Free online invoicing software
with KSeF support
Social insurance contributions are a significant burden for many businesses. Paying them can be particularly challenging for small companies just beginning their business journey. Poland offers a range of programmes that let businesses pay lower contributions, and even programmes providing a temporary exemption. This article describes them!
Start-up relief: six months without social insurance contributions
We begin with start-up relief, a programme reserved for people starting a business for the first time or restarting one at least five years after suspending or closing their previous business. They must not carry out activities for a former employer for whom they worked in the current or previous calendar year, where those tasks form part of their current business activity.
Start-up relief is optional and means exemption from social insurance contributions for six months after starting a business.
Importantly, these six months do not include the month in which the business opened, unless you started on the first day of the month.
If you started your business on 8 August 2025, for example, your six-month exemption will not end until the end of February 2026. During that time, you must pay only the health insurance contribution.
Remember that no contributions also means no potential benefits. During start-up relief, you will not receive sickness or accident insurance benefits. You will not build savings in the public system towards your retirement or a possible disability pension either.
Accounting that understands your business
Leave your email address and receive guides supporting your business’s growth once a week
Preferential contributions for 24 months: Small ZUS
After start-up relief comes another optional programme: preferential contributions, sometimes called Small ZUS, which you can pay for the next 24 months, or two years.
Businesses may pay preferential contributions if they meet both conditions:
- They start a business for the first time or restart one at least five years after suspending or closing their previous business;
- They do not provide services to a former employer for whom they worked under an employment contract in the current or previous year, where those tasks form part of their current business activity.
Under Small ZUS, contributions are calculated on a base equal to 30% of the minimum wage.
With the minimum wage in 2025 at PLN 4,666 and 30% of that amount being exactly PLN 1,399.80, preferential contributions currently amount to:
- PLN 273.24 in retirement insurance contributions, calculated as 19.52% of PLN 1,399.80;
- PLN 111.98 in disability pension insurance contributions, calculated as 8% of PLN 1,399.80;
- PLN 23.38 in accident insurance contributions, calculated as 1.67% of PLN 1,399.80;
- PLN 34.30 in voluntary sickness insurance contributions, calculated as 2.45% of PLN 1,399.80.
Small ZUS contributions therefore total PLN 442.90 with voluntary sickness insurance or PLN 408.60 without it.
Small ZUS Plus: another programme offering lower contributions
After six months of start-up relief and 24 months of preferential contributions, business owners can use another programme: Small ZUS Plus, available to those who:
- Had revenue from non-agricultural business activity of no more than PLN 120,000 in the previous calendar year;
- Ran a business for at least 60 days in the previous calendar year.
Small ZUS Plus allows lower social insurance contributions for 36 months within the last 60 months of running a business. It is therefore unavailable to those who, during the last five years, have already used this programme and preferential Small ZUS contributions for a combined minimum of three years.
Small ZUS Plus is also unavailable to businesses:
- Performing the same tasks they performed for a former or current employer in the current or previous calendar year;
- Using the tax card in the previous calendar year while also being exempt from VAT;
- Covered by social or health insurance also on account of other non-agricultural business activity;
- Who in the previous year operated as creators, artists, members of a liberal profession, or operators of a public or private school or another form of preschool education, an institution or a group of institutions;
- Who in the previous year were partners in a general partnership, professional partnership, limited partnership or single-member limited liability company.
Small ZUS Plus thus has the strictest eligibility requirements, but allows contributions calculated on a base no lower than 30% of the minimum wage and no higher than 60% of the projected average monthly wage.
ZUS contribution holidays: one contribution-free month each year
When discussing ways to reduce ZUS contributions, we must not forget another programme: contribution holidays, a voluntary form of support offered since last year to Polish microbusinesses registered in CEIDG.
Contribution holidays mean one month of the business owner's choice each year during which they are exempt from social insurance contributions. This offers real savings and helps maintain business liquidity while retaining entitlement to allowances and benefits.
Read more about ZUS contribution holidays in 2025 in a separate article on our blog devoted entirely to this subject.
If you found this article interesting, explore our tax advisory services and read how we can help you:
Summary
Are you taking your first steps with your own business? Or are you looking for ways to optimise your company's costs, including ZUS contributions?
Explore our services and find out how we can help! We offer help with setting up a business and accounting, as well as tax advisory and business advisory services.
Contact us today and we will prepare a personalised offer especially for you.
Interested in this article?
Enter your email address and once a week you will receive practical materials and tips to help you grow your business.
Book a free consultation
Grow your business with accounting combined with advisory services:
or
