Poland is not waiting for Europe. While a possible common tax on the extra profits of energy companies is still being discussed in Brussels, Warsaw has decided to proceed autonomously by introducing a windfall tax on oil companies that have benefited from the surge in prices caused by the crisis in the Middle East and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
“We have decided to tax oil companies that are making huge profits,” explained Polish Finance Minister Andrzej Domański on the sidelines of the informal Ecofin meeting in Dublin, underlining that Warsaw does not intend to “wait for the EU to find a solution”. However, the measure still has to complete the parliamentary process and obtain the signature of President Karol Nawrocki.
The Sejm, the lower house of the Polish Parliament, approved the measure on September 18 with 237 votes in favour, 202 against and one abstention. The text will now pass to the Senate. It is the second attempt by the government led by Donald Tusk: a previous version of the law, approved in July, had been sent by President Nawrocki to the Constitutional Court as a preventive measure, contesting above all the retroactive nature of the measure.
How the tax on extra profits works
The Polish tax does not simply affect all profits of oil companies or even their entire turnover. The government has built a mechanism to identify only the share of revenues attributed to margins considered exceptional.
For each company, its average margin in 2025 is taken as a reference, i.e. before the most acute phase of the energy crisis in 2026. A further 20% “tolerance” is added to that value, so as not to tax the ordinary growth of the company or the normal fluctuations of the market. Only revenues exceeding this level are considered extraordinary.
A rate of 60% applies to this excess. The Polish Ministry of Finance therefore specifies that it is not a question of taking 60% of a company’s overall profits, but only 60% of the part calculated as extra profit compared to the situation before the crisis.
The provision concerns fuel producers and companies that import or purchase fuels from abroad. The government estimates it will raise around 4 billion zlotys, just under a billion euros. The resources will be used to finance the measures with which Warsaw has tried to contain the cost of fuel for citizens and businesses, at least partially compensating for the lower revenues caused by previous cuts in VAT and excise duties.
For now, Europe does not tax extra profits
However, Poland is not the only country to ask for intervention. At the end of August, the finance ministers of Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Poland and Austria urged the European Commission to consider a common response to the increase in profits of energy companies. The topic arrived on the table at the informal Ecofin meeting in Dublin after the price of oil returned above 100 dollars a barrel, around 50% higher than the levels before the war with Iran.
For now, however, Brussels has no intention of presenting a European tax. The European Commissioner for Economy Valdis Dombrovskis recalled that taxation remains mainly a competence of individual states and that national governments are free to proceed autonomously.
And Italy?
However, the Minister of Economy Giancarlo Giorgetti used rather clear words. According to the owner of the Mef, we need to understand who is making exceptional profits thanks to the crisis and particular attention must be paid to refining. Giorgetti recalled that some companies refine fuels in Europe and then export them outside the Union at very high prices: “These are not profits from a normal market,” he said in Dublin.