With the new year 2021, entrepreneurs will gain a new opportunity to obtain a return on investment in automation and robotization. The tax relief project prepared by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Development is an opportunity to improve the efficiency and quality of production of Polish enterprises.

Many companies are struggling with a shortage of labor and the resulting problems with order fulfillment. At the same time, Poland is at the bottom of European countries in terms of the level of robotization and automation, with a rate of 42 robots per 10,000 employees. This is a gap in the pursuit of world leaders such as Singapore (918 robots) or South Korea (855 robots). There is also a considerable distance between us and our neighbors, according to the Polish Economic Institute< /a>, in Germany the robotization rate is 346, and in Slovakia there are 169 robots per 10,000 employees.

Investment in new technologieswill contribute tomodernization of industrial production,increasing efficiency, improving quality and reducing costs. The implementation of robots will relieve employees, increasing the comfort and safety of their work, and will also allow companies to operate faster and more flexibly in a changing and uncertain reality. As a result, it willincrease the competitiveness of Polish enterprisesin the international arena and facilitate export expansion.

 

As Deputy Minister of Finance Jan Sarnowski points out "The relief will cover primarilypurchases of new industrial robotsand the software needed for their operation. This is a key step in building a modern, complete ecosystem of tax reliefs in Poland - acting synergistically at every stage of the production process. This will include research and development relief supporting conceptual work on a new product, and prototype relief supporting the transfer of the idea into practice and production. Another one is relief for investing in a robotic application, containing arobot and all the elements thanks to which it can work and, what is equally important, cooperate with people and other machines and IP-Box” .

Entrepreneurs will be able to additionally deduct 50% of the costs incurred for investing in robotization, regardless of the size and type of industry.

Who will be able to benefit from the robotization relief?

The regulations being prepared assume that the relief will be available to large companies as well as enterprises from the small and medium-sized sector. Both PIT and CIT payers will be able to deduct the costs of robotization during the tax year, and when submitting the annual tax return they will make an additional deduction (similarly to the relief for research and development).

What costs will be eligible for robotization relief?

A deduction from the tax base of 50% of eligible costs related to investments in robotization is to apply to:

• purchase or leasing ofnew robots and cobots,
• purchasing software,
• purchase of equipment (e.g. tracks, turntables, controllers, motion sensors, end effectors),
• purchase of occupational health and safety (OSH) equipment,
• training for employees who will operate the new equipment.