It is not known whether the apartments for medals for Poland will not have to be settled with the tax office – writes Tuesday's “Rzeczpospolita”. Experts emphasize that “a lot also depends on the final conditions and method of transferring the apartments”.
The newspaper states that “the dust from this year's Paris Games is slowly settling, but not the excitement surrounding the apartments for the four Olympians”. “Such bonuses are to go to the gold medalist Aleksandra Mirosław and Klaudia Zwolińska, Julia Szeremeta and Daria Pikulik, who won silver in the French capital. The problem is that doubts are multiplying as to whether they will have to settle accounts with the tax office” – it informs.
Polish Olympic champions: Julia Szeremeta, Aleksandra Mirosław and Klaudia ZwolińskaRafal Guz/PAP
Poles won ten medals – Aleksandra Mirosław won gold in sport climbing. Klaudia Zwolińska won silver in kayaking. The Polish national men's volleyball team received a medal in the same colour, as did boxer Julia Szeremeta and track cyclist Daria Pikulik.
What about housing tax for Olympic athletes?
As we read, “available information indicates that the apartments are to be given to the Olympic athletes in connection with a sponsorship agreement between one of the developers, PROFBUD, and the Polish Olympic Committee (PKOl)”.
“According to the regulations of the awards for the results achieved in the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad in Paris 2024, the Polish Olympic Committee is to award them to the athletes. For most taxpayers, such a generous gesture would mean having to share the money with the tax office. Will it be the same with the Olympic athletes?” the daily wonders.
“The risk exists”
According to Małgorzata Samborska, tax advisor, partner at Grant Thornton, “such a risk exists, although a lot also depends on the final conditions and the method of handing over the apartments.”
“If we assume that the apartments are prizes from the Polish Olympic Committee, then potentially an exemption from art. 21 sec. 1 item 40a of the Personal Income Tax Act may come into play. The only catch is that this provision applies, among others, to prizes for achieving results at the Olympic Games, but paid by the Polish Olympic Committee. Apartments are prizes in kind, so at most we can talk about receiving them, not paying them out. And this would mean that the exemption does not apply to them,” she notes, quoted in the article.
Main image source: Rafal Guz/PAP