Doing your own books as a sole trader on ryczałt: what it takes each month

Yes, you can do your own books on ryczałt, and it is the easiest Polish business tax to handle yourself. Each month you record your sales, work out the tax, send one return to ZUS (the social insurance office) and make two payments, all by the 20th. Once a year you file the PIT-28 return and settle your health contribution.

Ryczałt (ryczałt od przychodów ewidencjonowanych, the lump-sum tax on recorded revenue) taxes what you invoice, not your profit. So there is no cost book to keep, and the paperwork is lighter than on the tax scale or the 19% flat tax. This guide is for a JDG (jednoosobowa działalność gospodarcza, a sole trader) on ryczałt. If you are still deciding whether to go it alone, read do I need an accountant first.

The records you must keep

On ryczałt you keep three things:

• A revenue register (ewidencja przychodów): one line per sale.
• A list of fixed assets and intangibles (wykaz środków trwałych oraz wartości niematerialnych i prawnych): the equipment and rights you use in the business.
• Your purchase documents. Costs do not lower the tax, but you must still keep them.

Each line of the register shows:

Keep one column per rate. If you earn at two rates, for example 12% for software work and 8.5% for training, keep them apart. If your register does not separate them, the highest rate applies to everything. The ryczałt rates guide shows which work falls under which rate.

You make entries from your invoices by the 20th of the following month. A sale without an invoice goes in from an internal document you draw up at the end of each day. Keep the register and the documents at your place of business.

Watch out: Paper registers are ending. If you file monthly VAT returns (JPK_V7M), you must keep the register with software from 1 January 2026. Everyone else, including VAT-exempt freelancers, must do so from 1 January 2027.

Your month, step by step

This is the routine for the month that has just ended.

1. Collect the documents: your sales invoices (from KSeF or your invoicing app), cost invoices, receipts, and the bank statement for every account you use for the business. The month-end checklist covers this in detail.
2. Enter every sale in the register by the 20th, in the right rate column. Convert a sale in a foreign currency to złoty at the NBP (National Bank of Poland) average rate from the last business day before the revenue date.
3. Work out the ryczałt. Take the month’s revenue. Deduct the social ZUS contributions you paid (unless you deducted them elsewhere) and 50% of the health contribution you paid. Multiply the result by your rate.
4. Send the ZUS DRA, the monthly ZUS return, in eZUS (the ZUS online portal). Pay your contributions in one transfer to your ZUS account.
5. Pay the ryczałt to your personal tax micro-account (mikrorachunek podatkowy). Use e-Urząd Skarbowy (the tax office’s online service) or your bank’s tax-transfer template.

Both payments are due by the 20th of the next month. When the 20th falls on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, the deadline moves to the next working day.

Example: In your first months you have the start-up relief (ulga na start), so you pay only the health contribution: 498.35 PLN a month in 2026 while your revenue for the year is up to 60,000 PLN. You invoice 10,000 PLN of software work at 12%. Deduct half the health contribution (about 249 PLN), and the ryczałt is about 1,170 PLN.

Your health contribution

On ryczałt the health contribution is a fixed amount. It depends on your revenue since 1 January, less any social contributions you have not deducted elsewhere. For 2026:

You move up a band in the month you cross the threshold. The health contribution guide explains the details.

Payment dates for the rest of 2026

Paying ryczałt quarterly

You may pay ryczałt quarterly instead if your 2025 revenue was no more than 851,720 PLN (200,000 EUR), or if you started the business in 2026 and did not run one in 2025. The tax is then due by the 20th after each quarter (the fourth quarter by 20 January). You do not apply in advance: you state the choice in the PIT-28. ZUS and the DRA stay monthly.

The extra work if you pay VAT

Many freelancers on ryczałt stay VAT-exempt. In 2026 that is possible with sales of up to 240,000 PLN a year, for work that is allowed the exemption.

If you are an active VAT payer (czynny podatnik VAT) and file monthly, add these to each month:

• Record VAT on every sale and every cost invoice, with each invoice’s KSeF number (or the marker used when an invoice has none).
• Send the JPK_V7M, the monthly file with your VAT records and return, by the 25th of the next month. When the 25th is a weekend day or holiday, the deadline moves to the next working day.
• Pay the VAT to the same tax micro-account by the 25th.
• Keep the register with software already in 2026, and send it as a JPK_EWP file for 2026 by 30 April 2027.

A small taxpayer can instead file the VAT return and pay the VAT quarterly (JPK_V7K), but not in the first 12 months as an active VAT payer. Quarterly filers keep the register with software from 1 January 2027, like VAT-exempt freelancers.

Being VAT-exempt does not always mean no VAT work. If you buy services from a foreign business, such as Google Ads, Adobe or AWS, you usually need to register for VAT-UE (EU VAT) and file VAT-9M by the 25th for each month with such a purchase. See VAT on Google, Adobe and AWS.

Once a year: the PIT-28 and the health reconciliation

After December, up to three jobs close the year:

The PIT-28 lists your year’s revenue by rate and your deductions. You can file it in Twój e-PIT, the government’s free online tax return service, which covers business income.

The health reconciliation (roczne rozliczenie składki zdrowotnej) is done at ZUS, not in the PIT. The whole year counts at the band that matches your revenue for the year. If you crossed a band during the year, you owe the difference for the earlier months and pay it with the April contributions. If you paid too much, ZUS prepares a refund request in eZUS for you to check and send.

If you are VAT-exempt or file VAT quarterly, your first JPK_EWP is for 2027. It is due by the annual return deadline in 2028, which moves to 2 May 2028 because 30 April is a Sunday and 1 May a holiday.

Free tools, and the gap they leave

No single free tool does the whole job:

The gap is the register itself. The Ministry of Finance’s own manual says e-mikrofirma is not an accounting program, and the JPK_PD form only builds the year-end file. Whether a spreadsheet counts as “computer programs” is not settled. In practice, many people who do their own books use a paid self-service app, which costs about 40–60 PLN net a month for a sole trader in September 2026.

No program collects your documents for you. Komplet, our free Mac app, reads your invoices and receipts, files them into year and month folders, and pairs them with the payments on your bank statement, so you see what is missing before the 20th.

What to do next

1. Check your rate for each kind of work, and set up one register column per rate.
2. Decide where your register lives. If you file JPK_V7M, it must be software now; everyone else needs software from 1 January 2027.
3. Put the 20th (and the 25th, if you pay VAT) in your calendar, with the later dates when they fall on a weekend or holiday. Komplet shows these deadlines with Polish holidays already taken into account.
4. Keep each month’s documents in one place as they arrive, and check them against the bank statement at month end.
5. In February, gather the year’s totals for the PIT-28, and remember the health reconciliation in the April DRA, due in May.