IP Box also for freelancers?
The Director of the National Treasury Information in the recently issued individual interpretations positively refers to the questions of taxpayers who are sole proprietors about the possibility of applying the IP Box relief by them. Let us remind you that, IP BOX relief gives you the option of applying a 5% rate on your income from qualified intellectual property. At the same time, income is considered to be the benefit derived from licenses or their sale. To take advantage of this relief, the taxpayer should create qualified intellectual property while conducting his business as part of his research and development (R&D) work, and then license it or sell it. This relief is particularly beneficial for software developers, because in practice, if such entity creates a computer program and then sells it, it may tax such a sale at a rate of 5%. With this, it must keep special records in this area, which is difficult for taxpayers, and must be certain that the „product” it sells is a new (i.e. developed as part of a creative process) computer program / software (and not part of it).
The use of IP Box for IT professionals conducting business, e.g. subcontractors, can be an attractive form of taxation. It requires, however, prior detailed analysis regarding the qualifications of the software produced, attribution of relevant costs to this activity and the development and use of special records.