ZUS for the self-employed in 2026: full, preferential and start-up relief

Monthly contributions in 2026, line by line

The amounts follow directly from the rates: pension (emerytalna) 19.52 %, disability (rentowa) 8 %, accident (wypadkowa) 1.67 %, sickness (chorobowa) 2.45 %, and the Labour and Solidarity Funds together 2.45 %. A sole trader pays the whole lot alone, with no employee and employer split, which is why the pension rate of 19.52 % is twice the 9.76 % deducted on an employee's payslip. Over a year, full ZUS with sickness cover costs PLN 23,121, and the preferential option PLN 5,474.

Full ZUS: a PLN 5,652 base

The full contribution base is 60 % of the forecast average wage, which was set at PLN 9,420 for 2026. Whether your business earns PLN 8,000 or PLN 80,000 a month makes no difference: social contributions stay the same. For a high earner this is a big advantage over a job, where pension and disability contributions grow with salary. For someone still building a client base, PLN 1,926.76 a month can be the heaviest item in the budget.

The same flatness works against you later. Your state pension depends on the contributions paid in, and at a high income, contributions on PLN 5,652 are well below those of an employee on a similar salary. Many sole traders top this up with savings of their own.

Preferential ZUS: a smaller base and no Labour Fund

The preferential base of PLN 1,441.80 equals 30 % of the minimum wage (PLN 4,806). Pension and disability contributions fall in proportion, and the 2026 ZUS table shows no Labour or Solidarity Fund on that base at all. That is why the gap between full and preferential ZUS without sickness cover reaches PLN 1,367.43 a month.

Preferential ZUS does not touch the health contribution. People are often disappointed here: they move to the lower rate expecting their whole ZUS bill to shrink by three quarters, but the health contribution stays put because it is based on income or revenue, not on the social insurance base.

Start-up relief: social contributions only

During start-up relief you pay no pension, disability, accident or sickness contributions. That also means no cover: without the sickness contribution there is no sickness benefit, so a week in bed is a week without income. The health contribution is due from the first month. On the lump-sum tax with modest revenue it is PLN 498.35 a month; on the tax scale and flat tax, at least PLN 432.54.

Your tax deductions are smaller in this period too, since there are no contributions to deduct. With PLN 10,000 of monthly revenue on the flat tax, take-home is PLN 7,703 on start-up relief, PLN 7,379 on preferential ZUS and PLN 6,301 on full ZUS. The drop from start-up relief to full ZUS is smaller than the contributions themselves because part of them comes back as lower tax.

Mały ZUS plus: a base in between

Mały ZUS plus is aimed at people on lower incomes: the social contribution base depends on the previous year's income. According to ZUS, it cannot fall below PLN 1,441.80 or rise above PLN 5,652. We do not give a formula for the base, because how it is set and who qualifies need to be checked in the regulations and on the ZUS website. Our B2B calculator handles full ZUS, preferential ZUS and start-up relief, but not Mały ZUS plus.

Voluntary sickness cover: when it pays off

The 2.45 % sickness contribution costs PLN 138.47 a month on full ZUS and PLN 35.32 on preferential ZUS. Benefit is calculated on the base minus 13.71 % and paid at 80 %. On the full base, a month off sick brings roughly PLN 3,902; on the preferential base roughly PLN 995. The base for voluntary sickness insurance cannot exceed PLN 23,550.00 a month.

The maths is simple: a year of sickness contributions on full ZUS costs PLN 1,662, less than half the benefit for a single month of illness. If you have no savings to carry you through a few weeks without revenue, the contribution is cheap insurance.

Accident insurance at 1.67 %: why that rate

The law sets the accident contribution between 0.4 % and 8.12 % of the base. ZUS uses 1.67 % in its 2026 figures and notes that if a different rate applies to you, the amount changes. On the full base the range runs from PLN 22.61 to PLN 458.94 a month, so for most one-person businesses it is a small item. Still, check your own rate before copying the table into a bank transfer: being a few groszy short on a contribution leaves an underpayment.

The whole picture: ZUS plus health

Social contributions are only part of the monthly bill. With PLN 15,000 of monthly revenue, no costs and full ZUS without sickness cover, the total looks like this: on the tax scale PLN 1,788 social and PLN 1,189 health, on the flat tax PLN 1,788 and PLN 647, on the lump-sum tax PLN 1,788 and PLN 831. Social contributions are identical everywhere; the whole difference sits in the health contribution, which is 9 % of income on the scale, 4.9 % on the flat tax, and a fixed amount tied to annual revenue on the lump sum.

Choosing a tax regime and choosing a ZUS option are therefore two separate decisions. The first changes health and tax, the second changes social contributions. The B2B calculator lets you set both and see the take-home figure straight away.

The usual mistakes with business ZUS

Treating start-up relief as a full ZUS holiday and skipping the health contribution. Adding the Labour Fund to the preferential base. Assuming higher revenue raises social contributions on full ZUS. And comparing a B2B offer with a job without subtracting PLN 1,788.29 of contributions plus health. For the full comparison, with holidays and sick pay, see B2B versus employment contract.