Lease assignment in 2026: the transfer fee, tax, and the trap of the new caps

An assignment is often the cheapest way out of a lease a company can no longer carry — and an opportunity for whoever takes it over. We explain how to set and settle the transfer fee, and why a 2023 agreement you take over still falls under the new 100 000 zł cap.

Not every lease runs to plan. A company changes what it does, the car stops being needed, or the instalment stops fitting the budget. Terminating the agreement is then the most expensive way out available. An assignment — handing the agreement to another business — can be tens of thousands of złoty cheaper, provided both sides understand exactly what they are taking on.

What a lease assignment actually is

An assignment is a change of party: the current lessee passes their rights and obligations to a new one, and the agreement itself carries on — with the same schedule, the same term and the same buy-out value. No new agreement comes into being; only who performs one side of it changes.

One thing is decisive: an assignment is not a deal between two companies that can be arranged on the side. The lessor remains the owner of the vehicle and must consent. In practice that means a credit assessment of the incoming party — exactly the one they would face when signing their own agreement — plus an annex fee under the lessor's schedule of charges. If the lessor withholds consent, the assignment simply does not happen.

The transfer fee — who pays whom, and why

The transfer fee is the amount one side pays the other for stepping into the agreement. Its size follows from no regulation — it evens out the difference between the market value of the car and the sum of the obligations left to pay.

If the car is worth more today than the remaining instalments plus the buy-out, the agreement has positive value and the incoming party pays. That is typical of agreements with a high initial payment, where the capital was repaid faster than the car lost value.

It can be the other way round. With a low own contribution and a high buy-out value, the remaining obligations can exceed the value of the vehicle. Then the outgoing party pays the incoming one so that anyone will take the agreement at all — and still comes out better than on termination, where the lessor usually settles the remaining instalments and sells the car on the lessee's account.

Before you sit down to negotiate, add up the remaining instalments plus the buy-out value and set that against the car's realistic market price. The difference between those two numbers is the only objective basis for setting the transfer fee.

Taking over an agreement from 2023? The cap will still be the new one

This is the most common and most expensive misunderstanding in assignments concluded in 2026. Because the agreement was signed when the 150 000 zł cap applied, many incoming parties assume that along with the schedule they inherit the old, more generous cap.

They do not. From 1 January 2026 the CO2-based caps — 100 000, 150 000 or 225 000 zł — apply to every operating lease, regardless of when it was concluded. The protection of acquired rights covered only vehicles entered into the fixed-asset register by 31 December 2025, and a car on an operating lease never enters that register, because the lessor remains its owner.

This is confirmed by the ruling of the Director of the National Revenue Information of 8 April 2026 (0115-KDIT3.4011.157.2026.1.DP), in which the authority stated outright that the new caps apply from 1 January 2026 despite the agreement having been concluded in July 2023. The Ministry of Finance has announced no change to that position. Taking over an agreement, then, means taking over the schedule — but not the cap that applied when it was signed.

Which value to base the proportion on

Since the cap is the new one, the question remains which value of the car to divide it by — because that proportion determines the part of the instalment you can deduct. The value from the original lease agreement, or the market value on the day of the assignment, after several years of use?

The difference can be enormous. A car with an initial value of 180 000 zł against a 100 000 zł cap gives a proportion of 55,56%. The same car valued at 110 000 zł on the day of the assignment would give 90,91%, meaning almost the whole instalment deductible.

The tax authorities have not spoken with one voice: a 2019 ruling pointed to the value on the day the agreement changed, a newer one from 2020 to the value in the original wording of the lease. The second approach — calculating the proportion from the value at which the lessor acquired the car at the start of the agreement — is safer and better established. If the difference matters to your position, it is worth applying for an individual ruling before you settle the first instalment, not after an audit.

How to settle the transfer fee

On the outgoing side it is simple: the transfer fee received is business income. An assignment is a supply of services for consideration, so it is subject to VAT at 23% and requires an invoice.

On the incoming side the transfer fee is a deductible cost recognised in one go, on the date it is incurred — it is not spread over the remaining term. VAT from the invoice is deducted on the same terms as from the instalments: 50% on mixed use, or 100% on exclusively business use.

Two things to watch. First, the previous user's VAT-26 notification does not pass to you — if you want to deduct 100% you must file your own and keep your own mileage log. Second, it remains disputed whether the transfer fee itself is subject to the proportion arising from the vehicle value cap.

Some tax commentary holds that it is not, since the transfer fee is neither a charge arising from the lease agreement nor a repayment of the vehicle's value. The authorities sometimes take a different view — a ruling of 17 July 2020 indicated that where a car exceeds the cap, the costs of concluding the assignment are also settled proportionally. On a transfer fee of 25 000 zł at a proportion of 55,56%, the difference between the two approaches is over 11 000 zł of cost, so it is worth agreeing the position with your accountant in advance.

One thing not to change during an assignment

The rules treat the assignment itself leniently. Under art. 23a point 2 of the PIT Act, where a party to the agreement changes, the basic term of the agreement is considered preserved provided its other provisions have not changed. Thanks to that the incoming party enters an agreement that still meets the conditions of a tax lease, and it does not have to be reassessed for the minimum term or the sum of charges.

The condition is literal, though: other provisions must not change. If, while you are at it, you extend the term, rebuild the instalment schedule or change the buy-out value, the protection stops applying. The agreement then has to be assessed afresh — and if it fails the conditions, it stops being a lease within the meaning of the tax rules, with consequences for the whole settlement.

Separate the assignment and any renegotiation of terms in time. Signed under one annex, they can cost the entire agreement its tax character.

When an assignment pays off

The arithmetic looks different on each side, but in both cases it comes down to a few specific numbers.

• You are handing the agreement over — set the cost of the assignment against the cost of termination; on termination the lessor usually settles the remaining instalments and sells the car on your account, which can be far more expensive than even a negative transfer fee.
• You are taking the agreement over — calculate the proportion under the new cap before you agree the transfer fee; on a more expensive car a significant part of the instalment stops being deductible, which changes the economics of the whole transaction.
• You are taking over with the buy-out in mind — check the buy-out value in the schedule; the six-year period after which you can sell the car free of income tax starts running only from your buy-out, not from the signing of the original agreement.

At Nalan Trade we handle assignments on both sides: we value the agreement against the car's real market value, help set the transfer fee, assemble the documents for the lessor's approval, and calculate how much of the instalment you take on will actually be deductible after the change of caps.

Legal position: August 2026. This article is informational and does not constitute tax advice — it is worth confirming your individual position with an accountant.