What is ZUS, and how much will you pay in 2026?

ZUS (Zakład Ubezpieczeń Społecznych, the Social Insurance Institution) is where a Polish sole trader pays for their own pension, disability and accident insurance, and for public healthcare. How much you pay in 2026 depends mostly on how long your business has existed: from about 430 PLN a month in the first six months to about 2,200 PLN a month once every start-up relief has run out. You pay by the 20th of the next month, in one transfer.

What ZUS pays for

If you run a JDG (jednoosobowa działalność gospodarcza, a sole proprietorship), you are your own employer, so you pay the contributions an employer would. They come in two parts.

Social contributions (składki społeczne):

• pension (emerytalna), 19.52% of your contribution base
• disability (rentowa), 8%
• accident (wypadkowa), 1.67% for anyone insuring up to 9 people
• sickness (chorobowa), 2.45%, voluntary: you only pay it if you ask to join
• Labour Fund and Solidarity Fund (Fundusz Pracy and Fundusz Solidarnościowy, FP/FS), 2.45% together, only when your base is at least the minimum wage (and not for women aged 55 or more or men aged 60 or more)

The base is not your income. For most people it is a fixed amount set by law each year, which is why ZUS costs the same in a good month and a bad one.

The health contribution (składka zdrowotna) gives you and your registered family members public healthcare through NFZ (Narodowy Fundusz Zdrowia, the National Health Fund). It depends on your tax form. On the tax scale (skala) or flat tax (liniowy) it follows your income; on ryczałt (a lump-sum tax on revenue) it follows your revenue band. It is due every month you run the business, including the months when you pay no social contributions.

Two numbers drive the 2026 amounts: the minimum wage of 4,806 PLN and the forecast average wage of 9,420 PLN.

The four stages for a new JDG

Poland lets new businesses pay less at first. Using every relief, ZUS’s own example shows reduced contributions for more than five and a half years.

Ulga na start is for people starting a business for the first time, or again at least 60 months after they last closed or suspended one. It is not available if you work for a former employer doing what you did for them as an employee in the current or previous year.

You pay no social contributions for up to 6 full calendar months, only health. If you start on the 1st, that month counts; if you start mid-month, the count begins the next month. Suspending the business does not stop the clock. The price is that these months give you no sickness or accident cover and do not count towards a pension. Details in the guide to ulga na start.

Preferential ZUS follows for 24 calendar months, on a base of 30% of the minimum wage (1,441.80 PLN). In 2026 that is 281.44 PLN pension, 115.34 disability and 24.08 accident, plus 35.32 if you choose sickness insurance. No FP/FS.

Mały ZUS Plus bases your social contributions on half of last year’s average monthly income, kept between 1,441.80 and 5,652 PLN. FP/FS is added once that base reaches 4,806 PLN. It needs revenue of no more than 120,000 PLN last year and at least 60 days of business in that year. You must opt in by 31 January, or within 7 days of first qualifying (for example the day after your 24 preferential months end); miss it and the relief is lost for the rest of that year. See how Mały ZUS Plus works.

Full ZUS is calculated from 60% of the forecast average wage, 5,652 PLN. In 2026: pension 1,103.27, disability 452.16, accident 94.39 and FP/FS 138.47 PLN, plus 138.47 for sickness if you want it. Over 99% of entrepreneurs pay on this minimum base.

Watch out: 31 January 2027 is a Sunday, and ZUS has not said whether the Mały ZUS Plus deadline moves to Monday. If you want to join from January 2027, register by Friday 29 January 2027 to be safe. If you are already on Mały ZUS Plus in 2026 and still qualify, you carry on without registering again and report last year’s income in your ZUS DRA (the monthly settlement form).

The health contribution in 2026

On the tax scale and flat tax, 432.54 PLN is the minimum from February 2026 to January 2027. On ryczałt the amounts apply from January to December 2026, and you move up a band in the month your revenue since 1 January crosses the threshold. Once a year you reconcile the health contribution in the ZUS DRA for April, filed by 20 May. How to estimate yours, and how much of it you can deduct, is in the health contribution guide.

What you pay in total each month

With the lowest health contribution on the tax scale or flat tax and no sickness insurance, a 2026 month looks like this:

On ryczałt, swap in your band’s amount. With a good income on the tax scale or flat tax, the health contribution will be higher than the minimum. Social contributions reduce your taxable income or revenue under every tax form, so their real cost is a little lower.

How and when to pay

By the 20th of the following month, you do two things:

1. File a ZUS DRA, the monthly settlement, in eZUS (ZUS’s online portal, formerly PUE ZUS), or through your accountant or accounting software. Since 2022 every sole trader registered with ZUS files it every month, including during ulga na start. Only months when the business is suspended for the whole month need nothing.
2. Pay one transfer to your NRS (numer rachunku składkowego), your personal 26-digit ZUS account. It usually contains your NIP (tax identification number), and you find it in the letter from ZUS, in eZUS, or with the NRS search on zus.pl. One transfer covers social, health and FP/FS. ZUS applies it to your oldest debt first.

When the 20th falls on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, the deadline moves to the next working day. In 2026 that happened on 22 June and 21 September, and will happen again on 21 December 2026. The payment for December 2026 is due on Wednesday 20 January 2027.

The registration forms, all due within 7 days of starting or of any change, and all attachable to your application in CEIDG, the public register of sole traders:

If you have a job, or are insured in another EU country

A job at the same time. If your employment contract guarantees at least the minimum wage (4,806 PLN in 2026), you are socially insured through the job only. From the JDG you pay only the health contribution, registered on ZUS ZZA, and you may add social contributions voluntarily. If the job pays less, you pay social contributions from both. The 24 preferential months keep running while you pay health only. More in running a JDG alongside a job.

Insured in another EU country. Under EU rules you are insured in one member state at a time, and that country covers both social and health insurance. If you are employed in one state and self-employed in another, you are insured where you are employed. If you are self-employed in two or more states, you are insured where you live if you do a substantial part of your work there (roughly a quarter or more). If another country’s law applies, you get an A1 certificate from that country (the EU form that proves which system covers you), tick “insured abroad” (Jestem ubezpieczony za granicą) in CEIDG, and give the A1 to your ZUS branch. You then pay neither Polish social nor Polish health contributions. Without the A1, ZUS will ask you to register and pay in Poland. See insured abroad.

For foreigners: citizenship makes no difference to ZUS. A business you ran earlier in another EU or EEA country or Switzerland, under that country’s law, does not stop you using the preferential base. Whether it counts against ulga na start is not confirmed; ask ZUS on 22 560 16 00 before you register.

What to do next

1. Work out your stage: when did you open the business, and have you had one in the last 60 months?
2. Check that the right code is registered (05 40, 05 70, 05 90 or 05 10) in eZUS.
3. Find your NRS and set a reminder for the 20th of every month.
4. If your preferential months are ending and your revenue stays under 120,000 PLN, register for Mały ZUS Plus within 7 days of them ending, or by 29 January 2027 if you want it from January 2027 and are not on it already.
5. Once you pay social contributions (not during ulga na start), you can have one month a year paid by the state with the ZUS holiday: apply in eZUS during the month before. The health contribution is still due that month.