Landmark ruling says anonymous online donations can qualify as gifts

Poland’s Supreme Administrative Court has rejected the tax authority’s insistence that an online donation must be linked to an identifiable person. The ruling opens the possibility of a different approach to anonymous payments made through internet collections.

The dispute began with a streamer who operated a sole proprietorship producing films and, more recently, broadcasting live online. During his first livestream, viewers sent him money as a gesture of solidarity and sympathy. He said he had offered nothing in return, and viewers did not need to pay to participate.

He also said there was no rewards system, incentive or request encouraging payments. But he could not identify the people supporting him because the Tipply platform did not provide a list of donors. Payments could be associated only with information such as an email address, nickname, login or first name.

The tax authority argued that a donation required at least the possibility of identifying the donor by name or other specific details. It said a payment could not be treated as a donation if no particular donor could be identified. The Bydgoszcz Provincial Administrative Court initially agreed with that position.

The Supreme Administrative Court later sided with the taxpayer. Its decision challenges the approach that had also led officials to seek tax from people organizing charitable collections, including a mother raising money for her daughter’s treatment. The ruling could therefore ease the burden on organizers who receive anonymous contributions.