the Polish parliament and to the Polish government” to support his initiative.

Last year, Prime Minister Donald Tusk declared that Poland would not support the proposed Mercosur trade deal in its current form due to its potential negative impact on Polish agriculture.

In response to Nawrocki’s announcement on Saturday, deputy prime minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, who is also leader of the agrarian Polish People’s Party (PSL), noted that the current government has already significantly reduced Ukrainian agricultural imports and the sale of land to foreigners.

He noted that, when PiS was in power, the sale of agricultural and forest land to foreigners rose from 412 hectares in 2015 to 5,119 hectares in 2022. In 2024, the first full year that the current government was in power, it fell to 1,276.

Meanwhile, it was under PiS that, in 2022, millions of tonnes of Ukrainian grain began entering Poland. “It was our government that halted the uncontrolled influx of agricultural products from Ukraine,” declared Kosiniak-Kamysz.

“President Nawrocki has once again been misled – this time regarding agriculture,” he added, also noting that the current government has brought about changes to EU environmental rules beneficial for Polish farmers and has opposed the Mercosur agreement.

Agriculture minister Stefan Krajewski, also from PSL, likewise wrote that, given the efforts already being undertaken by the government to help farmers, “there’s no need for the additional provisions” proposed by Nawrocki.

“I hope that the president will support the government’s actions aimed at Polish farmers,” he added.


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: Mikołaj Bujak/KPRP

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