Poland's Director of Krajowa Informacja Skarbowa has accepted a retailer's treatment of a merchandise-return gift card as a multi-purpose voucher, separating the VAT correction for returned goods from tax on the customer's later replacement purchase. The individual interpretation was issued on September 22 and published in the official EUREKA database on September 30. [S01]

The decision applies to an unnamed sole trader selling goods in stores and by mail, with clothing and footwear wholesaling identified as the principal activity. Its significance is the sequence of transactions, rather than a new gift-card product or a change in legislation.

A card that starts inactive

Under the arrangement submitted to the authority, a customer returning goods can choose a gift card instead of a cash refund. The returned item goes back into stock. The card is valid for six months, but is initially inactive and has no assigned usable value. It is activated and given value only when the customer selects replacement goods. [S01]

The trader offers goods and services subject to different VAT rates. When the physical card is first handed over, the eventual purchase and corresponding tax amount are not yet known.

On those facts, the authority classified it as a multi-purpose voucher, or MPV. Handing over the voucher does not itself trigger VAT; the taxable supply occurs when replacement goods are delivered or a service is performed in exchange for it. The decision does not classify every merchandise-return card in the same way.

The original return has its own accounting period

The authority also accepted that the trader can reduce the taxable base and output VAT for the original sale in the period when the return is accepted and properly recorded. That adjustment need not wait for the customer to redeem the card. [S01]

The ruling treats the return of previously purchased goods and the issue of the MPV as distinct acts. A later redemption date therefore does not determine the period for correcting the earlier sale.

That conclusion depends on a lawful, documented return. The authority expressly said it had not assessed whether the applicant's actual return records were maintained correctly, because that question was outside the application.

For merchants offering store credit, the case illustrates how the card's operation and the return record affect separate accounting steps. Its protection is limited to the applicant following the interpretation on matching facts, subject to statutory exceptions. It does not establish a blanket tax exemption for gift cards.