Single parents can file taxes in 2025 using preferential joint calculation with their child under updated rules and income thresholds.
How Preferential Filing Works
Single parents can file their taxes using a special method that calculates tax based on double the amount applied to the taxpayer’s income.
This preferential filing is known as joint calculation with the child.
Who Qualifies for the Single Parent Tax Credit
The tax credit for single parents is available to parents or legal guardians raising a child alone who meet specific criteria.
Crucially, merely holding a particular civil status or spousal situation is insufficient; the child must be raised solely without the other parent’s involvement. This means providing material support and emotional care independently. Living with a child’s other parent disqualifies the parent from claiming this benefit.
Conditions for Claiming the Benefit
A single parent can preferentially file their income tax for 2025 only under defined conditions. The child must be a minor, or if older, be in care of the parent, or the parent must be entitled to a child allowance for that child.
The taxpayer (the parent) must be raising the child alone, not in a registered marriage, and not in a civil partnership registered under the relevant act.
Circumstances Excluding Eligibility
Legislation also specifies circumstances that restrict the right to claim the tax credit for single parents. Preferential filing is not possible if the child’s income exceeds the twelvefold amount of the social pension, which for 2025 PIT is 22,546.92 zł.
Exclusionary conditions for the parent taxpayer also include being taxed under a flat rate or lump sum tax, or if the parent is a partner in a civil partnership registered under the relevant act.
It should be noted that claiming preferential filing for single parents does not preclude using the child allowance tax credit.
How to File the Tax Credit
To claim the tax credit for single parents, simply file the appropriate PIT form (PIT-36 or PIT-37) and declare the preferential joint filing in the relevant sections (Part B, Item 9, and Item 6). No additional forms need to be completed or submitted.
Calculating the tax amount is straightforward: divide the declared income in half, calculate the tax according to the tax scale, then multiply the result by two.
Frequently Asked Questions
Preferential joint filing can be used by parents or legal guardians raising a child alone who are, for example, single, widowed, divorced, legally separated, or if their spouse has been deprived of parental rights or is serving a prison sentence.
No, the legislature did not set income limits specifically for the single parent, only defined the taxation method. An income limit applies only to the child’s income from specified sources.
For a single parent to claim the credit, the child’s income must not exceed twelve times the social pension amount, which for 2025 PIT is 22,546.92 zł.