Start-up relief (ulga na start) allows a person opening a sole proprietorship not to pay social insurance contributions for 6 full calendar months. The health contribution must, however, be paid from the first day, and the relief is not available to someone who has run a business in the last 60 months or will provide services to a former employer within their previous duties. Below we describe how to count these 6 months, how much the first half-year really costs in 2026 and when the relief may not pay off.
Who may use the relief
The relief is available to a natural person starting business activity if they jointly meet two conditions:
- new activity — the business is set up for the first time or again, but at least 60 calendar months after the last suspension or ending of the previous activity,
- no "transfer" from the employer — the entrepreneur does not perform for a former employer the same activities they performed under employment in the current or previous calendar year.
The second condition is especially important in IT: swapping employment for B2B cooperation with the same entity and with the same scope of tasks excludes both start-up relief and later preferential ZUS. A change of client or a genuinely different scope of work is a different situation — but it is worth documenting.
The relief applies to entrepreneurs entered in CEIDG (also partners in a civil partnership — spółka cywilna). It does not cover persons running unregistered business activity — they are not registered with ZUS on that account at all.
How to count the 6 months
The relief period is a maximum of 6 calendar months. The day of starting the activity decides when it begins to run:
- start on the 1st day of the month — that month is the first of the six,
- start during the month — the incomplete month is "free" and the six months run from the next one.
Example: activity started on 12 March 2026 means no social contributions for the rest of March and for April–September 2026. From 1 October 2026 the entrepreneur moves to the preferential base. If the same person had entered a start date of 1 March, the relief would have ended at the end of August.
Suspending activity during the relief extends nothing — months of suspension "eat into" the relief period, and after resumption only what is left to the end of the six-month period remains.
How much the first half-year costs in 2026
During the relief, the only mandatory cost at ZUS is the health contribution. Its amount depends on the form of taxation:
| Form of taxation | Health contribution in 2026 |
|---|---|
| Tax scale | 9% of income, not less than PLN 432.54 per month |
| Flat tax (podatek liniowy) | 4.9% of income, not less than PLN 432.54 per month |
| Ryczałt, annual revenue not exceeding PLN 60,000 | PLN 498.35 per month |
| Ryczałt, revenue PLN 60,000–300,000 | PLN 830.58 per month |
| Ryczałt, revenue above PLN 300,000 | PLN 1,495.04 per month |
The minimum amount of PLN 432.54 applies from 1 February 2026 to 31 January 2027. For comparison: full social contributions from the minimum base amount to PLN 1,926.76 per month in 2026, so over six months the relief leaves over PLN 11,000 in the business.
What you lose by not paying social contributions
The relief is not just a saving, but also no insurance protection. During its term the entrepreneur:
- has no right to sickness, maternity or care benefit,
- will not receive accident insurance benefits,
- does not build pension seniority — these months do not increase the pension and do not count towards contribution periods.
For a person planning parenthood or a medical procedure in the coming months, giving up the relief and taking voluntary sickness insurance may be more sensible. One must also remember that the right to sickness benefit from voluntary insurance appears only after 90 days of uninterrupted insurance.
The relief may be given up at any time by registering for social insurance. Reusing it, however, will only be possible after another 60 months from ending or suspending the activity.
Notifying ZUS step by step
- When registering in CEIDG, mark that the entrepreneur is using start-up relief — the application goes automatically to ZUS.
- Within 7 days from starting the activity, register only for health insurance (form ZUS ZZA, with the insurance title code appropriate for start-up relief).
- Each month, calculate and pay the health contribution by the 20th day of the following month.
- After the relief ends — also within 7 days — deregister from health insurance with the relief code and register for social and health insurance on form ZUS ZUA with the preferential-base code.
The most common mistake is skipping the last step. ZUS does not switch the entrepreneur automatically, and overdue contributions for subsequent months are charged with interest.
What comes after start-up relief
After six months, the entrepreneur may pay social contributions on a preferential base for 24 calendar months — in 2026 this is 30% of the minimum wage, i.e. PLN 1,441.80, without contributions to the Labour Fund and the Solidarity Fund. Later, with revenue up to PLN 120,000 in the previous year, a move to Mały ZUS Plus (Small ZUS Plus) is possible. The contribution amounts at each stage are compiled in the article on ZUS contributions in 2026.
How Good Balance can help
When setting up a sole proprietorship we check whether start-up relief is available, set the correct registration codes and watch the deadlines for moving to successive stages. The scope of help in registration is described in the service business activity, and ongoing contribution and tax settlements are kept as part of simplified accounting.