Rehabilitation relief – when can it be used and under what conditions?

A person with a disability, or someone who supports a person with a disability, may take advantage of the so-called rehabilitation relief. This means that, for the purposes of personal income tax, they may deduct from their income expenses incurred for rehabilitation purposes and expenses related to facilitating the performance of daily life activities.

In order to claim rehabilitation relief, the person to whom the expense relates must hold either a certificate confirming one of the three degrees of disability, or a decision granting a pension for total or partial incapacity to work, a training pension, a social pension, or—if under the age of 16—a disability certificate.

A person supporting someone with a disability is understood to be someone who provides for the following disabled individuals: spouse, own or adopted children, foster children, stepchildren, parents, parents-in-law, siblings, stepfather, stepmother, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law, provided that the disabled individuals’ annual income does not exceed twelve times the amount of the social pension applicable in December of the tax year. For instance, in 2021, the disabled person’s annual income could not exceed PLN 15,010.56. This income criterion significantly limits the possibility of claiming the relief by someone other than the disabled individual. However, it is worth noting that, when calculating the income of the disabled person—to determine whether they are supported by a relative—certain amounts are excluded. These include the additional annual pension benefit for retirees and pensioners (e.g. the so-called “thirteenth payment”), child maintenance as specified in the PIT Act, the supplementary benefit for persons unable to live independently, the shielding allowance, and the care allowance.

Expenses eligible for deduction under the rehabilitation relief include, among others:

1. purchase, repair or rental of individual equipment, devices and tools necessary for rehabilitation and facilitating the performance of life activities, in accordance with needs arising from the disability, as well as the equipment required to use them as intended;
2. payment for stays at health resort treatment centres, rehabilitation facilities, nursing and care homes, and palliative care institutions;
3. payment for rehabilitation or therapeutic-rehabilitation treatments;
4. medications, in the amount representing the difference between actual monthly expenditure and PLN 100—if a specialist doctor states that the person with a disability must take these medications continuously or temporarily; therefore, it is advisable to consolidate purchases in a given month;
5. use of a passenger car owned (co-owned) by the person with a disability or the taxpayer supporting a disabled person or a disabled child under the age of 16—up to a limit of PLN 2,280 per tax year.

These expenses may be deducted from income, provided they were not financed, for example, from the State Fund for the Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons (PFRON) or the National Health Fund (NFZ). If the expenses were partially covered by such funds, the deductible amount equals the difference between the total expenditure and the amount financed or reimbursed in any form.

As a rule, these expenses must be documented. One exception is the use of a passenger car owned (or co-owned) by the disabled person or the taxpayer supporting a disabled person or a disabled child under the age of 16.

Importantly, rehabilitation expenses may be deducted from income only if they were not classified as tax-deductible costs or deducted from income taxed under the flat tax regime, or from revenue under the provisions on lump-sum income tax, and only if they have not been reimbursed to the taxpayer in any form.