Poland's bottle deposit scheme draws tax scrutiny and vandalism concerns

Poland's deposit (kaucja) system, in place since October 2025, allows consumers to reclaim a refundable charge on bottles and cans. The Finance Ministry confirmed that individuals who simply return containers they purchased incur no personal‑income tax, as the refund is a return of their own money. However, persons who collect containers they did not buy generate taxable income and must declare it in their PIT‑36 return, paying tax according to the regular scale. If the activity is regular and exceeds the quarterly threshold of 10 813.50 PLN (225 % of the minimum wage), the collector must register a business, join CEIDG, and remit social‑security contributions.

The scheme has also generated new forms of opportunistic activity. A TikTok creator recorded collecting bottles and cans at the Mystic Festival in Gdańsk, earning over 600 PLN in a single day by charging a 15 zł deposit on discarded containers. At the same time, operators are expanding deposit‑machine networks to residential areas, parks and event sites to improve accessibility. Yet a growing subculture of “deposit vandals” is deliberately crushing or defacing bottles to block machines, prompting concerns about sabotage of the recycling infrastructure.