When Are Annual Financial Statements Due in Poland?

In short:

• Prepare within 3 months of the balance sheet date. For a financial year ending 31 December 2025, that is 31 March 2026.
• Approve within 6 months of the balance sheet date — 30 June 2026 — by resolution of the shareholders.
• File with the KRS within 15 days of approval — 15 July 2026 if approval happened on the last possible day.
• Filing is free through the RDF repository — but only when a representative whose PESEL number is disclosed in the KRS submits it. An all-foreign board without a PESEL must use the paid route.
• Missing the deadline is not a paperwork problem. It exposes board members to fines and criminal liability, triggers coercive proceedings, and in extreme cases ends in dissolution.

When must a Polish company prepare its annual financial statements?

Within three months of the balance sheet date. For the overwhelming majority of companies, whose financial year is the calendar year, the balance sheet date is 31 December and the deadline is 31 March.

“Prepare” means the statement exists in its final form and has been signed — not that it has been approved or filed. Those are separate steps with their own dates, and conflating them is the most common way founders end up late without realising it.

The same period governs the annual tax return: CIT-8 is due by the end of the third month after the tax year ends, so 31 March 2026 for a calendar-year company. The two deadlines land together by design.

When must the statements be approved?

Within six months of the balance sheet date — 30 June 2026 for a calendar financial year.

For an sp. z o.o., approval is a resolution of the ordinary shareholders’ meeting, which also resolves on what happens to the profit or loss and on discharge for board members. The meeting is a real corporate act, not a formality your accountant performs on your behalf: shareholders vote, and minutes are kept.

When must they be filed with the KRS?

Within 15 days of approval. If the statement is approved on 30 June, the filing deadline is 15 July.

The 15 days run from actual approval, not from the deadline for approval. Approving in April means filing in April — earlier approval brings the filing date forward with it, and there is no benefit to waiting.

Step	Rule	Calendar-year date (FY2025)
Balance sheet date	End of the financial year	31 December 2025
Prepare and sign the statement	Within 3 months	31 March 2026
File CIT-8	End of the 3rd month after year-end	31 March 2026
Approve by shareholders’ resolution	Within 6 months	30 June 2026
File with the KRS	Within 15 days of approval	15 July 2026

What does the financial statement consist of?

For a company keeping full accounting, the annual financial statement comprises a balance sheet, a profit and loss account, and additional information — the introduction and the explanatory notes.

Larger entities add a cash flow statement and a statement of changes in equity. Companies also file the shareholders’ resolution approving the statement, the resolution on profit distribution or loss coverage, and — where an audit was required — the auditor’s opinion.

It is filed as a structured electronic file, not a PDF or a scan. The format is defined by the Ministry of Finance, and a statement produced outside it will not be accepted.

Who has to sign it, and how?

The person responsible for keeping the books signs it, and so does every member of the management board. If a board member refuses, their refusal has to be documented with a written justification attached to the statement.

Signatures must be electronic — a qualified electronic signature, a trusted profile (profil zaufany), or a personal signature from a Polish e-ID. Since 2022 a simplification has applied: one board member may sign while the others submit declarations that the statement meets the Accounting Act’s requirements, which avoids collecting e-signatures from every director abroad.

For foreign boards this is usually the first real obstacle, and it is worth solving in February rather than the last week of June. A profil zaufany requires a PESEL number; a qualified signature can be obtained by a non-resident but takes time and identity verification.

How do you file it — and why is it free for some companies but not others?

Filing goes to the RDF (Repozytorium Dokumentów Finansowych), the financial documents repository run by the Ministry of Justice.

It is free — provided the person submitting it is authorised to represent the company and their PESEL number is disclosed in the KRS. That single condition decides which of two very different experiences you get.

If your board consists entirely of foreign nationals with no PESEL disclosed in the register, the free route is closed to you. Filing must then go through the paid registry route, and someone has to be found who can actually submit it.

	Free route (RDF)	Paid route
Who can use it	A representative whose PESEL is disclosed in the KRS	Companies with no PESEL-holding representative
Cost	None	A court fee applies
Typical case	At least one Polish-resident board member	Entirely foreign board
Permanent fix	—	Obtain a PESEL and have it disclosed in the KRS

Two notes on the fee. First, figures you find online are frequently pre-2026: the PLN 100 Monitor Sądowy i Gospodarczy announcement charge that used to be bundled into KRS fees was abolished on 29 November 2025, and the paid route for financial documents moved between registry systems for 2026 — so confirm the current amount before budgeting for it. Second, the fee is avoidable. Getting a PESEL for one board member and having it disclosed in the KRS removes the charge permanently and makes every future filing free.

Does your company need an audit?

Most foreign-owned small companies do not. An audit becomes mandatory when the entity exceeded two of these three criteria in the preceding financial year:

• average annual employment of 50 full-time equivalents;
• total assets at the balance sheet date of EUR 3,125,000;
• net revenue from sales of goods, products and financial operations of EUR 6,250,000.

The euro amounts convert at the NBP average rate on the balance sheet date of the year being measured. Both asset and revenue thresholds were raised — from EUR 2,500,000 and EUR 5,000,000 respectively — and the higher figures apply for financial years beginning after 31 December 2024, which took a group of mid-sized companies out of the audit requirement entirely.

Where an audit is required, only a biegły rewident (statutory auditor) may perform it, and the audit must be complete before the statement is approved — which pulls your real internal deadline months earlier.

What happens if you file late?

The consequences escalate, and they attach to individuals rather than to the company alone:

• Fines and restriction of liberty. Failing to prepare a financial statement, or failing to file it, is an offence under the Accounting Act, and board members are the ones charged.
• Coercive proceedings (postępowanie przymuszające). The registry court summons the company to file within seven days and can impose repeated fines until it does.
• Dissolution. Where a company persistently fails to file, the court may dissolve it and strike it from the register — a genuine outcome for dormant companies whose owners stopped paying attention, not a theoretical one.
• Practical consequences. A company with missing filings in the public repository fails counterparty checks, bank reviews and due diligence, because anyone can see the gap.

The public nature of the register is worth dwelling on: your filing history is visible to every customer, supplier and bank who looks.

What is the full 2026 timetable?

Working backwards from the filing date is the only version that works in practice:

• January–February — close the books; confirm that every board member can sign electronically.
• By 31 March — statement prepared and signed; CIT-8 filed.
• April–June — audit, if required; convene the ordinary shareholders’ meeting.
• By 30 June — statement approved by resolution, along with the profit or loss resolution.
• Within 15 days of approval, by 15 July at the latest — file with the KRS.

If your board is entirely foreign, add one step ahead of all of these: settle the signature and PESEL question in January. It is the part with the longest lead time and the one that cannot be fixed in the final week.

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Meyis is a Turkish-speaking accounting office in Warsaw, Poland (biuro rachunkowe) preparing, signing and filing annual financial statements for foreign-owned companies.

Talk to us about your annual statements or message us on WhatsApp at +48 692 413 475. If your board is entirely foreign, ask in January rather than June — the signature and PESEL question is the one that cannot be fixed in the final week.

Official sources: the entrepreneurs’ portal biznes.gov.pl, the financial documents repository at ekrs.ms.gov.pl and the court-registers portal prs.ms.gov.pl. Registry fees changed on 29 November 2025, when the Monitor Sądowy i Gospodarczy announcement charge was abolished — confirm the current amount before budgeting for a paid filing. See also which accounting regime applies to you and your first-year tax calendar.