Government Incentives to Stimulate Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Poland

Over the past 30 years, Poland has strived to catch up with the highly innovative Western economies. Unfortunately, despite numerous investments in the development of innovation and entrepreneurship since then, Poland is still one of the least innovative members of the European Union. In this chapter, we deal with the tax and non-tax financial instruments aimed at inspiring innovation and entrepreneurship. We analyze two distinctive periods: 2008-2015 and 2016-2020 which has been related to the EU development programs and slightly different attitudes towards innovativeness. We describe the effects of internal incentives as well as of those financed from external sources. Have they brought the expected results in the form of a wider interest in innovation and entrepreneurship in Poland? We have not found clear evidence in this regard.