How to read a Polish invoice, field by field (with the English for each word)

A Polish invoice (faktura) always follows the same order: who sells, who buys, what was sold at what net price, the VAT on it and the total to pay. Once you know about thirty Polish words, you can read any of them. Below, every field from top to bottom, with the English and what to check, then the four checks to make before you pay.

The contents are set by the VAT Act (art. 106e), so a Polish invoice holds the same fields whatever software produced it. Since 2026 most Polish business invoices are issued in KSeF, the national e-invoicing system, as an XML file. The PDF you receive is a wizualizacja, a readable copy of that file, and reads the same way.

The top: number, dates and the two parties

The lines: what was sold

The VAT rate column, decoded

The rate column holds either a percentage or a short marker. These are the values used in the KSeF invoice format, FA(3):

At the bottom, a summary table repeats the net amount, the VAT and the gross amount per rate, then the totals.

The bottom: totals and payment

Words that change how you pay or book it

• Mechanizm podzielonej płatności (MPP, split payment): printed on an invoice above 15,000 PLN gross for goods or services on the VAT Act’s list (annex 15: computers, phones, fuel, steel, construction services, car parts and more). You must pay it by split payment, a special PLN transfer from your business account that sends the VAT part to the seller’s VAT account. Your bank’s transfer form has an option for it.
• Odwrotne obciążenie (reverse charge): no VAT on the invoice, because the buyer accounts for it.
• Metoda kasowa (cash accounting): the seller owes the VAT only when paid. If you are an active VAT payer, you may deduct that VAT only once you have paid the invoice.
• Samofakturowanie (self-billing): the buyer issued the invoice on the seller’s behalf.
• Faktura korygująca or Korekta (corrective invoice): changes an earlier invoice. It names the invoice it corrects (with its KSeF number when there is one) and shows the difference. Book it in addition to the original, never instead of it.
• Duplikat (duplicate): a paper invoice issued again because the original was lost. A KSeF invoice needs no duplicate: download it again from KSeF. More in lost invoices.

Documents that look like invoices but are not

• Proforma (faktura pro forma): an offer or request for advance payment. It is not an invoice and never goes through KSeF. You may pay it, but the real invoice must follow, and only that one is a cost.
• Paragon fiskalny (till receipt): not an invoice. With your NIP printed on it, it counts as a simplified invoice up to 450 PLN gross, but only until 31 December 2026. See receipt or invoice.
• Rachunek: the old word for a bill. A VAT-exempt seller still issues a faktura marked zw.

The KSeF number and the QR code

A PDF of a KSeF invoice carries a QR code with the numer KSeF printed underneath. The number is built as NIP-YYYYMMDD-XXXXXXXXXXXX-XX: the seller’s NIP, the date the invoice was sent to KSeF, a technical part and a checksum. Scanning the code shows the invoice’s basic details and whether it really is in KSeF. That is a quick way to check a PDF someone emailed you.

An invoice handed over before it reached KSeF (offline mode) carries two codes, labelled OFFLINE and CERTYFIKAT, and gets its KSeF number later. A Polish invoice with no KSeF number at all is still possible in 2026: a small seller invoicing no more than 10,000 PLN gross a month may stay outside KSeF until 31 December 2026.

For foreigners: the PDF may be in English or bilingual, as long as it matches the XML in KSeF. The legal markers (zw, np, odwrotne obciążenie, mechanizm podzielonej płatności) usually stay in Polish.

Four checks before you pay

1. Your details. Your name and NIP must be right. Since 1 February 2026 a business buyer must give its NIP, and an invoice without it does not reach your KSeF account. If the NIP is wrong, ask the seller to correct the invoice to zero and issue a new one to the right buyer.
2. The sums. Net × rate = VAT, net + VAT = gross, and the summary matches the lines. KSeF checks the file format, not the arithmetic.
3. The bank account. For a business payment above 15,000 PLN, pay by transfer to an account listed on the biała lista (VAT white list). Search it on podatki.gov.pl by NIP or account number on the day you pay. If the account is not listed, file ZAW-NR with the seller’s tax office within 7 days, or pay by split payment. Otherwise you are jointly liable for the seller’s VAT, and for invoices issued until 31 December 2026 you also lose the cost for income tax. From 1 January 2027 that cost rule only applies when you pay without a bank account, for example in cash.
4. Split payment. If the invoice says mechanizm podzielonej płatności, choose the split-payment transfer. For payments from 1 January 2027 between active VAT payers, the transfer title must also give the KSeF number.

Invoices from foreign suppliers

Invoices from Google, Adobe, AWS or an EU freelancer are not Polish invoices: they arrive by email, never through KSeF, often in English and without Polish VAT. What to do with them is in what KSeF won’t collect. If you are the one invoicing a client abroad, see invoicing a client abroad.

Komplet, our free Mac app, reads Polish and English invoices on your Mac, picks out the seller, NIP, number, date, amount and currency, and files each one into the right month.

What to do next

1. Save your company name and NIP exactly as registered, and give them to every Polish supplier.
2. Read each new invoice top to bottom once: your NIP, the dates, the rate column, the total.
3. Above 15,000 PLN, check the account on the white list on the day you pay, and use split payment when the invoice says so.
4. Keep proformas apart from invoices, and chase the real invoice after you pay one.
5. Make sure your accountant sees your invoices in KSeF: see cost invoices in KSeF.