For a programmer, moving from an employment contract (umowa o pracę) to a sole proprietorship (JDG) is above all a decision about timing: when to terminate the contract, when to register the business, and whom to issue the first invoices to. The costliest mistake is one — starting an activity for the previous employer without checking how it affects the choice of tax and ZUS reliefs. Below we describe the successive stages and the limitations applicable in 2026.
First, the answer to the question: who will you be working for?
Tax and contribution rules distinguish two situations. The first is activity for new principals with whom you were not in an employment relationship. The second is so-called cooperation with a former employer, i.e. providing within the company the same tasks you performed as an employee in the current or previous calendar year.
In the second case, what matters is not the name of the position or the invoice description, but the actual scope of work. If a programmer continues to develop the same system, in the same team and on similar terms, the tax office and ZUS will treat them as a person working for the former employer, even if the contract is called something else.
Limitations with the previous employer
Continuing the same tasks for the company at which you were employed closes several favourable solutions:
- Flat tax 19% (podatek liniowy) — can only be chosen from the year following the year in which you worked for that company under an employment contract. If someone chooses the flat tax despite this prohibition, they will be settled under the tax scale for the whole year.
- Ryczałt (lump-sum tax on recorded revenue) — not available to a person providing services to a former employer within the scope of their previous employee duties, in the year of employment and the following year.
- Start-up relief (ulga na start) — six months without social contributions does not apply when you perform for a former employer what you did for them as an employee in the current or previous calendar year.
- Preferential ZUS contributions — the same condition applies to the reduced contribution base for 24 months.
In practice, a person who in June 2026 changes an employment contract into a contract with the same company may, in 2026, settle only under the tax scale (12% and 32%, PLN 30,000 tax-free amount); in 2027 they may already choose the flat tax (ryczałt is still excluded), and from the first month pays full social contributions. Ryczałt becomes available from 2028, if in 2027 there was no longer an employment contract with that company.
Cooperation with a former employer is itself allowed. The limitations disappear when the scope of services in the business differs clearly from the duties under the employment contract — for example, when a former employee of the systems maintenance department runs training for the company or performs a code audit of another project. Such a division should be described in the contract and documented in practice.
Risk of the contract being recognised as an employment relationship
The second problem of moving "in the same place" concerns not taxes but labour law. If, after the contract change, the programmer still has a supervisor, set working hours, an obligation to perform tasks personally and leave approved as in a HR department, a labour inspector or ZUS may classify this cooperation as employment. The consequences and ways to limit the risk are described in the article on a B2B contract recognised as an employment relationship.
The order of steps when changing the form of work
- Review of the current contract. The notice period, non-compete clause, copyright clauses and any bonuses paid after year-end affect the date of starting the activity.
- Determining whether the first principal is a former employer. On this answer depends which forms of taxation and reliefs are in play.
- Choice of PKD codes and the form of taxation. For many programming services ryczałt is 12%, but the rate depends on the exact scope of services — details in the article on 12% and 8.5% ryczałt in IT.
- Registration in CEIDG. The application is free; in the same form you can indicate the form of taxation and ZUS registration.
- VAT decision. Clients from Poland usually expect invoices with VAT, and cooperation with a foreign company usually requires VAT-UE registration.
- Business account, records and accounting office. The first settlements of advance payments and contributions fall already in the month after starting the activity.
Transition period: employment and business at the same time
Some people set up a business while still in the notice period. If from the employment contract you receive at least the minimum wage (in 2026 PLN 4,806 gross), from the business you only pay the health contribution, and social contributions are paid by the employer from the salary. The minimum monthly health contribution under the tax scale or the flat tax is, in the contribution year from February 2026, PLN 432.54.
After the employment contract is terminated, the obligation to pay social contributions from the business arises from the following day. Full social contributions without the health contribution, calculated from the minimum base, amount in 2026 to PLN 1,926.76 per month.
What is missing in the business that was there under employment
When comparing rates, it is worth taking into account the benefits provided by the employer:
- paid annual leave and remuneration for sickness paid by the employer,
- automatic sickness insurance — the entrepreneur joins it voluntarily and acquires the right to benefit only after a waiting period,
- protection from dismissal and a notice period,
- subsidies for equipment, training or medical care, which under business become a company cost.
A sample calculation: a rate of PLN 140 net per hour at 160 hours gives PLN 22,400 of revenue per month. From this amount you have to subtract tax, social contributions, the health contribution, accounting and a reserve for about a month without revenue a year (holiday, sickness, breaks between projects). Only the result after these items can be fairly compared with the net salary under employment.
How Good Balance can help
Before you file notice we analyse the contract, the planned scope of services and the relationship with the previous employer, to indicate the available forms of taxation and ZUS reliefs. Then we register the business and keep its settlements — more in the description of the service setting up and supporting a sole proprietorship. When the scope of services is ambiguous, we help prepare an application for an individual tax interpretation.