The institution of holidays from ZUS (Zakład Ubezpieczeń Społecznych – Social Insurance Institution) was introduced to the Polish legal system by the Act of 9 May 2024 amending the Act on the social security system and certain other acts (Official Journal of 2024, item 863). It comes into force on 1 November 2024. Holidays from ZUS consist in exempting the contributor from the obligation to pay contributions for his/her own pension insurance for a period of one month in a calendar year. Therefore, the new instance constitutes a form of support for micro-entrepreneurs.
1. Scope of exemption and its duration
The exemption from the obligation to pay contributions is limited. It applies only to the parts of the contributions chargeable to the payer, i.e.: the payer’s own contributions to mandatory social insurances: pension and accident scheme and voluntary sickness insurance, as well as contributions to the Labour Fund and the Solidarity Fund. However, the fact that the exemption is granted doesn’t exclude the payer’s obligation to pay his/her own health contribution, nor doesn’t affect its amount.
Despite the use of exemption, the payer is obliged to pay contributions for the persons he/she has registered with ZUS.
The exemption from paying contributions is granted only for one calendar month in a given year.
2. Amount of relief
The exemption covers contributions up to the amount of the lowest basis for assessment of contributions applicable to a given insured person.
The contributions for the month for which the entrepreneur receives the exemption will be paid from the State budget. The contributions in question are included in the past retirement or pension.
3. Persons entitled to benefit from the exemption
Contribution holidays may be used by persons referred to in Article 8(6)(1) of the Act on the Social Security System (i.e. OJ 2024, item 497), hereinafter refferred to as the Social Insurance Act, i.e. persons conducting non-agricultural economic activity based on the provisions of the Act of 6 March 2018 – Entrepreneurs’ Law or other special provisions.
The legislator stipulates that the exemption is available only to contributors who are required to pay contributions to their own pension and accident insurance. Therefore, it’s impossible to benefit from the exemption if pension and disability insurance contributions are paid voluntarily.
The exemption can by used by partners in a civil partnership who are individuals. Indeed, they are the payers of their own security contributions. A civil partnership pays insurance contributions only if it hires employees or contractors.
4. Conditions for using the exemption
Contribution holidays may be used by a contributor who fulfils the following conditions:
- in the calendar month preceding the month of submitting application, the contribution payer had no more than ten insured persons registered for pension and accident scheme or health insurance – the group of persons registered for insurance includes these ones for whom the entrepreneur pays contributions to ZUS (e.g. employees, contractors, collaborators), but doesn’t include persons who aren’t covered by accident insurance (e.g. those on unpaid leave, parental one);
- in the last 2 calendar years preceding the year of submitting the application, the contributor didn’t generate revenue from non-agricultural economic activity, or, in at least one year of the last 2 calendar years preceding the year of making the request, achieved annual revenue from non-agricultural economic activity not exceeding the PLN equivalent of EUR 2 million – the equivalent in question is calculated according to the average euro exchange rate announced by the National Bank of Poland on the last working day of the calendar year preceding the year of submitting the application for exemption;
- the contributor, as an insured person in the calendar year preceding the year of submitting the request and in the period from the beginning of the calendar year of making the application to the date of filing this application, didn’t conduct non-agricultural economic activity on behalf of a former employer for whom, in the calendar year of commencement of the economic activity or in the previous calendar year, he/she performed, in the framework of an employment relationship or a cooperative employment relationship, activities falling within the scope of the economic activity performed;
- in the calendar month preceding the month of submitting the application, the contributor, as an insured person, was subject to pension and accident scheme for conducting non-agricultural economic activity.
It should be emphasised here that ZUS has obtained the right to request information on the amount of annual revenue from non-agricultural economic activity obtained by the contributor from the Head of the National Tax Administration.
5. Application
In order to benefit from contribution holidays, the contributor should submit an application to ZUS. This should be done in the month preceding the month to which the exemption is to apply.
The request shall be made via the ZUS PUE platform on the following form: RWS application (application for exemption from the obligation to pay contributions for a month indicated). If the partner of a civil-law partnership submits the request, he/she should use his/her payer account on ZUS PUE, not the account of the company of which he/she is a partner.
The application for exemption from the obligation to pay contributions includes:
- data of the contributor:
- first name and surname,
- NIP number and PESEL number, and if these numbers or one of them hasn’t been assigned – the series and number of an identify card or passport;
- indication of the calendar month in which the contributor intends to benefit from the exemption from paying contributions;
- a declaration that on the day of submission of the application, the contributor fulfils conditions for using the exemption;
- certificates (declarations) of de minimis aid and de minimis aid in the agriculture or fisheries received by the contributor during a period of 3 years preceding the date of making the request, or a declaration concerning the volume of such aid obtained during this period, either a declaration that no such aid was received during this period;
- information necessary to grant de minimis aid, concerning the entrepreneur and the economic activity conducted by him, as well as the volume and purpose of public aid received in relations to the same eligible costs for which de minimis aid is to be used.
The contributor shall submit the above-mentioned declarations under penalty of criminal liability for making false statements. The person making declarations is obliged to include in them a clause of the following content: “I am aware of the criminal liability for making a false statement.”. This clause replaces the authority’s instruction on criminal liability for making false declarations.
The contributor will receive a message regarding the application via his/her ZUS PUE account. If the payer is exempted from paying contributions in full, the contributor will receive a message from ZUS. On the other hand, an exemption from the obligation to pay contributions in part or a refusal of exemption will take the form of an administrative decision.
6. De minimis aid
De minimis aid constitutes exemption from paying contributions. Only the contributor who has a de minimis aid limit of at least the amount of the sum of the social security contributions applicable to him/her in the calendar month indicated that are subject to exemption may be exempted from payment.
7. Settlement documents for the month in which the exemption was used
The following documents must be submitted for the month in which the contributor takes advantage of the contribution holidays:
- settlement declaration;
- personal monthly report with information on contributions financed by the State budget for the payer – the report should include the insurance code informing about the use of the relief:
- 05 14 – a person conducting non-agricultural economic activity, exempt from paying contributions, for whom the basis of assessment of social insurance contributions is 60% of the amount of the projected average monthly salary;
- 05 74 – a person conducting non-agricultural economic activity, exempt from paying contributions, for whom the basis of assessment of social insurance contributions is 30% of the amount of the minimum wage;
- 05 94 – a person conducting non-agricultural economic activity, exempt from paying contributions, for whom the basis of assessment of social insurance contributions depends on income;
- personal monthly report with information on contributions financed by the person paying contributions for himself/herself;
- in the case of reporting other insured persons to insurance – personal reports for these insured persons.
8. Legal notice
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