Lost an invoice or a receipt in Poland? How to get a duplicate

If you lose an invoice from a Polish supplier, ask the seller for a duplicate (duplikat faktury). The VAT Act says the seller issues it again when you ask, and the copy is as good as the original. If the invoice came through KSeF, Poland’s national e-invoicing system, you do not even need to ask: download it again yourself.

First, check whether it is really lost

Most “lost” invoices still exist somewhere. Before you write to anyone, look in the places where a copy is kept for you.

Since 1 February 2026 every business must be able to receive invoices in KSeF. Since 1 April 2026 almost every Polish business must also issue its invoices there, and KSeF stores them for 10 years.

So an invoice a Polish business issued to your NIP (your tax identification number) after 1 April 2026 is in KSeF, unless the seller used one of the exceptions below. You can download it as XML or PDF at any time. KSeF explained shows how to log in.

Watch out: until 31 December 2026, a seller whose invoices to businesses total no more than 10,000 PLN (VAT included) in a month may still send paper or PDF invoices. Invoices printed from a cash register stay outside KSeF too. You will not find either kind in KSeF.

How to get a duplicate from a Polish supplier

Write to the seller (e-mail is fine, and it leaves a trace) with the invoice number, the date, the amount and your NIP, and ask for the invoice to be issued again. What happens next depends on the kind of invoice. The rules are in article 106l of the VAT Act (ust. in the table means paragraph).

A re-issued invoice carries its own issue date and may include the word “DUPLIKAT”. It has the same number, amounts and parties as the original.

If you are an active VAT payer, the VAT Act lets you deduct input VAT only from an invoice you have received. You can deduct it no earlier than the settlement period (month or quarter) in which you received it (art. 86 ust. 10b). Get the duplicate before your accountant closes the month, and let them decide which month it belongs to.

For foreigners: invoices from Google, Meta, AWS, Adobe and other foreign suppliers are not in KSeF, and the quickest way back is their own billing page. Log in to your account with them and download the invoice again, or ask their support. Invoices from abroad and KSeF explains why they stay outside.

Can a bank statement or your own note replace it?

Usually not, and the rules differ between a sole trader and a company.

Sole trader (JDG) on the tax scale or flat tax

You keep a KPiR (podatkowa księga przychodów i rozchodów, the tax book of revenue and expenses). The KPiR regulation lists what can back an entry in it:

• invoices, bills (rachunki) and customs documents
• correction notes
• proof of postal and bank payments and charges
• other documents that name the parties, the date, what was bought and its value
• internal notes (dowody wewnętrzne), but only in listed cases

Those cases include the business share of rent, electricity, phone, water, gas and heating, business-trip allowances, court and notary fees, and parking tickets. A lost invoice is not on the list.

A bank statement is valid proof of bank charges. For a purchase, it proves that you paid and to whom. But it usually does not say what you bought, and the regulation asks every such document to show that.

Would a tax office accept a statement plus other evidence, such as an order e-mail, a contract or the delivered item? No official guidance we found settles it. In a tax proceeding, the Tax Ordinance lets the office accept as evidence “anything that may help clarify the case” (art. 180), but that is not a guarantee. Treat the statement as backup while you chase the duplicate, not as a replacement.

Ryczałt

On ryczałt (the lump-sum tax on revenue), your costs do not lower your tax. A lost cost invoice matters mainly for VAT, if you are a VAT payer. You should still keep purchase documents.

Sp. z o.o. (limited company)

The Accounting Act lets the head of the company allow a replacement document (dowód zastępczy), written by the person who made the purchase, when there is a justified reason the seller’s document cannot be obtained (art. 20 ust. 4). It may not be used for purchases taxed with VAT, which covers most business purchases from Polish suppliers. For those, you need the duplicate.

Receipts: fuel, equipment and small purchases

Receipts work differently, and a lost one is harder to replace. Receipt or invoice? covers the rules in full; here is what matters when one goes missing.

From 1 January 2027, a receipt with your NIP stops being an invoice: a shop that sells to your business will issue a KSeF invoice instead, and that one you can always download again.

Tip: for anything bigger than a coffee, ask for an invoice to your NIP at the till, before the receipt is printed. An invoice can be re-issued; a plain receipt cannot.

If the supplier will not help

• Ask once more in writing, and mention article 106l of the VAT Act, which says the seller re-issues a lost or destroyed invoice when the buyer asks.
• Look for other copies: KSeF, the order e-mail, the supplier’s portal, your accountant’s files.
• If the business has closed or does not answer, tell your accountant before the month is closed. Do not deduct VAT without an invoice.
• Never make your own “copy” that looks like the seller’s invoice. Only the seller can issue one.
• When you are unsure how to book the cost, ask the tax office’s KIS helpline (Krajowa Informacja Skarbowa): 801 055 055 from a landline, 22 330 03 30 from a mobile or +48 22 330 03 30 from abroad, Monday to Friday, 8:00 to 18:00.

When your client loses your invoice

The same article works the other way round. If a Polish client asks for a copy of a paper or PDF invoice you issued, you issue it again with a new issue date, and you may mark it “DUPLIKAT”. If you issued it in KSeF, the client downloads it from KSeF. A foreign client or a private person cannot log in to KSeF, so you send the invoice again with its QR code.

How to stop it happening again

1. File every document the day it arrives, in one folder per month, under a name you can read later. How to organise invoices and receipts gives a system that takes about ten minutes a week.
2. Download your KSeF invoices each month, so that the month’s folder is complete in one place for you and your accountant.
3. Match every business payment on your bank statement to a document at the end of the month. A payment with no document is a lost invoice you can still recover while the seller remembers you. Komplet, our free Mac app, reads PDF bank statements from any bank, pairs each payment with its invoice and shows what is missing.
4. Give your NIP at the till, every time.
5. Keep everything long enough. Documents for 2026 stay until 31 December 2032, as How long to keep documents explains.