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Dr hab. Dorota Wyszkowska
ORCID: 0000-0003-1084-5341

Professor in the Department of Finance at the Faculty of Economics and Finance at the University of Białystok. She specialises in public finance, with a particular focus on local government finance and the senior economy. She is the author of numerous publications on fiscal efficiency, the financial self-reliance of local government units, sustainable finance, and local taxes. She is also a member of the Polish Statistical Society and the Podlaskie Territorial Forum.

 
DOI: 10.33226/0137-5490.2026.2.1
JEL: H71, H77, H24

This article presents a preliminary assessment of the distributional effects of the 2025 reform of personal income tax (PIT) revenue allocation in Poland, introduced by the Act of 1 October 2024. Using historical data from 2018– 2022, a simulation compares PIT revenues under the new and previous systems across four municipal types: rural, urban-rural, urban, and cities with county rights (CCRs). The results show that the reform strengthens the link between PIT revenues and local economic potential. While all municipalities gain nominally, benefits are uneven. Higher gains are associated with higher average wages, greater use of tax deductions, more non-agricultural employment, and a larger number of businesses. CCRs are most sensitive to income levels; rural municipalities the least. The study contributes to fiscal decentralization literature and offers insights for policymakers designing equitable intergovernmental fiscal systems.

Keywords: local government finance; fiscal decentralization; PIT allocation models