Regulations requiring companies to keep people hydrated at work allow for the expenses incurred to be written off against company tax. However, a dry teabag does not qualify as a drink, according to the Polish National Tax Information Service.

“Looking at the regulations word for word, a tax write-off doesn’t apply in this case. A teabag is not a drink, and a worker doesn’t have to use a teabag at work. He could take it home. And that kind of benefit is income for him, on which needs to be taxed,” the service’s website says.

If your employer provides you with your own personal box of tea for your office, for example, the tea is traceable to you and you can be identified as a benefit which would classify as taxable income.

However, if a company makes teabags available in a corner of the office kitchen, there is no way of checking which employee made tea for him or herself, so a brew is not taxable in that case.

Sole traders, meanwhile, can write off the cost of a coffee machine, or a kettle, but they are not allowed to write off the expense of buying tea and coffee, says the National Tax Information Service.

Poland is one of the top ten tea-drinking countries in the world, according to estimates, with locals consuming just under a kilo of the brew each year.