Job Discussion Forums

[Infinite]

So here's my take on ZUS.

I've been paying it for years now and finally said - enough is enough haha... In my opinion, for native speakers especially, this is an absolute waste of resources. Especially after your initial two years is up.

Even if you're planning on retiring in Poland, you're much better off putting that money in a sock. Investing it in pretty much anything - property, stocks, bonds, gambling on horses... would secure your future... ZUS however, will not.

Even if you're running a sole proprietorship and have manged to secure some solid contracts, it's still absolutely not worth it. That's 1050PLN that you could be investing somewhere else. Now, if you actually got something out of it, such as benefits and a secured pension, then I'd reconsider. What you're putting your money into however, is a black hole that may or may not be there when you retire.

There are few other options available and more pop up each year. For anyone who owns property out west or has a family that could register a business for them there, I'd suggest to do just that. There's also the Estonian e-residence card which just happened to start this year. An option well worth your consideration.

I wonder what's your take on ZUS and what are some other options like the star up programs or business incubators et....

[Master Shake]

I paid ZUS for 3.5 years as a sole proprietorship. There are 3 payments I made every month my company was operational. Figures are from April 2014, the last month I paid:

Labor Insurance (55zl): I guess this was supposed to cover you if you were ill for an extended period of time. However, I heard the amount you'd actually get was pitifully small. I never actually needed to use it, but didn't resent it too much, considering the relatively low price.

Health Insurance (270zl): Everyone needs health insurance, and this one is good to have if something serious happens. I made use of this a handful of times in Warsaw and had mixed experiences, almost all of them involving very long wait times. I guess it's better than nothing, but there are better private options available in this price range.

Social Insurance (662zl): This one's the real buggabear, the one Infinite's lamenting. My biggest gripe with this is that it's the same high amount regardless of how much you earn. I would sometimes shut my company down over the summer, winter break, etc. to avoid paying this. It's prorated, so if you shut down your company for half the month, you only pay half. Still, this is probably the biggest deterrent to those seeking to start up a company to teach English in Poland.

On the plus side, ZUS is basically halved the first 2 years your sole proprietorship is open. Enough time to decide if teaching English in Poland long term is right for you!

[delphian-domine]

My friend has just signed up for this - http://aip.org.pl/ - and has good reviews so far. They seem to be a lot more honest than the Twój Startup crowd, and there's the possibility of invoicing in different currencies.

With ZUS - you need to look at it from a historical point of view. ZUS has huge liabilities with pre-1990 contributions - they were in 'soft' złoty, so the numbers there are pretty much fictional estimates instead of being based on any sort of reality. No government had the guts to tell people that these contributions were effectively pure fiction in a monetary sense, so ZUS now has to use people's hard currency now to pay for their soft currency liabilities.

It's absolutely right that the minimum contributions are too high. But anyone considering registering a business abroad should be careful - ZUS has access to foreign social insurance institutions, and they've been really going after people in the last year or so for being self-employed in a different jurisdiction. If you're caught, they'll hammer you for all the back contributions - which could be a monumental bill. I've read reports of people having to pay back in excess of 100,000zł to ZUS, for instance.

But the system is also so dramatically unfair. I know one guy who owns a large factory and earns an astonishing amount - his monthly contributions? Same as the freelance English teacher. The Czechs seem to have a better system - minimum contributions of around 600zł a month for social insurance and healthcare, with it going up on a sliding scale. Anyone earning below a certain amount (I think it's around 3000zł a year) pays nothing in income tax.

Infinite, did you say in another thread that you were giving one of those incubators a shot? How is it working?

[Infinite]

[sparks]

I hate ZUS. I hate Old people. Ungrateful communists. Thinking about either makes my Blood pressure skyrocket.

[Infinite]

So a bit of an update. Things are looking good so far, the customer service is great, I had to deal with a small mistake in billing on my part and was able to take care of everything with a single call and a quick visit to the location at my convenience.

Also, I was hoping not to have to rely on ZUS or NFZ (national healthcare system) but as luck would have it, I did have an incident and had to spend over a week at an NFZ hospital. Surprisingly, it was a great experience. So... to sum it up. 60pln for ZUS for a four family plan and 250PLN for the StartUp. In total 310PLN +9% Income tax... That pretty much, at the very least, saves me between 20K to 30K per year.
Which is great, since I just singe up with an international program of online teaching and getting paid in $$$ (heeeeehawwww) and will have a nice chunk of change to put away each month. If you're paying for ZUS, that's 1120per month now.. full.... plus 19% income tax.... you do the math.

[sparks]

Wait... So which one are you using? My wife is trying Twoj Start up for teaching English they make you send them "course development" materials each month. You're not supposed to just copy the class log at whatever school you work for but are supposed to write a bunch of other garbage. She doesn't really do it and they threaten to not make the bank transfer if she doesn't but so far she has been getting her money from them.

[dragonpiwo]

It's because it's a tax dodge. You are a te