This article is a part of Poland Unpacked. Weekly intelligence for decision-makers
Family foundations, legal entities established to accumulate assets and manage them in the interest of designated beneficiaries, operate in Poland under the Act of January 26, 2023. Through this structure, entrepreneurs can achieve tax efficiencies, enable multigenerational succession, and protect family wealth.
Family foundations are waiting ever longer to be entered in the official register. The number of cases is rising, staff are in short supply, and the system still relies on paper files. We ask experts whether the surge in activity at the court in Piotrków Trybunalski could in fact affect investment decisions.
“The court in Piotrków Trybunalski is probably overloaded. Some founders are postponing investment decisions while waiting for registration. A family foundation is, of course, a succession-planning vehicle—but embedded in that succession is also the multiplication of assets,” says Katarzyna Lewińska, an attorney at Doktór Jerszyński Pietras Law Firm.
Family foundations in numbers. Court confirms: waiting times have lengthened
The District Court in Piotrków Trybunalski confirms that from 23 May 2023 — when the first applications to register family foundations began to be filed — through the end of 2025, a total of 3,140 such entities were registered. What stands out, however, is the number of cases still pending. As of December 31, 2025, 2,434 founders were still waiting for their foundations to receive official entry in the register.
Interactive chart The data point clearly to growing interest in family foundations. In 2023, 828 applications were filed; in 2024, that figure rose to 2,304 registration applications. At the same time, according to December 2025 data from the District Court in Piotrków Trybunalski, foundation-related matters are currently handled by four court referendaries, though additional capacity is expected. A recruitment process has been launched for another court referendary position.
“The average waiting time for an application to register a foundation is around 14 months. Each family foundation is required to file annual financial statements, which results in an above-standard influx of cases,” the District Court in Piotrków Trybunalski stated in its response.
Why does it take so long?
Our sources agree that, when it comes to family foundations, the level of digitalization leaves much to be desired.
“Family foundation statutes are lengthy documents. They are submitted to the registry court in paper form and often run to dozens of pages. By design, this document is complex—it functions as both a tangible and intangible will. When reviewing applications to register a foundation, the court must analyze all provisions of the statute. At the same time, an increasing number of applications to amend statutes is being filed. Add to this the financial statements that must be processed. In the end, the snowball keeps growing,” says Paweł Tomczykowski, tax adviser and partner at Tomczykowski Tomczykowska Law Firm.
As Katarzyna Lewińska adds, founders waiting for registration sometimes postpone investment decisions by a year or more, which is bound to affect their finances. While assets can be contributed to a so-called “foundation in formation” before it is entered in the register, this entails potential tax risk.
A register modeled on the National Court Register (KRS)?
As attorney Tomasz Krzywański of Kordia Legal puts it, “everyone dreams of a register modeled on the KRS.” For family foundations, however, access to data currently requires submitting a written request to the registry court.
The District Court in Piotrków Trybunalski is so overburdened largely because the scale of interest in this institution was significantly underestimated.
“The court in Piotrków Trybunalski is overwhelmed because the demand for family foundations was misjudged. To streamline the registration process, the priority should be to increase the number of judges and court referendaries who can hear these cases. Digitalizing the registration process would also help. Naturally, everyone would welcome a register similar to the National Court Register. That said, full transparency and electronic access to files also carry the risk that sensitive beneficiary data — such as PESEL (ID card) numbers or home addresses — could be misused by unauthorized parties. The government is currently working on electronic access to official extracts, and to our knowledge it is aware of these risks,” our source explains.
Paweł Tomczykowski adds that corporate filings involve documents of a different kind and are handled by thousands of officials.
“In the case of family foundations, there are clearly too few positions at the registry court. If we want to talk seriously about effective succession planning and encourage Polish companies to grow, there is no better investment the state can make than improving the efficiency of the District Court in Piotrków Trybunalski,” Paweł Tomczykowski concludes.
A foundation in formation: how to safeguard assets while awaiting registration
As attorney Katarzyna Lewińska explains, the framework is straightforward in theory. Under the law, a family foundation in formation comes into existence upon execution of the deed of foundation or upon the opening of a will. Even before formal registration, such a foundation may manage its assets and engage in investment activity. The question arises, however, what happens if the court ultimately refuses to register the foundation—while this scenario is rare, it cannot be entirely ruled out.
“If the court refuses registration, the applicant must reckon with tax risk. In such a case, the foundation must be dissolved and the assets returned to the founder, which may trigger an obligation to pay 15% corporate income tax (CIT) on the value of the contributed assets. In practice, founders sometimes avoid this course of action precisely because of the potential tax risk,” Katarzyna Lewińska explains.
In Paweł Tomczykowski’s view, the extended waiting times have not discouraged founders from using a family foundation in formation.
“A family foundation in formation enjoys the same benefits as a formally registered foundation. It acquires the same rights already at the stage of the notarial deed. In 2023, when Poland’s first family foundations were established, the approach was indeed more conservative. Founders often held back from contributing assets to the foundation until the formal entry in the register, out of fear of a refusal of registration and the resulting tax liability. Over time, it became clear that refusals accounted for only a small fraction of cases. What is more, where there is a risk of refusal, the court will first request that any legal deficiencies be remedied and the statute amended,” the expert explains.
The risk of an additional tax liability therefore appears limited, though it should not be dismissed. As Tomasz Krzywański notes, to date the court has refused registration in only a handful of cases, out of several thousand applications approved. Typically, these were errors on the founders’ side.
“Even so, the status of a foundation in formation can sometimes be problematic, particularly in dealings with financial institutions,” our source adds.
Refusal to open a bank account
Paweł Tomczykowski adds that while the waiting period itself should not pose a barrier to business, some foreign investments will likely have to be put on hold.
“A family foundation is designed to diversify investments. Investors often hold assets outside Poland as well. Polish banks generally have no difficulty opening an account for a foundation in formation. But if we wanted to place funds in, say, a Swiss account, this would be more difficult. In such cases, you need to wait until the foundation is formally registered,” Paweł Tomczykowski explains.
Experts add that a family foundation in formation may enter into contracts and accept asset contributions without restriction. Not every bank, however, recognizes the “in formation” status. As a result, waiting for the formal entry in the register is sometimes unavoidable.
Boom in family foundations — an unintended effect of a vetoed bill?
The year 2025 was marked by numerous political disputes, including over amendments to tax legislation. One of the proposals concerned a lock-up mechanism for family foundations. Under the version vetoed by President Nawrocki, assets contributed to a foundation after January 1, 2026 would have been subject to additional taxation if sold before the end of a three-year holding period. In the original draft, the tax would have applied to assets contributed by August 31 (which in practice meant a 48-hour vacatio legis). Ultimately, the retrospective element was removed from the bill, but the president vetoed the legislation nonetheless.
“Our view is that 2026 may see an even higher number of applications to establish family foundations. Anticipated tax changes do not always dampen enthusiasm. The planned three-year lock-up on the sale of assets is a milder variant than the previously floated ten- or fifteen-year periods. It may not fully align with initial expectations, but if a foundation is treated not as a vehicle for the immediate sale of shares or equity interests, but as a tool for succession planning or long-term investment, three years should not constitute a material barrier. In practice, investment horizons are rarely shorter. Even if assets are sold earlier, the benefits of allocating them to a family foundation may outweigh the potential adverse tax consequences associated with breaching the lock-up period,” Katarzyna Lewińska adds.
Will political interest prevail?
Experts have no doubt that entrepreneurs themselves want to operate in conditions of fair competition. They do not want to be seen as schemers seeking to avoid taxes.
“I supported the vetoed amendment to the tax rules on foundations because it underscored the succession-oriented—rather than optimization-driven—nature of family foundations. Consider, for example, an entrepreneur who owns a company running a hotel, employing staff and paying corporate income tax. Now imagine its competitor is a family foundation earning income from renting apartments in the building next door while paying no tax. Such a foundation is conducting operational activity exempt from tax purely because of the legal structure used. That creates an uneven playing field, which the vetoed provisions were intended to address,” says Paweł Tomczykowski.
In his view, the current regulations should be clarified, as in certain areas they distort the very idea of the family foundation. The question remains, however, whether the ongoing standoff between the president and the government will once again relegate the interests of family foundations to the sidelines.
Pre-consultations begin
Just before the Christmas holidays, on December 19, the Ministry of Economic Development launched a review of how the provisions of the Family Foundation Act are functioning in practice. The official statement noted that issues requiring discussion—and potentially amendment—include, among others, the organization of the foundation registration process. The scope of founders’ business activity was also placed on the agenda.
“The Ministry of Economic Development and Technology has already begun the announced three-year review of the family foundation framework. We will likely learn the outcome around mid-year. That may trigger another wave of new foundations, established in order to get ahead of further tax changes. The boom occurred in the final months of 2025. What we are seeing now is rather a cooling of sentiment and a period of fine-tuning structures that were sometimes set up in haste before year-end,” Tomasz Krzywański explains.
Key Takeaways
- The waiting time for registering family foundations has lengthened to 14 months. The bottleneck at the registry court is driven not only by the rapidly rising number of applications for entry in the foundations register, but also by the obligation to process additional filings, including applications to amend foundation statutes and annual financial statements.
- Experts agree that the registration process for family foundations needs to be streamlined. The registry court currently employs four court referendaries, though more staff are expected to handle applications in the near future.
- The three-year legal review may also lead to the return of the tax-law amendment intended to tighten the fiscal regime for family foundations. Experts concur that founders building a succession mechanism—rather than a tax-optimization vehicle—have little to fear. Business leaders are less concerned about the substance of potential new rules than about how they would be implemented. They also hope that the 48-hour vacatio legis would be extended to at least the promised six months.