Upcoming deadline for filing the subsequent WH-OSC (WH-OSP) statement

31 January 2026 is the deadline for filing the subsequent WH-OSC statement regarding payments made to foreign legal entities, by withholding agents whose tax year coincides with the calendar year. The equivalent statement, in the case of payments made to foreign individuals, is WH-OSP.

Who is subject to this obligation

This obligation applies to withholding agents who:

• in 2025 made payments to a related foreign entity in respect of interest, dividends, know-how, royalties and other items exceeding PLN 2 million, and
• filed an initial WH-OSC (WH-OSP) statement in order to apply a preference consisting in not being required to withhold tax at source at the basic rate on the surplus above that amount, and
• made so-called further payments.

In such a situation, the withholding agent was entitled not to withhold withholding tax or to apply a reduced rate also to those further payments made in subsequent months of 2025 to the given related entity. In such case, however, the withholding agent is obliged—by the end of the first month following the end of the tax year—to file a subsequent WH-OSC (WH-OSP) statement, in which it will indicate the amount of the further payments and declare that it is entitled to apply the exemption / reduced rate in respect of those payments.

Method of filing the statement

The above statements are filed electronically. The forms are available on the following websites:

• WH-OSC
• WH-OSP

Head of the tax office to which the statement should be addressed

For WH-OSC, the competent authority is the Head of the Lublin Tax Office in Lublin (Naczelnik Lubelskiego Urzędu Skarbowego w Lublinie).

For WH-OSP, a dedicated head of a tax office has been designated in each voivodeship.

Consequences of failing to file the subsequent statement

The deadline for filing the subsequent statement is absolute and cannot be extended. If it is missed, the withholding agent is required to remit withholding tax on further payments that were not included in the initial statement, at the standard rate—without the possibility of applying exemptions or reduced rates—together with interest.

In our practice, we have encountered situations several times where withholding agents missed this deadline. As a result, we supported withholding agents and taxpayers in handling the procedure for applying for a refund of the paid withholding tax under the pay & refund mechanism. Although providing support is valuable to us each time, our priority remains to protect you from the need to use this procedure—especially as the tax recovery process under it may take up to six months.

Should you have any doubts regarding filing a subsequent WH-OSC (WH-OSP) statement, please feel free to contact us.

It is also possible that only from this article you learned about the option of applying an exemption / reduced rate for payments exceeding PLN 2 million and would like to take advantage of this option in the current year. We also offer support in this area, to determine the safety and correctness of applying such a solution.