Leasing a van: 100% VAT and no 100 000 zł cap

A vehicle meeting the conditions for a goods vehicle falls outside the caps that hit passenger cars hard from 2026. We explain what has to be satisfied, how the technical inspection works, and where the traps are.

From 2026 the passenger car value caps have become a real problem for businesses — on a combustion car you will only account for part of the value above 100 000 zł. There is, however, a category of vehicles the mechanism does not touch at all: those meeting the statutory conditions for goods vehicles.

Two advantages that change the arithmetic

A vehicle classified as a goods vehicle delivers two advantages at once:

• Full VAT deduction with no mileage log. No VAT-26 notification, no log, no risk of the deduction being challenged because of a single private journey.
• No value cap in income tax. The whole capital instalment is a cost, whether the vehicle costs 120 000 or 300 000 zł.

On a van at 200 000 zł net, the difference against a passenger car of the same value runs to tens of thousands of złoty across the agreement.

Which vehicles qualify

The statute lists several categories. In practice three are most common:

• vehicles with a single row of seats separated from the load area by a permanent partition — the classic panel van,
• vehicles with more than one row of seats where the load area exceeds half the length of the vehicle,
• vehicles with an open load area, that is pick-ups with a bed.

A separate category comprises vehicles with a gross weight above 3,5 tonnes, treated as goods vehicles by definition, with no additional construction conditions.

The technical inspection and the annotation

The construction alone is not enough — confirmation is required. For the first two categories an additional technical inspection at a regional vehicle testing station is needed, ending in the appropriate certificate, together with the corresponding annotation in the registration document.

This is a formality, but a critical one. A missing annotation at an inspection means the authority will treat the vehicle as a passenger car — with 50% VAT deduction and the value cap, retrospectively.

The inspection is carried out after registration, and the annotation has to reach the registration document. With a lease it is worth agreeing with the lessor who completes that formality and when, because the lessor owns the vehicle while the tax interest is yours.

The conversion trap

The once-popular practice of fitting a mesh grille in a passenger car stopped working long ago. Classification depends on the construction of the vehicle confirmed by inspection, not on an ad hoc modification. Removing the partition or restoring the second row of seats during the agreement means losing the status and having to correct your accounts.

It works the other way too: not every vehicle that looks like a van meets the conditions. Combi vans with a full second row of seats and a short load area are often classified as passenger cars.

What this means in practice

If the nature of the business genuinely justifies a goods vehicle — moving stock, equipment, an installation crew — van leasing is today one of the few areas where the Polish tax system does not restrict the entrepreneur. It is worth working out whether a panel van would meet the company's needs instead of an SUV; the tax difference is often larger than the difference in price.