Why open a business in Poland
Starting a business in Poland is open to everyone.
Being a member of the EU and NATO makes Poland a politically stable nation with a huge local market, right in the middle of Europe.
Lately Poland’s growth is one of the highest in the European Union, and this trend is expected to continue. Furthermore the country’s economy wasn’t as effected by the recent crisis as its Western neighbours were.
When it comes to innovation in the financial sector, it can be said that Poland is one of the world leaders in the adoption of new fintech solutions, especially when it comes to the use of contactless payment cards (and mobile payments).
In accordance with the Masterindex 2018 survey on pan-European e-commerce, Poles use contactless payments cards 20 times more often than their German neighbours, and 3 times as much as European average.
In recent years, thanks to European Funds, Poland invested heavily in its road, rail and energy infrastructure.
Polish economic growth remains solid and sustainable: 5,1% 2018 and a projected 3.5-4% growth in 2019 and 2020.
The annual inflation rate in Poland fell to 1,6 per cent (GUS, January 2019).
After the recent Standard & Poor’s update of Poland’s credit rating, as of February 2019, the three main global agencies give Poland the following ratings:
- Fitch: „A-”; outlook — stable.
- Moody’s: „A2”; outlook — stable.
- S&P: „A-”; outlook — stable.
All this makes Poland a very promising and attractive place for potential new investors and businesses.
Conducting business activities in Poland
Setting up a business in a new country may be overwhelming, however we prepared some information for those, who wants to open a company here in Poland. First of all:
If you would like to do it online, you need the so-called ePUAP trusted profile. It’s a nationwide platform used for online communication between Polish citizens and its government offices.
However in order to get such profile, you have to obtain the Polish PESEL number beforehand.
PESEL is a 11-digit personal identification number in Poland, that you can obtain automatically, when you register your address of residence in Poland. In Polish it’s called „Zameldowanie”.
People, who lived in German-speaking countries may be familiar with the process of Anmeldung. The Polish equivalent is similar.
If getting the PESEL number is out of the question, you will have to visit the notary office, where your company’s articles of incorporation must be notarised. Keep in mind, if you do not speak Polish, you are obliged to use an interpreter as well.
Second of all: in accordance with the applicable Polish law, the following persons can register new companies on equal terms with Polish citizens:
- UE citizens;
- Other European Economic Area citizens (i.e. Iceland, Norway, Lichtenstein);
- Pole’s Card holders — Karta Polaka;
- Long-term EU-resident permit holders;
- Permanent Resident status holders,
- Refugee status holders,
and a number of other exceptions described in the Act on the rules of participation of foreign entrepreneurs and other foreign persons in the economic trade on the territory of Poland.
This basically means, that if you come from a neighbouring UE country, you can register any type of company that you need.
However, if you are not a citizen of a Member State of the European Union or of the European Economic Area; do not have a valid Pole’s Card, a refugee status, temporary protection or do not meet a number of other conditions, specified in the Act, you may conduct business activities only in the form of the following 4 partnerships:
- a registered partnership — Spółka komandytowa;
- limited joint-stock partnership — Spółka komandytowo akcyjna;
- limited liability company — Spółka z ograniczoną odpowiedzialnością (Sp. z o.o.);
- joint stock company — Spółka Akcyjna (S.A.).
In accordance with the law, you may also join the above mentioned companies, acquire them and subscribe for shares.
Once the registration process is complete, and the forms have been processed by the National Court Register (KRS), a unique business number will be assigned to your business, the so-called KRS number.
You can check if your company’s registration process is complete, by accessing the National Court Register online.
Latvian company needs accounting/tax support for Polish self-employed colleagues
Hello,
My name is Andrejs and I am writing on behalf of Scandiweb (IT entity registered in Latvia).
At the moment we are planning to onboard two self-employed people from Poland (Poland citizens). They are going to live and work from Poland for us, and issue MONTHLY invoices to us (as self-employed). It is highly likely that we will employ more people from Poland in the future in the same way.
We would like these colleagues from Poland to concentrate only on their work and we will provide them FULL support on all tax/legal matters. For example, we need to help them to register as self-employed in Poland (if not yet), calculate taxes, create monthly invoices, create necessary tax reports/declarations for them, instruct them how and when to pay their taxes.
Basically, we need to find an accounting firm in Poland as a partner who will help us to onboard and provide tax/accounting service to these colleagues in Poland. Each colleague by default will have just ONE invoice per month.
The process will be something like this:
- You help the person to register as self-employed in Poland (if necessary)
- We sign a self-employed agreement with the person (we have a template)
And then on a monthly basis:
- We inform you how much we pay him (NET amount)
- You calculate taxes, create an invoice (incl. taxes) and an act of work done
- You send the invoice and act to us
- We pay him
And then on a monthly/annual basis (depending on Polish requirements):
- You create tax report/declaration for him- You instruct him on how much, when, how to pay his self-employed taxes
For sure, these colleagues might have some additional personal income source or other personal obstacles that would influence their personal self-employed taxes. However, we just want to keep it simple - we calculate and pay the taxes to them only on the NET amounts that WE (Scandiweb) pay to these colleagues.
Is it something you can help us with and be our Polish accounting partner? If yes, please let me know what would be your price for one Polish colleague per month.