With KDP you publish your own books and earn a share of their sales. That is not a creator's honorarium for a cultural service, so the VAT exemption for creators does not apply, and the 23% VAT on your Amazon ads is deductible once you are an active VAT payer. Your royalties carry no Polish VAT: the service is supplied where the Amazon company paying you has its seat.
This page is for self-published authors living in Poland who advertise their books with Amazon Ads. It is based on the Polish VAT act (consolidated text, Dz.U. 2026 poz. 1263), government pages, Amazon's KDP terms and Amazon Ads help, read in October 2026. It is information, not tax advice.
Your own figures: Amazon Ads VAT calculator, Poland preselected.
What the 23% VAT costs you today
| Ads a month | VAT a month | VAT a year |
|---|---|---|
| 500 zł | 115 zł | 1,380 zł |
| 1,000 zł | 230 zł | 2,760 zł |
| 4,000 zł | 920 zł | 11,040 zł |
| 10,000 zł | 2,300 zł | 27,600 zł |
- Without VAT status, Amazon charges it: an advertiser in a VAT country who has not given a VAT number is charged VAT on the advertising fees.
- As a VAT-exempt taxpayer (sales up to 240,000 zł a year), you account for it yourself on services bought abroad, and the government portal is blunt: "Jeśli jesteś podatnikiem VAT zwolnionym, musisz zapłacić VAT należny, ale nie możesz go odliczyć."
- As an active VAT payer, you deduct it: the 23% then costs you nothing.
Why the creators' exemption does not cover KDP
The exemption has two conditions, and KDP fails the second. Article 43, paragraph 1, point 33, letter b exempts "usługi kulturalne" supplied by "indywidualnych twórców […] wynagradzane w formie honorariów". Being a creator is not enough: the tax authority (KIS) states that "niespełnienie chociażby jednej z ww. przesłanek powoduje, że zwolnienie nie będzie miało zastosowania", and in 2025 it refused the exemption to a creator who met the first condition but not the second (interpretation 0114-KDIP4-2.4012.285.2025.2.MŻA). An exemption applies only "w przypadku wykonywania czynności ściśle określonych w ustawie".
With KDP, you act as a publisher, and Amazon's contract says so. The KDP terms are made with "you" or "Publisher". Under them:
- you provide each book "at your own expense", files and metadata included;
- you set the price: "The list price you provide to us is referred to in this Agreement as your "List Price"";
- you obtain and pay for "any and all necessary clearances and licenses";
- you are paid a royalty on each copy sold, calculated on your List Price and paid "net of refunds, bad debt, and any VAT".
That is a publisher's share of the sales of a priced edition, not an honorarium paid to a creator for a cultural service.
Why the deduction follows
- Being paid from abroad keeps the deduction. Your KDP royalties come from Amazon companies such as Amazon Media EU S.à r.l. in Luxembourg. Article 86, paragraph 8, point 1 allows the deduction "jeżeli kwoty te mogłyby być odliczone, gdyby czynności te były wykonywane na terytorium kraju". Taxable publishing in Poland gives that right, so you deduct.
- No Polish VAT on your royalties. A service to a business is supplied where "podatnik będący usługobiorcą posiada siedzibę działalności gospodarczej" (article 28b, paragraph 1): in Luxembourg, not in Poland.
How to do it
- Become an active VAT payer. If you use the small-business exemption, you give it up; you can return to it only "po upływie roku, licząc od końca roku" in which you gave it up (article 113, paragraph 11).
- Register for VAT-UE and give your VAT number to Amazon Ads, then account for the VAT on your ad invoices (import of services) and deduct it in the same return.
- Confirm it first with an individual interpretation. If the tax office sees your royalties as an exempt creator's honorarium, the deduction falls: ask the Director of KIS (form ORD-IN, 40 zł, answer within 3 months) before you deduct.
Until then: waste less ad spend
As long as you do not deduct it, every złoty wasted on a click that never sells costs you 1.23 zł.
Example: you spend 4,000 zł a month, and 25% of it goes on search terms that never sold a book. That is 1,000 zł of ads plus 230 zł of VAT, 1,230 zł a month, 14,760 zł a year, for nothing.
- Count the VAT in your break-even. If a sale earns you a 16 zł royalty, you can spend at most 16 ÷ 1.23 = 13.01 zł of ads per sale before losing money, not 16 zł.
- Add negative keywords on the search terms that spend without selling: how negative keywords work.
- Move spend from automatic to manual targeting once you know which searches sell: automatic vs manual targeting.
- Know what a click costs before you raise a bid: what Sponsored Products cost.
Gloriads can do the first two for you every day, by rules you set: for example, add a negative on any search term that spent more than a set amount without a sale.
Check your own figures with the Amazon Ads VAT calculator for Poland.
Sources
- Ustawa o podatku od towarów i usług, Dz.U. 2026 poz. 1263, articles 28b, 43, 86 and 113, Sejm
- Stawki VAT (23% rate, 240,000 zł limit), podatki.gov.pl
- Import usług, biznes.gov.pl
- Najważniejsze informacje o wniosku (individual interpretations), podatki.gov.pl
- Interpretation 0114-KDIP4-2.4012.285.2025.2.MŻA of 18 June 2025, Director of KIS (text reprinted by Inforlex; official database: Eureka)
- KDP Terms and Conditions, preamble and sections 5.1, 5.3, 5.4 and 5.7, Amazon KDP
- Value Added Tax (VAT) on Electronically Supplied Services, Amazon Ads
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