How to close a JDG in Poland, and what you still owe afterwards

To close a JDG (jednoosobowa działalność gospodarcza, a sole proprietorship), you file a free deletion application in CEIDG, the public register of sole traders, and pick your last day of business. CEIDG passes the news to ZUS (social insurance), the tax office and GUS (Statistics Poland).

The form is not the end, though. You still deregister from ZUS insurance, settle VAT on what you keep, pay the last contributions and taxes, file the annual returns the next spring, and keep your papers for years.

Should you close or suspend?

Closing (wykreślenie z CEIDG, deletion from the register) ends the business. Zawieszenie działalności (suspending your business) only pauses it. If there is any chance you will work for yourself again within a few years, compare the two first.

A JDG with no employees can be suspended with no end date, so a long pause does not force you to close. See how to suspend a JDG and how to resume one. Close when you are sure you are done, or when you are moving to a company or a job for good.

For foreigners: leaving Poland does not close your JDG. Until it is closed or suspended in CEIDG, your ZUS and tax obligations keep running. After you close, the annual PIT (personal income tax) return and the record-keeping rules below still apply, even if you live abroad.

How to close a JDG, step by step

1. Choose your last day of business. Issue your last invoices and collect what you can before it. The date can be in the past if you really stopped earlier.
2. Draw up the closing lists as of that day (see the next section).
3. File the deletion application in CEIDG on biznes.gov.pl (“Zamknij firmę”, close your business). It is free, and the entry is deleted by the next business day. You can also file at a municipal office or by post until 31 October 2028. You do not need to update your PKD codes (activity codes) to close.
4. Deregister from ZUS insurance within 7 days of the actual end of the business. Use ZUS ZWUA for yourself and any collaborators, and ZUS ZCNA for family members. If you attach these forms to the CEIDG application, it is all done in one go. Employees are deregistered within 7 days of their contracts ending. ZUS removes you as a payer by itself, but not as an insured person. Until you file, contributions keep being counted.
5. Active VAT payers: file VAT-Z within 7 days of stopping taxable activity. The tax office then removes you from the VAT register.
6. Deregister your cash register (kasa fiskalna) if you had one. Tax-card (karta podatkowa) users file PIT-16Z within 7 days.
7. Pay the last contributions and taxes (see below).

The law says nothing about the business bank account. It makes sense to keep it open until the last client payment has arrived and the last ZUS and tax transfers have gone out.

The closing lists: stock, assets, and your laptop or car

There are up to three lists. You do not send the lists themselves to the tax office. For the VAT inventory, you report only its value and the VAT on it, with your last VAT return.

KPiR is the księga przychodów i rozchodów, the revenue and expense ledger. Ryczałt (lump-sum tax) users skip the stock-take but still make the list of assets. Keep that list for 5 years.

VAT on what you keep. When you close, the goods you still hold on which you had the right to deduct VAT are taxed as if you had sold them. That includes equipment: a laptop, a phone, a car.

• You value each item at what it is worth on the closing date.
• The VAT is due on that day.
• You report it no later than in the JPK_V7M or JPK_V7K (the monthly or quarterly VAT file) for the period that includes the closing date.
• biznes.gov.pl gives you 14 days to value the goods and accepts any format. If nothing is left, make a list showing 0 PLN.

Example: biznes.gov.pl’s own example is a computer bought for 7,000 PLN net and recorded as a fixed asset. On the closing date it is worth 5,000 PLN net, so it goes on the list at 5,000 PLN with 23% VAT: 1,150 PLN to pay.

If you had no right to deduct VAT on an item (for example, a car bought from a private person, or anything bought while you were VAT-exempt), it does not go on the VAT list. VAT-exempt businesses (under the 240,000 PLN limit in 2026) make no VAT inventory at all. If you are unsure how to value something, such as a car on which you deducted only part of the VAT, ask KIS (Krajowa Informacja Skarbowa, the tax office’s helpline) before you file.

Once the VAT on the list has been settled, selling those goods within 12 months of closing is VAT-exempt.

Income tax on what you sell later. Selling an asset that was in the business on the closing date still counts as business income if you sell it within 6 years. The 6 years start on the first day of the month after you closed. After that, the sale is tax-free. So a car sold two years after closing is taxed as if the business still existed.

What you still pay and file after closing

Closing ends your obligations for the future, not for the months you traded. Here is what remains, for a business closed in 2026:

When the 20th or the 25th falls on a weekend or public holiday, the deadline moves to the next working day.

In the month you close, social contributions are proportional to the days you traded, but the health contribution is due in full. Your NFZ (National Health Fund) cover lasts 30 days after the end date, so arrange other cover if you have none (a job, a spouse, or insurance abroad). More on the health side in the health contribution explained.

If you used the cash method (metoda kasowa, available since 2025), invoices still unpaid on the closing date count as revenue on the closing date at the latest.

Any tax or ZUS debt from before the closing stays yours. A JDG owner answers for business debts with everything they own, and closing does not change that.

How long to keep your documents

Closing does not shorten any retention period.

• Tax records (invoices, ledgers, the closing lists): until the tax is time-barred, normally 5 years from the end of the calendar year in which the tax was due. For 2026, the PIT is due in April 2027, so keep the 2026 records until the end of 2032. An open tax proceeding can make the period longer.
• ZUS settlement documents: 5 years from filing.
• Payroll records for anyone you employed: 10 years for people hired from 1 January 2019, longer for earlier hires.

Before you close, put everything in one place your accountant (or you, in five years) can find. Komplet, our free Mac app, files each invoice into the right month and can build a folder with every document, the bank statements and a summary for your accountant. More in how long to keep business documents.

Can you reopen later?

Your CEIDG entry stays visible, marked with the deletion date, and your NIP stays yours: if you register a JDG again, you give the same number.

What you lose is the start-up help. A new ulga na start (6 months without social contributions) and the 24 months of preferential ZUS are both for people who have not run a business in the last 60 months. Closing and reopening a year later therefore gains nothing. You pay the standard contributions from the start, unless another relief applies.

How ZUS counts the 60 months after a very long suspension is not settled, so ask ZUS if that is your case. Details in ZUS start-up relief.

What to do next

1. Decide between closing and suspending, using the table above.
2. Pick the last day of business. The end of a month is usually best, because the health contribution for the closing month is due in full anyway.
3. Make the closing lists and put a value on any equipment or car.
4. File the CEIDG deletion with ZUS ZWUA attached, then VAT-Z if you are an active VAT payer.
5. Put the 20th of next month, 30 April 2027 and 20 May 2027 in your calendar.
6. Store your records somewhere safe until at least the end of 2032.