B2B or an employment contract (UoP): which pays more once you count everything?

In cash, B2B usually pays more. For the same cost to the client, someone on B2B (running their own business and invoicing the client) usually keeps more each month than an employee on umowa o pracę (UoP, an employment contract). The catch is what an employee gets by law and you do not: paid leave, sick pay, notice and a larger pension. Count those, and the gap shrinks, but it rarely disappears.

Why the same money goes further on B2B

An employee’s contributions are a percentage of the whole salary. On B2B, most of what you pay to ZUS (the social insurance institution) is a fixed monthly amount, whatever you earn.

On an employment contract in 2026:

• You pay 13.71% of your gross pay in social contributions (pension 9.76%, disability 1.5%, sickness 2.45%), then a 9% health contribution on what is left, then income tax on the tax scale: 12%, and 32% above 120,000 PLN a year.
• Your employer pays on top of your gross pay: pension 9.76%, disability 6.5%, accident insurance (1.67% at firms with up to 9 insured people, 0.40–8.12% at larger ones), the Labour Fund and Solidarity Fund 2.45%, and the Guaranteed Employee Benefits Fund 0.10%. That is about 20.5% extra, so your job costs the employer roughly 1.2 times your gross salary.
• You get a fixed 250 PLN a month of work costs (300 PLN if you commute from another town) and a 300 PLN monthly tax reduction.

On B2B through a JDG (a sole proprietorship), after the start-up years you pay full ZUS: at least 1,926.76 PLN a month in 2026, including the optional sickness contribution. If your revenue the year before was at most 120,000 PLN, Mały ZUS Plus (contributions based on last year’s income) can lower this for part of the time. On top come a health contribution that depends on your tax form, and income tax. See how to choose a tax form for the three options.

A worked example at 18,000 PLN a month

A client spends about 18,000 PLN a month in 2026 in one of two ways: a 15,000 PLN gross salary, or an 18,000 PLN B2B invoice (net of VAT). For B2B, the table shows two tax forms: ryczałt (a lump-sum tax on revenue, 12% for this work) and the 19% flat tax.

The B2B figures assume a software developer on full ZUS with sickness cover, no business costs, and the middle health band all year on ryczałt. They are our own calculations from the 2026 rates, rounded.

On paper, B2B gives about 28,000 to 40,000 PLN more a year. The UoP column shows only the employee’s own contributions; the employer’s share is inside the 216,864 PLN.

Watch out: these B2B numbers assume a full year of paid work. The next section explains why that is rarely true.

What you give up, and how to price it in

The Labour Code (Kodeks pracy) protects an employee. On B2B, you get only what your contract says, as our guide to what a B2B contract should contain explains.

One rule now works in your favour. Years spent running a JDG with ZUS paid count towards an employee’s length of service, for example the 10 years that give 26 days of leave. This applies at private employers since 1 May 2026 (public ones since 1 January 2026), and you prove the years with a certificate from ZUS.

What these protections are worth, using the example above:

• Paid leave. Twenty working days is about one month of work. If the client pays only for days worked, take one invoice out of twelve. On ryczałt that brings the year down to about 144,325 PLN, roughly 12,027 PLN a month. Still more than the employee’s 10,017.
• Sick pay. With voluntary sickness cover, ZUS pays about 3,901.69 PLN for a 30-day month on the full-ZUS minimum base. An employee earning 15,000 PLN gross gets 80% of their pay. Keep a cash reserve of a few months’ costs for this.
• Pension. In the example, 35,136 PLN a year is recorded for the employee’s pension at ZUS, against 13,239 PLN for the B2B contractor on the minimum base. Your state pension is based on that record, so expect a smaller one unless you save privately or declare a higher base.
• Notice. A client can usually end a B2B contract faster than an employer can end a job. Keep a reserve for the gap between clients.

When B2B pays less than it looks

Switching with your own employer. Doing the same work on B2B for a current or former employer is the costly case:

• ryczałt is lost if you did that work as their employee this year or last year;
• the 19% flat tax is lost for the whole year if you invoice them for work you also did as their employee in the same year;
• the ZUS start-up reliefs (6 months with no social contributions, then 24 months on a reduced base) are not available.

In your first years, the reverse is true for anyone else who has not run a business in the last 60 months. During the 6-month ulga na start (start-up relief) and the next 24 months of preferencyjny ZUS (reduced contributions of about 456 PLN a month with sickness cover), B2B pays even more than the table shows. See ZUS explained.

Lower rates. The fixed ZUS amount weighs more on a smaller invoice. At the minimum wage (4,806 PLN gross in 2026), full ZUS and the health contribution take a large share of a B2B invoice of the same size, and employment is often the better deal.

Mortgage and credit on B2B

Banks do lend to people on B2B. You prove your income with your business’s records, such as tax returns and bank statements, instead of a salary certificate. Each bank has its own rules on how long the business must have run and how it counts your income, so ask two or three banks before you leave a job.

The 2026 risk: being reclassified as an employee

Since 8 July 2026, PIP, Państwowa Inspekcja Pracy (the National Labour Inspectorate), can turn a B2B contract into employment without going to court. It works in two steps:

1. During an inspection, the inspector orders the client to put things right.
2. If the client ignores that order, the district labour inspector can issue a decision that you are an employee.

The test is how you work, not the contract’s name. Fixed hours set by the client, a manager directing your tasks, the client’s office and equipment, and no business risk all point to a job. The rules also cover contracts signed before 8 July 2026.

The client, not you, risks a fine of 2,000 to 60,000 PLN. A client that signs an employment contract with you of its own accord by early July 2027 escapes that fine for a contract that began before 8 July 2026. A decision takes effect from the day it is issued, and either side can appeal to the labour court within one month of receiving it. The details are in our guide to the PIP reform.

For foreigners: to work on B2B through a JDG, you need the right to run a business in Poland. EU, EEA, Swiss and US citizens can open a JDG like Poles. A work permit, or a single residence-and-work permit, does not let an employee simply switch to B2B.

How much admin B2B adds each month

On B2B, these jobs move from the employer to you:

Tax and ZUS deadlines that fall on a weekend or public holiday move to the next working day. Until 31 December 2026 you may still invoice outside KSeF while your KSeF-obligatory invoices stay at or below 10,000 PLN gross a month. Once a month goes over, you stay in KSeF. From 1 January 2027 every B2B invoice goes through KSeF.

Many people hand the books to an accounting office, which in 2026 typically charges a JDG on ryczałt without VAT about 150–250 PLN net a month. Komplet, our free Mac app, files each invoice and receipt into the right month and prepares a folder for your accountant, which keeps the month-end short.

What to do next

1. Turn the salary offer into the employer’s cost (gross × about 1.2).
2. Take away one month’s invoice for leave, then compare the B2B offer with the result.
3. Check whether the client is your current or former employer. If so, redo the numbers on the tax scale and full ZUS.
4. Read the draft contract for paid days off, notice and liability, and check the way you will work against the PIP signs.
5. If you will need a mortgage soon, ask your bank how it treats B2B income before you sign.