Ulga na start and preferential ZUS: what you pay in your first 30 months

For your first 30 months as a new sole trader in Poland (a JDG, jednoosobowa działalność gospodarcza), you usually pay much less to ZUS, the social insurance institution. For up to 6 months, ulga na start (start-up relief) means no social contributions at all, only the health contribution. Then, for 24 months, preferential ZUS (preferencyjny ZUS, often called mały ZUS) costs 420.86 PLN a month in 2026, plus health.

Both reliefs are optional and both have conditions. The first one also has a real cost, which Polish forums call pułapka, the trap.

What you pay, month by month

The table uses 2026 amounts. It assumes the lowest health contribution on the tax scale (skala) or flat tax (liniowy), and no voluntary sickness insurance. The health minimum shown applies from February 2026 to January 2027.

Preferential ZUS is calculated on a base of 30% of the minimum wage: 1,441.80 PLN in 2026. It is made up of:

You pay nothing to the Labour Fund or the Solidarity Fund (FP/FS) during either relief. During ulga na start there is no social contribution at all, and the preferential base is below the minimum wage.

On ryczałt (the lump-sum tax on revenue), the health contribution in 2026 is a fixed amount set by your revenue so far in the calendar year: 498.35 PLN up to 60,000 PLN, 830.58 PLN up to 300,000 PLN, and 1,495.04 PLN above that. On the tax scale or flat tax it is a percentage of income, so with a good income it will be higher than the minimum. The health contribution guide shows how to work out yours.

At 2026 amounts, the minimum for all 30 months comes to about 23,077 PLN (6 × 432.54 plus 24 × 853.40). The real figure will be a little higher, because the amounts change every year.

Example: you open a JDG on Monday 1 June 2026. Ulga na start covers June to November 2026. Preferential ZUS runs from 1 December 2026 to 30 November 2028. Your first preferential contribution, for December 2026, is due by Wednesday 20 January 2027.

What changes in 2027. The minimum wage for 2027 is 4,950 PLN. If the rules stay the same:

• the preferential base becomes 1,485 PLN
• social contributions become about 433.47 PLN a month (469.85 PLN with sickness)
• the minimum health contribution on the tax scale or flat tax rises to 445.50 PLN from February 2027

ZUS normally publishes the official 2027 amounts in late December. The accident rate may also change from April 2027, which would move the total by a few złoty.

Who can use it, and who cannot

Ulga na start: you are starting a business for the first time, or starting again at least 60 calendar months after you last closed or suspended one.

Preferential ZUS: a similar test. You must have had no non-agricultural business now or in the 60 calendar months before you start. Here ZUS counts more than a JDG: being a partner in a spółka jawna (general partnership) or another partnership, being the sole shareholder of a sp. z o.o. (limited company), creative or artistic work, and freelance professions.

Neither relief is open to you if, in your business, you work for a former employer doing what you did for them as an employee in the current or previous calendar year. The classic case: a programmer leaves a job in March and invoices the same company for the same work from April. For preferential ZUS the rule also covers a current employer. If you start such work during your 24 months, you lose the preferential base from that day and get it back from the day you stop.

Ulga na start also does not apply to someone who stays in KRUS, the farmers’ insurance scheme.

The trap: what ulga na start does not give you

During ulga na start you are not covered by social insurance at all, neither compulsorily nor voluntarily. That means:

• no sickness allowance if you fall ill, and no accident benefits
• no maternity benefit from the business
• no pension time: the months do not count towards your pension
• no voluntary sickness insurance, and no pension contributions paid on the side

Your health insurance still works, because you pay the health contribution. You can see a doctor through NFZ, the National Health Fund. You just get no money from ZUS while you cannot work.

Whether this matters depends on your life. For someone healthy with savings, six months without cover is usually a fair trade for about 2,500 PLN saved. For someone planning a child, or with no savings to fall back on, it may not be.

Even on preferential ZUS the cover is modest. Voluntary sickness insurance needs 90 days of uninterrupted cover before it pays anything. On the 2026 preferential base, the allowance is about 995 PLN for a 30-day month.

You can leave ulga na start early by registering for social insurance. But you cannot go back to it, and you could use it again only in a business started at least 60 months after this one is closed or suspended.

Suspending the business does not stop the clock

Suspending the business (zawieszenie działalności) does not stop the 6-month clock, and it does not extend the 24 months. A month of suspension is a month of relief used up. If you know you will pause soon after opening, you may prefer to open later.

If your 6 or 24 months end while you are suspended, ZUS does not switch you over. When you resume, file the new registration yourself within 7 days. See how suspension works.

A job does not pause the clock either. If your employment contract pays at least the minimum wage, you pay only the health contribution from the JDG, and the 24 preferential months keep running anyway. More in running a JDG alongside a job.

Foreigners and people insured abroad

Citizenship makes no difference. A foreigner with a JDG in CEIDG, the public register of sole traders, uses the reliefs on the same terms as a Pole. That includes Ukrainians, who since 5 March 2026 run a business under the general rules for foreigners.

An earlier business abroad is less clear:

• In another EU or EEA country, or in Switzerland: it does not block preferential ZUS, provided Polish social security law never applied to it. ZUS’s own guide gives the example of people previously self-employed in Spain. Whether the same applies to ulga na start’s 60-month test is not confirmed.
• In Ukraine, as a FOP (a Ukrainian sole-trader business): whether ZUS counts it against the 60 months is not confirmed.

If either case is yours, ask ZUS on 22 560 16 00 before you register, and keep a note of the answer.

If you are insured in another EU country under EU rules and hold an A1 certificate (the EU form showing which country’s social security rules apply to you), you pay neither Polish social nor Polish health contributions. Neither relief applies to you. See insured abroad.

How to register, and how to switch after 6 months

When you open the business. Attach the ZUS form to your CEIDG-1 application (the form that registers a JDG):

If you skip the attachment, send the form within 7 days of starting: through eZUS (ZUS’s online portal), at a ZUS office, or by changing your CEIDG entry.

When the six months start. If you start on the 1st, that month is the first of your six. If you start mid-month, the count begins the next month, and the days before it are free of social contributions too. Start on 7 February, and the relief runs to 31 August.

When ulga na start ends. Nothing switches over by itself. Within 7 days of the day after your 6 months end:

1. File ZUS ZWUA to deregister from code 05 40.
2. File ZUS ZUA to register with code 05 70. Tick sickness insurance here if you want it.
3. From that month, your ZUS DRA (the monthly settlement form) shows the preferential social contributions as well as health. You pay both in one transfer by the 20th of the next month, or the next working day if the 20th is a weekend or public holiday.

You file a ZUS DRA every month of the 30, including during ulga na start. Only a month in which the business is suspended from start to end needs nothing.

When preferential ZUS ends. After 24 months you move to full ZUS (1,788.29 PLN a month without sickness in 2026), or to Mały ZUS Plus, contributions based on last year’s income, if last year’s revenue was no more than 120,000 PLN. You can switch to Mały ZUS Plus from the day after your 24 months end. Register within 7 days of that day, or you lose it for the rest of the year.

What to do next

1. Count back 60 months: have you run any business since then, in Poland or elsewhere?
2. Check whether your first client is a former employer, for the same kind of work.
3. Decide whether six months without sickness, maternity and pension cover suits you, or whether to go straight to preferential ZUS.
4. Put a reminder in your calendar for the day your 6 months end, and another for the end of month 30.
5. For the full picture of what comes later, read what ZUS is and how much you will pay.