Gross to Net Salary Calculator Poland 2026

How Polish net pay is calculated

Your net salary, the amount Poles call na rękę (literally “into your hand”), is gross pay minus everything your employer must withhold and pass on: to ZUS, the social insurance institution, to the national health fund through ZUS, and to the urząd skarbowy (tax office). The order matters, because each deduction is worked out on what remains after the previous one. The calculator follows the same sequence as Polish payroll software.

1. Employee social contributions. Pension 9.76 %, disability 1.5 % and sickness 2.45 % of gross. On PLN 8,000 gross that is PLN 1,097 together. Pension and disability stop for the rest of the year once your cumulative gross passes PLN 282,600.
2. Health contribution. 9 % of gross minus social contributions, so PLN 621 on PLN 8,000. Employees cannot deduct it from tax, which means it reduces take-home pay in full.
3. Taxable base. Gross minus social contributions minus deductible employment costs (koszty uzyskania przychodu): PLN 250 a month, or PLN 300 if you commute from another town. The result is rounded to the whole złoty.
4. Income tax advance. 12 % of the base until your taxable income since January passes PLN 120,000, then 32 %. If you have filed PIT-2, PLN 300 comes off every month. The advance is rounded to the złoty as well.
5. PPK, if you take part. Your 2 % contribution to the workplace pension plan is taken after tax, while the employer's 1.5 % adds to your taxable income even though it never reaches your bank account.

Net pay is gross minus all of the above. On PLN 8,000 gross that leaves PLN 5,784, while the employer spends PLN 9,638, because their own contributions never appear on your payslip. Every formula, the rounding rules and edge cases such as the health contribution cap on very low salaries are documented in our calculation methodology.

Newcomers to Poland are usually caught out by two things. The PLN 30,000 tax-free amount is not deducted from income as it is in many countries: it is converted into a flat tax reduction of PLN 300 a month, the same for everyone, whatever you earn. And the health contribution on PLN 8,000 gross is larger than the whole income tax advance, with no way to claim it back. If your payslip and our figure disagree, check those two lines first, then whether your employer applies PLN 250 or PLN 300 of costs.

What this calculator does that others don't

Most Polish salary calculators show one month on one contract. That is fine at the minimum wage, but on higher salaries it paints a picture that does not match the payslips you will actually receive. We built the tool around three things that decide what you really earn.

Four contracts at the same gross, side by side

Under every result you see what the same amount would pay on the other contract types. At PLN 8,000, employment pays PLN 5,784, a zlecenie without PIT-2 pays PLN 5,779 and an umowa o dzieło (specific-work contract) pays PLN 7,232, because the calculator charges no ZUS or health contribution on it. Seeing the four figures together lets you judge an offer before you sign, not after the first payday.

B2B under three tax regimes

Many foreign specialists in Poland, especially in IT, are offered B2B: you register a sole-trader business (jednoosobowa działalność gospodarcza) and invoice the client. A PLN 8,000 monthly invoice is nothing like a PLN 8,000 salary. You pay full self-employed ZUS of PLN 1,926.76 with voluntary sickness cover or PLN 1,788.29 without it, and the health contribution depends on how you are taxed. The calculator handles the 19 % flat tax (podatek liniowy), the lump-sum tax on revenue (ryczałt) at your industry's rate, and the standard tax scale. At this revenue, with no business costs and no sickness cover, they leave PLN 4,681, PLN 4,669 and PLN 5,207 a month respectively, less than employment. The full comparison, paid leave included, is in B2B vs employment contract.

The whole year: second bracket and ZUS cap

This is the part other tools usually leave out. On PLN 25,000 gross a month your first payslip is PLN 17,372. From June your cumulative taxable income passes PLN 120,000, part of it is taxed at 32 % and take-home drops to PLN 13,108. Then, in December, your gross for the year passes the PLN 282,600 cap, pension and disability contributions stop, and the December payslip climbs back to PLN 14,264. The calculator lists all twelve months and flags the one where the cap applies, so an autumn pay cut does not come as a surprise. The cap itself is explained in our guide to the ZUS contribution cap.

Every rate in the engine comes from a statute, a regulation or the official ZUS website and is recorded in a parameter file with its verification date. The self-employed ZUS amounts the calculator produces match the figures ZUS publishes to the grosz, which automated tests check before every release. The same pages exist in Polish, handy if you want to show the result to a Polish accountant or HR department.

Net pay by contract type

In Poland the type of contract changes your take-home more than a few hundred złoty of negotiation. Here is how the four options in the calculator differ; each has its own page with a dedicated calculator.

Umowa o pracę (employment contract)

Full social contributions, the health contribution, flat costs of PLN 250 or PLN 300 and the PLN 300 PIT-2 reduction. In exchange you get paid holiday, sick pay and Labour Code protection. Full-time pay cannot be below PLN 4,806. The employer adds about 20 % of gross on top.

Umowa zlecenie (mandate contract)

Pension and disability contributions are compulsory, sickness cover is optional, and deductible costs are 20 % of the base after contributions. A pupil or student under 26 pays no ZUS, and in the calculator no health contribution either, so they keep the full gross. On contracts up to PLN 200 signed with someone who is not the payer's employee, a flat 12 % tax on the whole amount applies instead. All the variants are in the mandate contract calculator.

Umowa o dzieło (specific-work contract)

The calculator charges no contributions here, and tax is computed on revenue minus costs of 20 %, or 50 % when you transfer copyright. That is why it gives the highest net for the same amount, but it builds no pension and no sick-pay entitlement. Examples are in the specific-work contract calculator.

B2B (self-employment)

Invoice revenue net of VAT, minus self-employed ZUS, the Labour Fund, the health contribution and tax under your chosen regime. The calculator works out a monthly average over the whole year and supports full ZUS, preferential ZUS at PLN 456.18, and the start-up relief (ulga na start), under which you pay no social contributions but still pay health. Business costs go in a separate field. The full simulation is in the B2B calculator.

2026 rates and thresholds

Every value below comes from the parameter file the engine reads, and the table is generated from that same file, so it cannot drift away from the calculator's results. We last verified the rates on 3 October 2026.