Mały ZUS Plus in 2026: lower ZUS based on your income, who qualifies and how to apply

Mały ZUS Plus lets a sole trader pay social contributions to ZUS (the Social Insurance Institution) on half of last year’s average monthly income, instead of on the fixed full base. You qualify if last year’s revenue was no more than 120,000 PLN, and from 2026 you can use it for up to 36 months in every 60. You must register by 31 January, or within 7 days of qualifying.

It often cuts the monthly ZUS bill by more than half, and your future pension with it.

Who can use it

You can use it in a given year if all of this is true:

• you run a business registered in CEIDG, the public register of sole traders
• your revenue (przychód, what you invoiced, before costs) from the business last year was no more than 120,000 PLN
• last year you were insured through the business (for social or health insurance) for at least 60 days

You cannot use it:

• in your first year of business
• while you are still entitled to preferential ZUS: the 24 months of reduced contributions that follow ulga na start (start-up relief)
• while you work, in your business, for a former or current employer, doing what you did for them as an employee this year or last year
• if last year you paid tax as karta podatkowa (the tax card) and were exempt from VAT
• if last year you were also insured through another business, for example as a partner in a spółka jawna (general partnership)

The sole shareholder of a sp. z o.o. (a limited company) cannot use it either. The relief is only for people running a business in their own name.

If you ran the business for only part of last year, the 120,000 PLN limit shrinks in proportion. Divide 120,000 PLN by the days in the year, then multiply by the days you were insured through the business. Days on ulga na start count. Days of suspension do not, and neither do days you were insured in KRUS (the farmers’ scheme) or abroad.

Example: you were insured through your JDG (sole trader’s business) from 1 July to 31 December 2025, 184 days. Your limit for 2026 is 120,000 ÷ 365 × 184 = 60,493.15 PLN of 2025 revenue.

How your contribution base is worked out

ZUS uses three steps.

1. Take last year’s business income (dochód, revenue minus costs) and work out the average for 30 days: income ÷ days in business × 30.
2. Halve it.
3. Keep the result between the 2026 minimum of 1,441.80 PLN (30% of the minimum wage) and the maximum of 5,652.00 PLN (60% of the forecast average wage).

Two details change the income you start from:

• On ryczałt (the lump-sum tax on revenue), your “income” is 50% of your revenue.
• If you booked your social contributions as a cost, add them back to the income first.

Your social contributions are then the usual rates applied to that base:

• pension 19.52%
• disability 8%
• accident 1.67%
• sickness insurance 2.45% (voluntary)

The Labour Fund and Solidarity Fund (FP/FS, 2.45%) apply only when your base reaches the 2026 minimum wage of 4,806 PLN. Women over 55 and men over 60 do not pay them.

Amounts in 2026

The table is for someone insured through the business for the whole of 2025 (our arithmetic, from ZUS’s method and rates).

For comparison, full ZUS in 2026 is 1,788.29 PLN a month without sickness insurance.

Because revenue is capped at 120,000 PLN, income on the tax scale or flat tax can be 120,000 PLN at most. That gives a base of 4,931.51 PLN and 1,560.33 PLN a month without sickness, FP/FS included. On ryczałt, 50% of 120,000 PLN gives a base of at most 2,465.76 PLN.

Example: you pay ryczałt and invoiced 90,000 PLN in 2025. Your income for ZUS is 45,000 PLN and your 2026 base is 1,849.32 PLN. You pay 539.82 PLN a month in social contributions instead of 1,788.29 PLN. Your health contribution is added on top, as before.

How long it lasts: 36 months in every 60

The counting rules changed on 1 January 2026. You can now use Mały ZUS Plus for up to 36 calendar months in each 60-month period of running the business, and you get a new 36 months in every following 60-month period.

• Everyone started again in 2026, whatever they used before.
• Your first 60-month period starts in the first month you use the relief after December 2025.
• Unused months do not carry over. If you use 24 of your 36 months, the next period still gives you 36, not 48.
• If you use all 36 months early, you pay more until your 60-month period ends.
• A month counts in full if you used the relief, or were insured through the business, for at least one day of it.

People who used Mały ZUS Plus in 2023 were given 12 extra months. Any still unused at the end of 2025 can be used later, but only after the new 36 months are used up.

What suspension changes

Suspending the business (zawieszenie działalności) affects Mały ZUS Plus in three ways.

• The clocks stop. A whole calendar month of suspension is neither a month of relief nor a month of insured business. It counts towards neither the 36 months nor the 60-month period.
• Last year’s limit shrinks. Suspended days are left out when the 120,000 PLN limit is pro-rated. A long suspension can also leave you under the 60 insured days you need.
• Resuming may need a new registration. In ZUS’s example, if you already registered for Mały ZUS Plus earlier in the same year, you keep it after resuming. If you resume in a later year, register with code 05 90 within 7 days of the day you resume.

More on the pause itself in how to suspend a JDG.

How to apply, and by when

Register with ZUS under the Mały ZUS Plus insurance code: 05 90 xx, or 05 92 xx if you receive a disability pension.

• Use ZUS ZUA (registration for social and health insurance).
• Use ZUS ZZA (registration for health insurance only) if you pay only the health contribution through the business, for example because you also have a job that pays at least the minimum wage.
• If you are switching from another code, also deregister it on ZUS ZWUA.

ZUS has not said whether the 2027 deadline moves to Monday 1 February, so do not count on it.

If you miss your deadline, or register with another code, ZUS treats it as giving up the relief for the rest of that year. You can also leave at any time, but then you cannot come back that year.

Every year you use it, part II of your ZUS DRA (the monthly settlement form) for January, or for the first month after you start or resume, must show:

• last year’s revenue and income
• your tax form
• your base

If you employ staff, use part II of ZUS RCA instead. ZUS may ask for the documents behind those figures, and you then have 14 days to send them. If you do not, ZUS sets your base at the full ZUS base (5,652.00 PLN in 2026) for every month of that year.

Common mistakes

• Forgetting to add back contributions booked as costs. Your base comes out too low, and the figures in your ZUS DRA are wrong.
• Assuming it also cuts the health contribution. It does not. The health contribution follows your tax form; see the health contribution.

Is it worth it?

For cash flow, usually yes: at 45,000 PLN of income, about 1,250 PLN a month compared with full ZUS.

The price is what the contributions buy:

• Pension. It is built from what goes into your pension account. On the 1,849.32 PLN base that is 360.99 PLN a month, against 1,103.27 PLN on full ZUS.
• Sickness pay. It is also calculated from your base, so a low base means a low allowance.

If that worries you, you can pay on a higher base than the calculated one in any month. Or save the difference yourself, for example in IKZE (an individual retirement account), which you can deduct in your annual tax return.

The yearly ZUS holiday, one month without social contributions, still works on Mały ZUS Plus.

Getting ready for 2027

No change to Mały ZUS Plus has been enacted for 2027. The minimum wage for 2027 is 4,950 PLN, so if the rules stay the same the minimum base becomes 1,485.00 PLN. The maximum depends on the 2027 forecast average wage, which is not known yet. The limit stays at 120,000 PLN unless the law changes: a bill to raise it to 200,000 PLN has been waiting for its first reading in committee since November 2025.

1. Add up your 2026 business revenue so far and estimate the year. If it will stay within 120,000 PLN, you can use Mały ZUS Plus in 2027.
2. Work out your 2026 income for the base, adding back any social contributions booked as costs.
3. Register with code 05 90 by Friday 29 January 2027, or within 7 days of qualifying.
4. Decide whether to pay on a higher base, or save for your pension another way.
5. For the whole path from start-up relief to full ZUS, read ZUS explained and start-up relief and preferential ZUS.