How Сan a Foreigner Open a Sole Proprietorship in Poland? Conditions, Documents, and Registration Process

Reloaction.io will help you navigate through any bureaucratic issues related to legalization and adaptation in Poland. The platform is developed based on the experience of individuals who have relocated to Poland and have independently gone through all the legalization processes, knowing how to streamline this process for businesses and digital specialists.

What is a Sole Proprietorship in Poland?

The Polish equivalent of a sole proprietorship is called "jednoosobowa działalność gospodarcza" (JDG). This status implies that an individual conducts business independently. In Poland, this business format is available to both Polish citizens and some foreigners residing in the country.

Sole proprietorships in Poland cover various fields of activity, but are often used for IT specialists to collaborate with large companies for income legalization. This can be beneficial in terms of taxation for both businesses and specialists, serving as an alternative to working under a contract (umowa o pracę or umowa zlecenia).

Who Can Open a Sole Proprietorship in Poland?

Not every foreigner can obtain sole proprietorship status in Poland. The possibility depends on the type of visa and the foreigner's legalization in the country.

Foreigners who can open a sole proprietorship in Poland include those with:

• A valid Polish Card (Karta Polaka)
• Permanent residency permit (karta stałego pobytu)
• Long-term EU resident card (karta długoterminowego rezydenta UE)
• Poland Business Harbour visa (PBH visa)
• Temporary residency permit (karta czasowego pobytu) for family reunification based on "pobyt z cudzoziemcem." This can be obtained by spouses of Blue Card holders.
• Refugee status or international protection.

It is impossible to open a sole proprietorship in Poland with a humanitarian visa or a Blue Card.

What You Need to Open a Sole Proprietorship in Poland?

Before opening a sole proprietorship in Poland, you need to go through a series of interconnected actions, which are often carried out by all incoming foreigners, not just those wanting to start their own business.

Actions are as follows:

• Registration of a SIM card (can be done online through the Orange Flex app). In addition to communication, a phone number will be needed to link all profiles, accounts, cards, and accounts.
• Registration of PESEL – a national identification number consisting of 11 digits (can be obtained at the Uzhond office in about an hour). This number is linked to a bank account and meldunek – registration at a certain address.
• Meldunek – registration at the place of residence is done based on a lease agreement/property ownership confirmation. It is linked to the PESEL number.
• Personal bank account – opened based on a passport + PESEL (an account can be opened at PKO, Santander banks in about an hour). You can open an account and even get a card just with your passport, but for further steps, it is important for the account to be linked to PESEL.
• Trusted profile (Profil zaufany) – an electronic identification tool for solving administrative issues online.

To create a trusted profile, go to the website https://epuap.gov.pl/wps/portal.

There, click on "Zaloguj się" -> "profil zaufany" -> "Zaloguj się przy pomocy banku lub innego dostawcy". Then choose your bank, fill in the login and password (Wpisz login Wpisz hasło), enter your email and repeat the email, confirm in the bank's application.

Then check pz.gov.pl to verify that the profile is set up and working.

After all preparations and collection of necessary documents and information, you can proceed with the process of registering a sole proprietorship.

How to Register a Sole Proprietorship?

Let's proceed directly to the process of registering a sole proprietorship in Poland. We provide detailed instructions on how to fill out the form for registering a sole proprietorship.

Log in to the website https://www.biznes.gov.pl/pl using a trusted profile (Profil zaufany). For convenience, you can switch the website’s language to English in the top right corner.

Next, click on the "ZAREJESTRUJ FIRMĘ" button under "Zarejestruj działalność gospodarcza". After the welcome message and the window with important information, a detailed form to fill out will begin.

Applicant's data (Dane wnoskodawcy). Here you need to enter your nationality, fill in personal details: name, surname, names of father and mother, PESEL, place of birth, passport number.

If there is no NIP (Polish tax identification number) and foreign identification number, mark it accordingly. In the "Joint property" section, mark "Tak" if you are married and do not have a prenuptial agreement. Otherwise, mark "Nie".

Foreigner's data (Dane cudzoziemca). Here you need to provide justification that gives you the right to live and do business in Poland. For Belarusians, these grounds are the Polish Card or the PBH visa. Enter the document number, date of issue, and select the embassy/consulate that issued the visa/card from the search. Keep in mind that the search is in Polish, so it's worth double-checking the city name through a translator.

For Ukrainians, either the justification window does not appear at all, or it is sufficient to enter the PESEL.

Here, you need to upload scans of your passport and visa. To do this, select the checkbox indicating that you are eligible to have a sole proprietorship in Poland and attach documents up to 3.5 MB in size.

Residential address (Adres zamieszkania). Here, you need to enter the actual residential address. If you are abroad, enter the address of your stay. Later, you can change it, and it does not affect your activities.

Company data (Dane firmy). The full name should contain the full name in Latin characters. The short name can be anything.

The start date of activity can be either the current date or a future planned date. Later, you can change the date.

IMPORTANT! For new entrepreneurs, there's a helpful tax break called "ulga na start" that gives you a break from many taxes for the first 6 months. So, it makes sense to delay your start date and ZUS payments until you actually start working.

When it comes to the section asking about the planned number of employees, just count yourself as one. If you're starting a sole proprietorship for yourself, then simply put down 1. You can also tick a box if you plan to hire employees with disabilities.

You can leave the REGON number (National Business Registry Number) blank for now. After that, just fill in your contact details, which will be visible in the CEIDG register. If you don't want your contact info to be published, just select "Nie" to avoid potential spam later on.

Activity Codes (Kody PKD). Simply choose the main activity code that best fits your business from the list provided https://www.biznes.gov.pl/en/table-pkd-code. You can add more if necessary. Remember, the tax rate depends on the selected code, so it's essential to pick the right one.

Mailing Address. Just enter your name and the address where you want to receive government correspondence. If you're renting, use your current address.

Business Address. For IT, you can enter "no permanent place of business." If you work in an office, specify its address.

Insurance Method (ubezpieczenia spoleczne). To pay social security contributions to ZUS, choose it and enter the payment start date – it can coincide with the start of the business activity.

Skarbowy Urzad. This field is automatically filled based on the previously entered address, but if you need a different one, you can find and select it.

Additional Information. Registration of the sole proprietorship ends here, but you can proceed to register with ZUS and choose the tax system by selecting the first option.

To complete the registration, sign the form with a trusted profile (profil zaufany) and download the form. Then click "send the form."

After that, you will be notified of the form's acceptance and the expected response time. Approximately within 3 days, the NIP and REGON numbers will appear in your personal account. You can verify the company's data on the website https://aplikacja.ceidg.gov.pl/.

What to Do Next?

It may seem that once your sole proprietorship (JDG) is registered, you're good to go. However, to earn income, you'll need a business account, and for legalization, you must pay taxes. Therefore, let's briefly specify the steps after registering your JDG:

Registration with ZUS (https://www.zus.pl/) for social security contributions and health insurance. You can do this during the business registration process by continuing to fill out the form. You can also apply the startup incentive, choose the department based on your place of residence, select the tax system and accounting method, and provide addresses for correspondence and registration.

If you don't specify the tax form, the default option will be "on general terms" with a progressive scale ranging from 12% to 32%.

Opening a business bank account. Sole proprietors can use a personal bank account for business purposes, but it's not always advisable. Therefore, it's more common to open a dedicated business account.

Why do this after registering your sole proprietorship?

Because you'll need your NIP and REGON numbers to open an account. Visit the bank in person. PKO is often chosen for its simplicity, or Santander for its partnership with the inFakt accounting program, which allows independent management of invoices. Only Polish citizens have the right to open a business account online.

VAT (Value Added Tax) registration. This step applies only to those earning more than 200,000 PLN per year and/or engaged in consulting activities. Registration is done on the website https://www.biznes.gov.pl/pl. You'll also need your NIP and REGON numbers for this.

Summary

The entire sole proprietorship registration process may take about a week. Afterwards, the entrepreneur receives a 6-month tax incentive, full income legalization, and the opportunity to earn in Poland.

However, the sole proprietorship registration process can be even easier! Contact Reloaction.io for consultation or assistance with business registration, and we'll handle everything quickly and efficiently.

Organizing a business in Poland is easier than it seems with Reloaction.io!