Poland

Starting a Business in

Poland

Listed below is a detailed summary of the bureaucratic and legal hurdles an entrepreneur must overcome in order to incorporate and register a new firm, along with their associated time and set-up costs.  It examines the procedures, time and cost involved in launching a commercial or industrial firm with up to 50 employees and start-up capital of 10 times the economy's per-capita gross national income (GNI).

The information appearing on this page was collected as part of the Doing Business project, which measures and compares regulations relevant to the life cycle of a small- to medium-sized domestic business in 183 economies. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2011.

  • Standardized Company

  • Legal Form: Sp z.o.o. - Limited Liability Company
  • City: Warsaw

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No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Notarize company agreement

The maximum fee to notarize the company deed of association cannot exceed PLN 10,000 plus VAT and civil law transaction tax. To set up the whole company (taxes, social insurance, registered office, and so forth) a lawyer would normally charge between PLN 5,000 and PLN 25,000
1 day notarial fee is (PLN 1,010 + 0.4% of the amount of share capital over PLN 60,000) +23%VAT; additionally 0.5% civil law transactions tax is levied on the amount of share capital less the amount of notarial fees and court fees charged for registration of the company.
2 Deposit paid-in capital at the bank

To open a bank account, a limited liability company must provide the bank with the founding deed and a REGON certificate. Since REGON certificate is obtained by the companies after the registration in the court, most banks either require all registration, statistical and tax certificates or open the bank accounts based on mere articles of association (the account has passive status only) and give the account an active status once the company provides the registration, statistical (and tax) certificates.
1 day no charge
3 File at National Court Register for company registration, REGON, NIP, Statistical Office and ZUS

Since March 31, 2009 new provisions of the Act on the National Court Register came into force, and now during company registration at the National Court Register the applicant can also obtain: the statistical number (REGON), tax identification number (NIP) and entry in the Social Insurance Office (Zakład Ubezpieczeń Społecznych). The procedure to obtain all the registrations completed takes about a month.

 4 weeks PLN 1,500
* 4 Register for VAT

The company must register for VAT by the date when the company carries out VAT-covered business activities for the first time. The registration must be submitted with the Tax Office (see Procedure 4). The company must provide information on (a) its business name and legal form; (b) the REGON (statistical number); (c) start date for its business activities; and (d) the address of its registered office.

If the Company is planning to conduct future foreign trade activities within the European Union, the company must register as an EU VAT taxpayer. The company must submit that application before commencing foreign trade activity within the European Union. However, before registering as an EU VAT taxpayer, the company must be registered as a regular VAT taxpayer.
1 day, (simultaneous with procedure 3) PLN 170
5 Register the company at the National Sanitary Inspection

The founders must register with the National Sanitary Inspection (Panstwowa Inspekcja Sanitarna) within 30 days of first employment.
1 day no charge
6 Register the company at the National Work Inspection

Within 30 days of commencing business, the company must register with the National Work Inspection (Panstwowa Inspekcja Pracy) and, in writing, inform the relevant labor inspector about the location, type, and scope of business. Note that the State Labor Inspectorate defines "commencement of business" to mean the date on which the first employee was hired.
1 day no charge
* Takes place simultaneously with another procedure.
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