At the same time, tax policy has been subject to several changes, strongly affecting the financial situation of the working population. This has been due to the decreases of the tax rates for wealthier strata of the society. The aim of the paper is to explore a social policy-related dimension of the tax policy in Poland.
We focus on two policy fields: family policy and old-age pensions. In the case of family policy we analyse the evolution of the tax deductions related with raising children. We trace back the discussions regarding the introduction and modifications of the tax deductions in Poland. In the field of the old-age pensions, we focus on the third pillar voluntary pensions, which are subject to tax deductions. Here we analyse the political perception of the role of such pensions.
The overall conclusion of the paper is that the construction of tax instruments in social policy is favouring the better-off, thus having a stratifying effect on Polish society. We argue that such perverse redistribution is the result of deliberate political actions, which follows the specific logic of deservingness, where the main category is tax-payer (worker). Finally, the paper looks at political trade-offs between tax-instruments and contribution/tax-financed benefits in Poland.
