In contrast to the insurance of concurrently employed persons, sole proprietorships are required to define a permanent center of their interests in the first year. This center is economic (the country with the highest income) and personal (family). The latter determinant is important when the country of residence is different from all the countries of running a business (e.g. operating in Germany and the Czech Republic, living in Poland).

At this stage, the decision is unequivocal, although in the first year of running a business in the second country, the entrepreneur may have reason to declare that the current country will bring him less than 25% of income (e.g. when he showed loss for year). After one year of operating, the entrepreneur will no longer have this option.

In the case of determining the legislation applicable to the insurance system in Poland or the Czech Republic, various consequences result from this.

Persons for whom the Republic of Poland is the legislation applicable to social and health insurance

Persons covered by Polish insurance regulations are obliged to pay pension and health contributions for their activities in Poland. If the activity in both countries is conducted in various forms, e.g. in Poland a civil partnership, in the Czech Republic a regular activity or in Poland a sole proprietorship, and in the Czech Republic a general partnership, the payer is obliged to withhold the health insurance premium for each separate form. However, if the activity is carried out in both countries in the same form, the contribution is paid once. You should register for additional health insurance at the first ZUS branch in Warsaw (00-917 Warszawa, ul. Senatorska 6/8). The second health insurance contribution is deductible from income tax in Poland.

Settlement with ZUS for NFZ contributions should be submitted monthly on dates specified by the legislator.

Persons who have the Czech Republic as legislation applicable to social and health insurance

Persons covered by the Czech social and health insurance regulations are treated as if they earned all their income in the Czech Republic. The consequences of such a solution are far-reaching. Since insurance premiums are proportional to your income, you need to add up your business income in all countries to calculate advances for health and pension insurance. Fifty percent of this income is used as the basis for calculating the annual social security (29.2%) and health (13.5%) contributions.

Loss (negative income) of one of the enterprises of a person running a business reduces the amount of contributions. The above method requires the Polish entrepreneur to adjust the deadlines for submitting tax returns (including Polish PIT) to Polish regulations, because the deadline for settling both types of insurance is May 1.

Settlements with the health insurance fund and the social and pension insurance are made annually.

Response from ZUS along with instructions on registering your second activity for health insurance in Poland.