NIP, REGON, PESEL and KRS: which Polish number is which?

PESEL is your personal number, NIP is the tax number you use once you run a business, REGON is your business’s number in the statistics register, and KRS is the court register number that only companies have. A sole trader usually has three of them: PESEL, NIP and REGON. A limited company (spółka z ograniczoną odpowiedzialnością, or sp. z o.o.) has NIP, REGON and KRS, and each person who runs it may have a PESEL of their own.

The four numbers at a glance

Useful details for filling in forms:

• NIP means nothing. The law says it must not reveal anything about its holder, so you cannot read a region or a date from it.
• REGON has nine digits for the business itself: eight in sequence and a check digit. A local unit of a business, such as a branch, gets a 14-digit REGON that starts with the main nine.
• PESEL is for people, not businesses. Foreigners get one when they register their address (meldunek), or on application at any municipal office. It is free.
• KRS is given only to bodies in the court register: companies such as a sp. z o.o., and also associations and foundations, never sole traders.

When you get each number

PESEL comes first, because it is about you, not your business. A foreigner who registers an address in Poland gets one automatically. Without an address, you can apply at a municipal office and state the legal reason you need one. Since 1 January 2026, citizens of countries outside the EU, the EEA (Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein) and Switzerland must apply in person. UK citizens covered by the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement are treated like EU citizens.

A sole trader (JDG, jednoosobowa działalność gospodarcza) gets NIP and REGON through CEIDG, the free public register of sole traders. The one application registers you with the tax office, with GUS and with ZUS, the social insurance institution. If you have no NIP or REGON yet, the application asks for them for you. They appear in your CEIDG entry, which is public by the next business day. More in what CEIDG is.

A company gets its KRS number first, when the court enters it in the register. The court then passes the data on, and NIP and REGON are added to KRS automatically, free of charge. biznes.gov.pl says this usually takes a few days. No paper letter comes: the numbers appear in the register. A company set up in S24, the government’s online system for founding companies, also sees a notice there.

Watch out: a new sp. z o.o. still has to file form NIP-8 with its tax office within 21 days of the KRS entry. The form adds what the court does not know, such as bank accounts and who keeps the books. If the company will pay ZUS contributions, for example for staff, biznes.gov.pl gives a shorter deadline: 7 days from the day that duty starts. If the last day falls on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, the deadline moves to the next working day.

Which number goes where

What the table means in practice:

• Invoices. REGON is not on the list of things an invoice must show, so you can leave it off. Since 1 February 2026 a business buyer must give its NIP when the invoice is issued. That NIP is how the invoice reaches the buyer’s account in KSeF, the national e-invoicing system.
• Receipts. Until 31 December 2026 a till receipt showing your NIP counts as a simplified invoice up to 450 PLN gross. If the receipt has no NIP, the shop may not issue you a business invoice afterwards, so give your NIP before it prints.
• EU clients and suppliers. Once you are registered for VAT-UE (the VAT registration for trade with other EU countries), you quote your NIP with the PL prefix. Foreign suppliers such as Google or Adobe then bill you without VAT. See VAT-UE for Google, Adobe and AWS.

Komplet, our free Mac app, reads the seller’s NIP from each invoice you add and uses it to group your documents by supplier.

NIP or PESEL: which is your tax number?

The NIP Act sets the rule.

PESEL is your tax identifier if you are a private person who runs no registered business and is not registered for VAT. That covers employees, pensioners and landlords with a PESEL. Since 13 July 2025 it also covers people doing unregistered activity (działalność nierejestrowana), unless they are VAT-registered or use a cash register. See unregistered activity.

NIP is your tax identifier once you register a business or register for VAT. Companies always use NIP.

Two rules surprise people:

1. One NIP for life. You are identified once, however many businesses you open, and a second NIP is refused. Close your JDG and open a new one years later, and you keep the same NIP.
2. No “private NIP” if you have a PESEL. If your PESEL is your tax identifier, the tax office refuses to give you a NIP. You get one only when you register a business or VAT.

Can a foreigner get a NIP without a PESEL?

It depends on why you need it and on the date.

NIP-7 is the identification form for private individuals. The law says to file it no later than the deadline for your first tax return or your first tax payment. The tax office confirms the NIP within 3 days of a complete form.

For most people, getting a PESEL is the easier path. It is also what a trusted profile (profil zaufany, the free government login) and most online services need. See government logins.

For foreigners: in practice a non-EU citizen will need a PESEL to open a JDG from 1 November 2026, because the alternative identifier comes from an EU country’s eID scheme. It is not yet confirmed that municipal offices accept this rule as a legal reason to issue a PESEL. If you are refused, ask the office which document it needs. The full route is in how a foreigner opens a JDG.

How to look up a company’s numbers

All of these registers are public and free:

• CEIDG, through the search on biznes.gov.pl: sole traders, with NIP, REGON, address and activity codes.
• KRS, at wyszukiwarka-krs.ms.gov.pl: companies. You can download the current or full extract (odpis) yourself, and it has the same legal force as one issued by the court’s information office.
• REGON search by GUS, at wyszukiwarkaregon.stat.gov.pl: every business, whether in CEIDG or KRS.
• The VAT white list (biała lista), on podatki.gov.pl and, since 27 November 2025, also through CEIDG on biznes.gov.pl. You can search by NIP, REGON, bank account number or name. It shows whether the business is an active VAT payer and which business accounts it has reported. You pick the day the result applies to, and you can print the confirmation.

Checking a bank account on the white list

For a business deal above 15,000 PLN, you must pay by bank transfer. When the seller is an active VAT payer, check that its account is on the white list on the day you order the transfer.

If the account is not on the list:

• you are jointly liable for the seller’s VAT on that payment, and
• in 2026 the payment also cannot be a tax cost,

unless you file form ZAW-NR with the seller’s tax office within 7 days. ZAW-NR is the notice that you paid to an account not on the list.

A bill passed by the Sejm (the lower house of parliament) and accepted by the Senate in September 2026 would drop the income-tax part for invoices issued from 1 January 2027. On 24 September 2026 it was still waiting for the President’s signature, so treat it as not yet law.

Bank accounts are published only for businesses registered for VAT. A business that was never registered, or was struck off, can appear on the list without any account.

What to do next

1. Write down your PESEL, NIP and REGON in one place, and add your KRS number if you run a company. Your CEIDG or KRS entry shows all of them.
2. Check that your NIP is on your invoice template, and your client’s NIP when the client is a business.
3. If you are a foreigner planning a JDG, get your PESEL before 1 November 2026 if you can.
4. Before paying a new supplier more than 15,000 PLN, check its account on the white list and keep the printout with the invoice.