Obligation to issue PIT-11 - when the workplace does not exist or has changed its owner

On March 1, 2021, the deadline for providing employees, contractors or persons who performed work under a specific task contract with information on revenues from other sources as well as income and received income tax advances for 2020 (PIT-11) . What to do if the deadline has already passed and the employee still has not received such a document? What if the workplace no longer exists? Who is the obligation to issue PIT-11? You will find out after reading our article!

Obligation to issue PIT-11 - obligations of the employer-payer of income tax towards the tax office

Any employer hiring people on the basis of:

• job contract,
• contract of mandate,
• specific work contracts

is an income tax payer obliged to calculate, collect and pay the payroll tax (advance payment for PIT-4R) to the tax office by the 20th day of the following month in which the funds were disbursed. This is stated in Art. 31 of the Personal Income Tax Act, in which we read that workplaces "are obliged as payers to calculate and collect income tax advances during the year from persons who receive income from these establishments from a service relationship, employment relationship, outgoing work or cooperative employment relationship, cash benefits from social insurance paid by work establishments, and in labor cooperatives - payments for participation in the balance surplus ”.

The payer is also obliged to submit to the tax office once a year:

• collective declaration on advance payments for payroll tax (PIT 4-R) collected in the given months of the calendar year - by the end of January of the following year;
• information on income from other sources as well as on income and advances collected (PIT-11) - by the end of January of the following year;
• flat-rate income tax declaration (PIT-8AR) - by the end of January of the following year in the case of employment under a mandate contract or for a specific task, where the income is less than PLN 200.

An employee or a person employed under a civil law contract, whose income exceeds PLN 200, is required by the employer to provide information on income from other sources as well as income and advances collected - PIT-11 by the end of February each year.

What can an employee do in the absence of PIT-11?

Most employers reliably fulfill their obligations as an income tax payer and submit the required documents in a timely manner. However, there are employers who neglect these obligations. What should an employee do when the statutory deadline has expired and PIT-11 has not been received yet?

First of all, he has to contact the employer and ask for it to be sent - because it is possible that the employer simply sent it to another address or simply forgot about the shipping date. It is best to send the request for PIT-11 by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt, to have proof that it was the employer who did not fulfill his obligations on time. If there is still no reaction on his part, you can apply to the tax office for a PIT-11 issued by the employer. Importantly, the lack of PIT-11 does not exempt the employee from settling the income earned in any case. Failure to receive PIT-11 does not release the employee from submitting the annual tax return, the deadline of which is April 30.

However, if it turns out that the employer has not also submitted PIT-11 to the tax office, the employee will have to settle accounts on the basis of estimated data. It is not a big problem if he receives from his employer every month a statement of the remuneration paid with the calculated ZUS contributions, tax deductible costs and due income tax. The employee has to add up all the components and show them in the annual tax return. The situation becomes more complicated if the employee did not receive such statements - then he must use the payments to the account or possibly the amount of remuneration specified in the employment contract. However, it will always be an estimate. Therefore, the employee should inform the tax office about the situation, preferably attaching a confirmation of sending a registered letter to the employer regarding the failure to receive PIT-11.

Does every employee have to submit an annual tax return? When is it prepared by the tax office?

We would like to remind you that currently the annual tax return must be submitted only by those who make tax deductions (who are entitled to a tax refund), i.e. for example using a tax credit for children or an internet tax credit. The other employees do not have to do anything in connection with the annual tax return. If they do not submit it by April 30, the tax office will settle them on the basis of the PIT-11 received from the employer.

Also, people employed under civil law contracts, whose income was less than PLN 200, do not have to submit a tax return. They are submitted only by the client (PIT 8-AR) by the end of January of the following year. The annual declaration by April 30 must be submitted only by employees who make tax deductions (who are entitled to a tax refund). For all others, the tax return is completed by the tax office - on the basis of PIT-11 sent to the Tax Office by the employer.

Example 1.

Mr. Mariusz worked in a vulcanization plant. Unfortunately, the employer with whom he has no contact at the moment did not provide Mr. Mariusz with PIT-11, which means that he cannot submit a tax return and take advantage of the child relief. Mr. Mariusz went to the plant, but it turned out that there was already a new owner. Should the new owner provide Mr. Mariusz with PIT-11 in a situation where he has bought a plant in which the employee was previously employed?

The new owner who bought the workplace should pass PIT-11 to Mr. Mariusz, because when he buys a company with employees, he takes over it and becomes the former employer. In a situation where the workplace was taken over by another owner, the acquiring party becomes, by operation of law, a party to the relations with the employees of the former employer. Start a free 30-day trial period with no strings attached!

No PIT-11 when the workplace changed ownership

The provisions of Art. 23 of the Labor Code, which says that:

"In the event of the transfer of the workplace or its part to another employer, he or she becomes, by operation of law, a party to the existing employment relationships".

This means that the current employer and the new employer are jointly and severally liable for the company's obligations arising before the change of owner. Such a position was taken, among others, by the Director of the Tax Chamber in Katowice in the individual interpretation (IBPBII / 1 / 415-976 / 09 / AŻ), in which he states that:

"The obligations of the payer imposed by the provisions of the Act on personal income tax, including the obligation to prepare relevant information and the obligation for payers to collect income tax advances, do not cease, but are transferred to the new payer who, taking over all the obligations, also takes over the obligation to collect tax advances income from natural persons and any other related obligations ". The obligation to make the annual calculation of personal income tax and to prepare PIT-11 information in connection with the takeover of employees is transferred to the new employer.

Obligation to issue PIT-11 - summary

To sum up, the lack of PIT-11 from the employer can be a real problem. The situation is extremely complicated if the workplace has definitively ceased to exist and there is no contact with the former employer. Then the employee has to estimate his own income in the annual tax return. However, if the workplace changes the owner, it becomes responsible for fulfilling the obligation to transfer PIT-11 to the employee.