IP box
Who can take advantage of the IP box?
The IP box (intellectual property box) is available to any taxpayer conducting research and development activities and receive income from qualified intellectual property rights, which include copyrights to computer programs or patents. That’s a lot of terms for the first sentence, but fortunately for you, we take care of the formalities. In practice, given the way the income subject to the IP box is calculated, this solution is most often used by IT specialists working as subcontractors for IT industry or, more broadly, the technology industry under B2B contracts (hence the IP box is sometimes called the IT box).
As practitioners, we recognise the great untapped potential of the IP box as a tool used by employers from the technology industry to make the use of employment contracts more attractive, in particular when applied together with a research and development tax relief or a 50% tax cost scheme.
How does it actually work and how much can you gain?
The IP box makes it possible to apply a reduced 5% income tax rate (CIT/PIT) in relation to qualified income from qualified intellectual property rights.
The qualified income subject to the IP box is calculated taking into account a so called nexus ratio, i.e. the ratio between the costs actually incurred for conducting own research and development activities (including research and development activities conducted by employees) and the costs of purchasing the results of R&D work or qualified intellectual property rights themselves from external providers (e.g. subcontractors). If, at this stage, you are not sure whether your activities fall into the R&D area, we will be happy to share our knowledge and experience in this field.
To sum up, the way in which the nexus ratio is calculated makes the IP box an ideal solution for IT specialists providing services under B2B contracts and entrepreneurs from the technology industry employing IT experts (or otherwise investing significant funds) as part of their own research and development activities.
What do you have to do to take advantage of the IP box?
In general, the IP box may be applied provided that:
- a given individual / entity conducts research and development activity resulting in creating of qualified intellectual property rights
- a given individual / entity receives income from such qualified intellectual property rights
- keep records of costs of creating or acquiring qualified intellectual property rights