Do I have to pay tax on a student laptop? Parents wring their hands. We have the answer

In recent days, a storm has broken out over the “Laptop for a student” program. Experts emphasize that the applicable regulations indicate that if support for students and teachers related to laptops took place before the end of 2023, parents and educators will have to include the donation in their PIT settlement and pay tax. The settlement deadline is April 30 this year.

Students’ parents are wringing their hands because there is still no regulation on this matter promised by the Ministry of Finance. These are regulations that would exempt them from the obligation to pay tax. Some of them have already settled their accounts with the tax office and do not hide the fact that they are “very nervous”. And time is running out.

Mom of a fourth-grader: This is not a comfortable situation

I have already filed my PIT without paying the tax, despite the confusion. However, there are less than two weeks left and there is no regulation. I talked to the mothers of my son’s classmates. Nobody paid, they only heard about the case from me. We wait, joking that we will only have to express ‘active repentance’, but this is not a comfortable situation. It may turn out that ‘free’ laptops are not free at all, and have certainly cost us some nerves.

– says Next.gazeta.pl Mrs. Marta, mother of a fourth-grader. Let us remind you that there is a loophole in the law regarding the “Laptop for students” program. The regulations allow for the transfer of equipment with exemption from donation tax, but this is omitted in the case of income tax.

What about the laptop tax? The Ministry of Finance reassures

We asked the Ministry of Finance when the regulation regarding laptops for students will come into force. We also asked whether people who received the devices should include this fact in their PIT return.

The draft regulation received a positive opinion from the Joint Commission of Government and Local Government and was released by the RCL from the obligation to be considered by the Legal Committee.

– the Ministry of Finance informed us. The Ministry also told us that the regulation is already at the stage of “signature by the Minister of Finance and then publication in the Journal of Laws”

However, the most important information for parents and educators is this: People who received laptops “do not have to report their value in their tax return for 2023 and tax them together with other income,” the ministry reassures.

Laptops for students have been disabled due to lack of funds in the budget

The laptops were given to students at the beginning of the school year, and the money to finance it, i.e. PLN 1.2 billion, was to come from the National Reconstruction Plan. However, as we wrote in January, the European Commission had doubts regarding the financing of the project, the main objective of which was, among others, developing digital competences among students and teachers.

However, the head of the Ministry of Digital Affairs, Krzysztof Gawkowski, said at the beginning of February this year that the government would like to continue this program, but there are no funds in the budget. Therefore, for now, it is not continued.