Poland's Sejm passes the VAT import-consignment bill at third reading, 393 votes to 2
This change is proposed and is not law. The rules below describe what would change if it is adopted.
This page records one dated change. For the rules in Poland as they stand today, see the Poland guide →
- Jurisdiction
- Poland
- Tax
- VAT
- Change type
- Update
- Status
- Proposed
- Impact
- Watch
- Announced
- 18 September 2026
- Authority
- Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej (lower house of the Polish Parliament)
- Verified
- Fetched from official source · high confidence
Importers, marketplaces and postal or express operators handling low-value consignments into Poland — no action until the act is signed and published.
No action - monitoring only.
The Sejm passed the government bill amending the Value Added Tax Act (druk 2838, committee report druk 3054) at third reading on 18 September 2026 by 393 votes in favour of 411 cast, having taken the second and third readings on 15 and 18 September. This supersedes the position recorded earlier in this issue as pl-vat-druk-2838-committee-report-2026, which described the bill as still awaiting its second and third readings as at the 12 September capture date. The bill is not yet law: it now passes to the Senate and then to the President, so its status remains proposed.
What changed in detail
The bill is not law. On 18 September 2026 the Sejm passed, at third reading, the government bill amending the Value Added Tax Act — Sejm print 2838, reported out of committee as print 3054. The Sejm’s legislative-process record marks the third-reading stage with the decision uchwalono (“passed”).
The second reading was taken at the 65th sitting on 15 September 2026, from which the House proceeded immediately to third reading (niezwłocznie przystąpiono do III czytania). The vote on the bill as a whole was held electronically at 11:14 on 18 September as voting number 84 of that sitting: 411 members voted, 393 in favour and 2 against, with 16 abstentions and 49 not participating. The recorded threshold was a simple majority.
The bill amends the VAT Act in connection with import declarations and the abolition of the customs-duty exemption for consignments worth up to EUR 150; the government presents it as part of its deregulation programme. The process record publishes the text as passed at third reading and closes the Sejm stage on 18 September.
The bill now goes to the Senate and then to the President. Nothing commences until it is signed and published in Dziennik Ustaw, and neither a commencement date nor a published act number exists yet.
What it means
A third-reading majority of 393 to 2 is as close to consensus as the Sejm produces, so the remaining stages are unlikely to change the substance. That is a reason to start planning, not a reason to treat the rule as settled: the Senate can still amend, and the commencement date will come from the published act, not from this vote.
Plan against the substance rather than the timetable. Removing the EUR 150 consignment exemption moves low-value imports from a simplified declaration path onto the ordinary one, which is a change to how consignment data is captured and filed, not a rate change. Marketplaces and express operators carry most of that work, and it lands on systems rather than on a return.
The signal to watch for is publication in Dziennik Ustaw. Until then this event has a vote and no date.
Proof
"date":"2026-09-18","stageName":"III czytanie na posiedzeniu Sejmu","decision":"uchwalono"Date 18 September 2026; stage "Third reading at a sitting of the Sejm"; decision: "passed".
Archived from the official distribution · Sejm RP legislative-process record for print 2838 (api.sejm.gov.pl JSON), third-reading stage · api.sejm.gov.pl
"abstain":16,"date":"2026-09-18T11:14:19","description":"całość projektu ustawy","kind":"ELECTRONIC","links":[{"href":"https://api.sejm.gov.pl/sejm/term10/votings/65/84/pdf","rel":"pdf"}],"majorityType":"SIMPLE_MAJORITY","majorityVotes":3,"no":2,"notParticipating":49,"present":0,"sitting":65,"sittingDay":4,"term":10,"title":"Pkt. 5 Sprawozdanie Komisji o rządowym projekcie ustawy o zmianie ustawy o podatku od towarów i usług (druki nr 2838 i 3054)","topic":"głosowanie nad całością projektu.","totalVoted":411,"votingNumber":84,"yes":393Abstentions 16; 18 September 2026 11:14; subject: "the bill as a whole"; electronic vote; simple majority; against 2; not participating 49; sitting 65, day 4, term 10; title: "Item 5, Committee report on the government bill amending the Value Added Tax Act (prints 2838 and 3054)"; topic: "vote on the bill as a whole"; total voting 411; voting number 84; in favour 393.
Archived from the official distribution · Sejm RP legislative-process record for print 2838 (api.sejm.gov.pl JSON), voting 84 of sitting 65 · api.sejm.gov.pl
No source snapshot. No screenshot: the cited source is the Sejm's legislative-process API, which returns a single JSON object. A picture of a JSON response is a picture of a data structure, not of an authority stating a fact, so the archived response above is the exhibit and both excerpts are verbatim fragments of it. The API answered HTTP 200 on 21 September 2026 and the response was re-downloaded rather than re-typed. The Sejm's human-readable process page on sejm.gov.pl would photograph, but it is not the URL the frozen change cites. A photographable primary document will exist once the act reaches Dziennik Ustaw.
Sources
What this replaces
- Polish Sejm committees recommend passing the VAT import-consignment bill unchanged effective 3 September 2026