CIT-8 and the Annual Accounts: The March-to-June Sequence
Filing annual accounts in Poland is not one deadline. It is a chain of four steps, each of which starts only when the previous one has finished, and the last two are measured in days rather than months.
Companies miss it not because the dates are obscure but because they treat it as a single event in one accountant’s diary. Two of the four steps are not the accountant’s to take.
The chain
Step 1 — Prepare, within three months of the balance-sheet date. For a calendar-year company, by 31 March. Preparation is a management board responsibility, and the statements are signed electronically by the board.
Step 2 — Approve, within six months. By 30 June. This is a shareholder resolution, minuted. It is not something your accountant can do for you.
Step 3 — File with the KRS repository, within fifteen days of approval. Not fifteen days from June — fifteen days from the approval. Approve on 12 May and the filing is due in May.
Step 4 — CIT-8, following the tax year, filed separately from the financial statements.
Where it breaks, and it is always the same two places
Between steps 1 and 2: nobody scheduled the meeting. The accounts are ready in March. The shareholder is a parent company abroad, for whom approving subsidiary accounts is an administrative formality that happens somewhere in the background. In Poland it is a dated act that has to exist as a document before anything else can happen. Accounts sit finished for weeks while the clock on step 3 has not even started.
The fix: put a date in the calendar in autumn, for May or June. That is the entire solution.
Between steps 2 and 3: nobody could sign. Filing is electronic and requires a signature Poland recognises — a qualified certificate under eIDAS, or a Profil Zaufany. A board of non-residents holding neither cannot file, and the discovery tends to happen inside the fifteen-day window rather than before it.
The fix: two board members with valid certificates, obtained in a quiet month. Two, not one, so a holiday or an unreachable director does not stop the company.
What has to be filed, and what it consists of
The set filed with the KRS repository is the balance sheet, the profit and loss account, and the additional information and explanations. Depending on the company, it may also include a cash flow statement, a statement of changes in equity, and a management board report on the company’s activity.
The approval resolution goes with it, and the resolution on what to do with the profit or loss — which is a decision in its own right and not a formality. A company carrying a loss that has eaten into its share capital has a further obligation: the board must convene the shareholders to decide whether the company continues. That is easy to miss precisely in the year it matters most.
If you are late
Late filing is not fatal but it is not free. The registry court can compel the filing and impose penalties, and persistent failure has more serious consequences for the company and for the board personally. A late filing is also public — the KRS repository shows what was filed and when, and anyone assessing your company can see a gap.
If you are already late, file rather than waiting for a complete set. A late filing is a smaller problem than an absent one.
The one-page version
- 31 March — accounts prepared and signed by the board
- 30 June — shareholders approve, by resolution
- +15 days from approval — filed with the KRS repository
- CIT-8 — per the tax year
Two of those four are yours, not your accountant’s: scheduling the approval, and having somebody able to sign. Everything else follows from clean monthly books.
Our deadline calendar generates the next twelve months of your own filing dates, already moved off weekends and Polish public holidays, and downloadable into your calendar.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the deadline for filing annual accounts in Poland?
- A chain of four steps, not one date. Financial statements must be prepared within three months of the balance-sheet date — 31 March for a calendar-year company — approved by the shareholders within six months, so by 30 June, and filed with the KRS repository within fifteen days of that approval. CIT-8 is filed separately, following the tax year.
- Is the fifteen-day filing deadline counted from 30 June?
- No, from the date of approval. If the shareholders approve on 12 May, the filing is due fifteen days later in May, not in July. This catches companies that treat 30 June as the operative date rather than as the latest permissible approval.
- Who approves the financial statements of a Polish company?
- The shareholders, by resolution, and it is not something the accountant can do on the company's behalf. For a foreign parent this is the step most often missed, because approving subsidiary accounts is an administrative formality at home and a dated, documented act in Poland. Scheduling a May or June meeting in advance removes the problem.
- What happens if we file Polish annual accounts late?
- The registry court can compel the filing and impose penalties, and persistent failure carries more serious consequences for the company and for board members personally. The filing record is also public, so a gap is visible to anyone assessing the company. If you are already late, file what you have rather than waiting for a complete set.
- What documents are filed with the KRS repository?
- The balance sheet, the profit and loss account, and the additional information and explanations, plus — depending on the company — a cash flow statement, a statement of changes in equity and a management board activity report. The approval resolution and the resolution on the profit or loss distribution are filed with them.