WDT at 0%: you need proof the goods left Poland

You can tax an intra-Community supply of goods (WDT, wewnątrzwspólnotowa dostawa towarów) at 0% if the buyer gave you a valid EU VAT number, you are registered as an EU VAT taxpayer (podatnik VAT UE), and before the deadline for filing JPK (the monthly VAT file) for the period you hold evidence that the goods left Poland and reached the buyer in another EU country. You also have to report the supply with correct details in the VAT-UE recapitulative statement. Otherwise you lose the 0% rate.

Legal position as of 26 October 2026. All the conditions come from art. 42 ust. 1 and 1a of the VAT Act. Ania, who runs a JDG (jednoosobowa działalność gospodarcza, a Polish sole trader business) selling printed posters, sent a parcel to a shop in Berlin. We use her case to show which documents she needs.

VAT Act, art. 42 ust. 1 and 1a

Which four conditions do you have to meet?

1. The buyer has a proper, valid EU VAT number issued by their country, with a two-letter country code (e.g. DE), and the buyer gave you that number (art. 42 ust. 1 pkt 1).
2. Your records hold evidence of dispatch and delivery before the deadline for the return covering the period in which you report the supply (art. 42 ust. 1 pkt 2).
3. You are registered as an EU VAT taxpayer when you file the return that includes the supply (art. 42 ust. 1 pkt 3). You notify the tax office in your registration form before your first WDT (art. 97 ust. 1).
4. You file the VAT-UE recapitulative statement with correct details, including the buyer's number. The deadline is the 25th day of the month after the month in which the tax point arose (art. 100 ust. 3). If you don't file it or the details are wrong, the 0% rate doesn't apply, unless you properly explain the failure in writing to the head of the tax office (art. 42 ust. 1a).

The buyer's EU VAT number on its own isn't enough. You have to meet each of the four conditions separately.

How do you check the buyer's number in VIES?

You check the number in the European Commission's VIES system: choose the country, enter the number and get an answer on whether it is active. If you also enter your own EU VAT number in the form, the result includes a consultation number. Save the result (print to PDF or a screenshot) together with the delivery documents.

The act doesn't name VIES; it speaks of a "proper and valid" number. Saving the result is therefore not a statutory obligation, but it gives you proof that you checked the number on the day of the transaction.

VIES: EU VAT number validation

Which documents count as proof of dispatch under the act?

The list depends on who transports the goods.

A carrier or courier transports the goods. You need documents that together confirm delivery of the goods to the buyer in another EU country (art. 42 ust. 3):

• transport documents from the carrier (forwarder) that clearly show the goods reached their destination,
• a specification of the individual items in the consignment.

You or the buyer transport the goods in your own vehicle. Besides the consignment specification, you need a document containing at least (art. 42 ust. 4):

• the names and addresses of you and the buyer,
• the delivery address, if different from the buyer's address,
• the type and quantity of goods,
• confirmation that the buyer received the goods in the EU country,
• the type and registration number of the vehicle (for air transport, the flight number).

The documents aren't conclusive. When those documents don't confirm delivery beyond doubt, the act allows other evidence (art. 42 ust. 11), in particular:

• business correspondence with the buyer, including their order,
• insurance or freight cost documents,
• a document confirming payment for the goods,
• proof that the buyer received the goods in another EU country.

In practice Ania keeps one folder: the shop's order from email, the invoice, a list of the posters sent, the courier's proof of delivery and the payment confirmation.

What does the EU presumption in art. 45a give you?

Since 1 January 2020, art. 45a of Council Implementing Regulation 282/2011 has applied directly across the EU. It presumes the goods went to another EU country if you hold two non-contradictory items of evidence issued by two different parties that are independent of each other, of you and of the buyer.

The evidence falls into two groups:

Two items from group A, or one from A and one from B, are enough. When you (or someone on your behalf) arrange the transport, that suffices. When the buyer arranges the transport, you also need their written statement giving the date of issue, the buyer's name and address, the quantity and type of goods, the date and place of arrival, and the details of the person who accepted the goods. The buyer has to provide it by the 10th day of the month after the month of supply.

The tax office can rebut this presumption (art. 45a ust. 2). The Polish act still has its own list of evidence in art. 42 ust. 3–11, so you can also prove dispatch with those documents.

Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/1912, art. 45a

When does the tax point arise for a WDT?

When the invoice is issued, but no later than the 15th day of the month following the month of supply (art. 20 ust. 1). You issue the invoice within the same deadline (art. 106i ust. 1). An advance payment for a WDT doesn't have to be documented with an invoice (art. 106b ust. 1 pkt 4 lit. a).

Ania sent the posters on 10 March 2026 and issued the invoice on 20 March. The tax point arose on 20 March, so she reports the supply in the JPK for March, which she files by 25 April.

What if the evidence hasn't arrived before the JPK deadline?

You don't report the supply in the records for the period in which the tax point arose. What happens next depends on whether you settle monthly or quarterly (art. 42 ust. 12):

• monthly settlement: if by the JPK deadline for the period "after the next one" you still have no evidence, you report the supply in that period at the rate that applies to selling those goods domestically (e.g. 23%);
• quarterly settlement: the same, but already in the next quarter.

For Ania, March is the period of supply, April the next period and May the one "after the next". If she has no proof of delivery by 25 April, she doesn't report the supply in the JPK for March. If she still has none by 25 June (the deadline for the May JPK), she reports the sale in the JPK for May at the domestic rate.

When the evidence arrives later, you go back to 0%. You report the WDT at 0% in the period in which the tax point arose (March, for Ania) and correct both the return and the recapitulative statement (art. 42 ust. 12a).

Do you issue the WDT invoice in KSeF?

Yes. An invoice for an EU business goes to KSeF (Krajowy System e-Faktur, Poland's National e-Invoicing System) like any other. The general rules for identifying a foreign buyer are in our post on invoices for foreign businesses. The buyer has no seat in Poland, so you deliver the invoice in the agreed way (art. 106gb ust. 4), e.g. as a PDF with a QR code. Until the end of 2026 you can still issue an invoice outside KSeF if sales documented by such invoices in a given month don't exceed PLN 10,000 gross.

On a WDT invoice your number carries the PL prefix and the buyer's number the two-letter code of their country (art. 106e ust. 1 pkt 24 of the VAT Act).

KSeF 2.0 Handbook, part II, ch. 2.11

If your software returned an error on a WDT invoice, you can check the XML file in the ksefuj.to validator. The file never leaves your browser.