The COVID-19 epidemic has put many companies in a very difficult situation. The loss of income and reduced demand for products and services has negatively affected the financial situation of businesses. In addition, the loss of financial liquidity makes it impossible to pay current social security contributions.
ZUS has declared assistance and prepared facilitations for companies operating in a difficult situation.
Payment in instalments and deferral of ZUS payments
If, due to the coronavirus epidemic, an entrepreneur has encountered problems with:
- payment of current contributions to ZUS, or
- same problems have arisen in a person running a business, who has concluded an agreement with ZUS to spread the debt to ZUS into instalments or an agreement to postpone the payment of contributions,
he may benefit from simplified forms of aid:
- deferral of the date of payment of ZUS contributions by 3 months (for the period from February to April 2020),
- extension of the deadline for repayment in instalments by 3 months (in cases where the deadline for payment was set between March and May 2020).
To receive the relief for entrepreneurs, you must fill in the application form available on the ZUS website (link)
The application should be sent using the PUE ZUS portal, submitted in a box available in ZUS offices or sent by post.
The application must indicate how the COVID-19 outbreak has affected the financial situation of the undertaking and that this situation makes it impossible to pay the fees on time.
ZUS emphasises that submitting an application does not ensure that the relief is granted.
If the application is successful, a contract will be sent to the e-mail address indicated by the applicant or by post (if no e-mail address is indicated in the application). The received document should be signed and then sent back to the sender as a scan.
Within 14 days counting from the end of the epidemic, paper originals of documents should be sent to ZUS. If this requirement is not met ZUS will consider that the agreement has not been concluded and the granted relief will be withdrawn. This will result in the calculation of interest on receivables covered by the agreement.
If the entrepreneur’s financial situation does not improve within 3 months, he will be able to request renegotiation of the contract.
Relief from social security contributions
Employers with less than 10 employees are entitled to be exempted from social security contributions for 3 months (March, April, May 2020) if:
- as of 29 February 2020, less than 10 people were registered for social security, and
- they will apply to the Social Insurance Institution by 30 June 2020 at the latest.
There is also a possibility of exemption from payment of social security contributions by persons conducting business activity, whose economic situation deteriorated due to the COVID-19 epidemic and in the first month of submitting the application the income from conducting business activity is less than 3 times the forecasted average gross monthly remuneration in the national economy in 2020, which is 15,681 PLN.
In addition, employers are exempted from paying the pro-long-up fee in the event of submitting, in the course of an epidemic emergency, an epidemic or for 30 days after their cancellation, an application to postpone the payment of contributions or spread the payment of contributions in instalments for the period from 1 January 2020.