Poland's smartphone tax is now in force: 1% on phones from 32 GB

Which devices does the new fee cover?

The new list includes:

• smartphones and mobile phones with at least 32 GB of built-in storage,
• TVs with built-in storage or a recording function,
• TV set-top boxes that can record,
• printers, scanners and multifunction devices.

For most of these, the fee is 1% of the price. A phone costing 1,000 zloty carries a 10 zloty fee. The base iPhone Duo, at 9,999 zloty, carries 99.99 zloty.

Will phones get more expensive?

On paper, no. The fee is paid by manufacturers and importers, not customers. But it's hard to imagine companies absorbing the cost without touching shelf prices, so the extra will most likely land on buyers.

Where does the money go?

The government expects the fee to raise around 150 to 200 million zloty a year. None of it goes to the state budget. All of it is to be shared out among artists.

The idea is to compensate them for the legal right to copy works for private use. It doesn't matter whether you actually copy anything. What counts is that the device could do it. It works much like Poland's TV licence fee, which applies if you own a television, even if you never watch the public broadcaster TVP.