Work / Job offer in Lodz, gross 1000€/4260PLN. Apartment and healthcare paid for. Good in Poland? [46]


Only if you've also reached the general retirement age. KRUS is much worse than ZUS in this respect.

Work / Job offer in Lodz, gross 1000€/4260PLN. Apartment and healthcare paid for. Good in Poland? [46]


Yes, it's really designed for those with the smallest farms in order to provide them with health insurance and a minimal pension upon retirement. One other major disadvantage is that you have to pay KRUS for 25 years to qualify for a pension, unlike ZUS, while the retirement age is the same.

Work / Job offer in Lodz, gross 1000€/4260PLN. Apartment and healthcare paid for. Good in Poland? [46]

Yeah, there's really no incentive to stay under KRUS, especially as a lot of the grants for rural business development are closed off if you use KRUS from my understanding. The only real advantage to it if you live in a very rural area with a smallholding, in which case, the ability to earn 1500-2000zł a month extra without having to pay ZUS will come in useful. It seems to me that the only purpose of this these days is so a farmer / family member can offer their assistance to larger farms while providing an invoice for their services.

Just checked now, and the restrictions are more severe than I thought. It's explained here nicely
biznes.gov.pl/publikacja/-/publikacja/1913-zuspracownicykrus
I didn't know that doctors, translators, etc. were automatically excluded from KRUS, nor did I know that involvement with commercial companies also disqualified you automatically.

Work / Job offer in Lodz, gross 1000€/4260PLN. Apartment and healthcare paid for. Good in Poland? [46]


It's quite inferior in many ways, not least because of the very low yearly limit on tax paid in connection with business activities (I forget the exact number, but it's something like total tax paid has to be less than 3500zł in a year) and the requirement to have a "connection" with the land that allows you to use KRUS. There's other regulations too, meaning it simply doesn't make any sense for most people who aren't actively farming.

The interesting "hook" with KRUS is that if you don't supply them with tax certificates proving that total tax paid is less than the regulated yearly amount, you automatically get withdrawn from KRUS.

Work / Job offer in Lodz, gross 1000€/4260PLN. Apartment and healthcare paid for. Good in Poland? [46]


It's awful. Scandinavian language speakers are in high demand, and you're looking at a net salary that is around half of what they can demand in Poland from employers. If you were to spend a year learning financial Norwegian or Danish, you'd be able to demand even more than that. Either way, the gross salary is really, really poor for a Swedish speaker.

However, it's not a bad idea to move here and then after a few months, put out feelers to HR people on Linkedin. It's quite common for foreigners to jump around corporations here, and you'll be able to get a much better offer.

Law / Poland's ZUS/NFZ payments for businesses [27]

Just an example - otodom.pl/oferta/ladny-domek-nad-jeziorem-ID3BsK4.html#90674c1b02

What's 100,000zł for a holiday house if your mortgage is already paid and you inherited a large flat in the city? For someone in a big city working as a manager in a corporation, it's nothing.

Law / Poland's ZUS/NFZ payments for businesses [27]

Quite a lot. Try visiting places like Bieszczady, Mazury or Beskidy - they're full of holiday homes.

A lot of people also own 'empty' holiday homes that are actually used for Airbnb and the like.

Law / Poland's ZUS/NFZ payments for businesses [27]


I wouldn't even scrap KRUS, I'd just make it that it only applied to direct farming activities with no other possibility of using it for non-farming activities. If you indulge in any other work, you have to pay ZUS, end of story. With land, definitely, and even more so with second homes.


Are there? PiS are trying to figure it out and they can't. It's about 10 billion a year, which right now is around 20% of the yearly shortfall in ZUS. You could increase ZUS contributions, but that's a guaranteed way to enrage the electorate.


I'd actually like to see employers ZUS abolished and replaced with a system in that employees are solely responsible for paying. Self-employed people could pay on the same basis, which means that everyone is on an equal playing field - but I wonder how many people would be content with paying roughly 30% of their gross earnings to ZUS. Either way, voters would get a hell of a shock when they realise the true cost of their employment to the employer.

What surprises me is that people still believe that the money in ZUS is 'theirs'.

Law / Karty stałego pobytu (permanent residence card) for EU citizen in Poland [3]


So you have a tax liability for the interest in your savings accounts. You need to get that sorted before applying for anything.


If you're here for more than 6 months a year, the UK company will be deemed to be effectively controlled from Poland and thus will fall under Polish taxation regardless of the physical residence of the company.

You need to get advice from a tax specialist as to your exact situation and potential liabilities at this point. 5 years of unpaid tax and possible ZUS liabilities in Poland could be eyewatering, and they will certainly question your sources of income if you claim to have been here for 5 years living off savings. The tax office is consulted as part of every application for permanent residency, and in this specific case, you're going to set off alarm bells.

By the way, they have access to the UK databases, and it will be easy for them to query with HMRC as to whether you've been paying tax in the UK while claiming to be resident in PL.

Law / Poland's ZUS/NFZ payments for businesses [27]

So, how would you replace the lost revenue to ZUS in this case? The estimate is that an earnings based system would result in a loss of around 10bn PLN a year to ZUS, which means an additional 10bn has to be paid from the state budget.

Off-Topic / WB's body building and general fitness thread [97]

The fact that you knew about the real Marino says it all, my friend ;)

Law / Poland's ZUS/NFZ payments for businesses [27]


The suggestion that keeps going around is that ZUS for sole traders should become proportional to earnings, but even that carries significant problems. Morawiecki is pushing for it, but there seems to be simply no money in the system to do it.

Slovakia has an interesting system that mandates minimum payments of around 180-200 Euro/month (I don't remember the exact number), but it's a strange system because paying the minimum for 30 years (you need to work for 30 years to get a pension there) doesn't actually guarantee you a pension if you haven't made high enough contributions.

On the other hand, bureaucracy is reduced by allowing a flat rate deduction of 450 Euro/month for expenses without question. If you want to deduct more, you need to account for things properly.

News / EU confirms it will take action against Poland over court reforms [554]


Erm... no it's not. Minimum wage in Germany is 1498 Euro/month. In Poland, 502 Euro/month. It's 3 times less, which is why Poles are still emigrating. We also have abysmally low rates of personal savings, even worse than in countries such as Greece. Unemployment is low right now, but that's simply because of mass depopulation of parts of Poland.


Who needs Islamic attacks when we can have Christian attacks instead? The idiot that tried to blow up the Sejm, or the other idiot who tried to blow up that bus in Wrocław are proof that we have enough domestic idiots of our own.

Law / Can I travel to other EU countries with my Polish Karta Pobytu? [19]


Impossible, sadly. You need a valid passport, and yes, Ryanair will check it at the airport.

Off-Topic / WB's body building and general fitness thread [97]


I bet you loved his Instagram, didn't you?

Travel / Want to know Hotel with Escort services in Poland [21]

One might say they repaid him in liquid gold.

News / EU confirms it will take action against Poland over court reforms [554]


The EU will take action by simply making sure that Orban and PiS no longer have EU cash to hand out to cronies. The support for Fidesz will collapse overnight in rural areas if farmers no longer get CAP funds, too, and the same goes for PiS.

Work / Diary of a Teacher in Poland [181]


True, lumpers get paid per load, not per hour. Understandable that you'd be hanging around the dock first thing in the morning.


I'm all for teaching theology on some level. I had a really fascinating course as part of my MA here that went really into Judeo-Christian (incorporating Islam) theology, and how it heavily influences our view of the world. The most interesting and controversial thing was the comparison to modern dictatorships, and how most dictatorships borrow heavily from the Abrahamic religions in one way or another.

I'd actually say one major failing in Polish schools is the absolutely shockingly poor level of religious education, combined with very little knowledge of other religions apart from Catholicism.

Work / Diary of a Teacher in Poland [181]

What are charter schools, Dirk?

Work / Diary of a Teacher in Poland [181]

He's just another Trumpanzee, obsessed with lying about his net worth in order to cover up the fact that he's living on the breadline. A worthy companion to our resident Welfare Queen.

Work / Diary of a Teacher in Poland [181]

Look at poor Joker, spending the entire day fantasising about other people's qualifications. It's okay, I understand entirely that spending your days lumping sucks, especially when you rank even lower on the social and salary scale than a truck driver. I'm quite happy with my position at an international school, not least because it pays a comparable salary to the UK while having half the living costs.

The fact that you have to bust your ass daily for a few bucks an hour while I get paid very comfortably obviously burns you inside. Must be the source of your resentment towards others, and explains why you spend your days threatening to assault people on Reddit, LOL!

And yeah, I know one guy who worked 10 years in Saudi Arabia. He earnt around 80-90k a year USD, accomodation and flights were paid for, and private lessons covered his in country expenses. It's not for everyone, but the cash is there.

Work / Diary of a Teacher in Poland [181]

Poor "Joker", unable to comprehend that the translation of "nauczyciel mianowany" is "nominated teacher".

If you're going to comment, at least try and know something about Poland first. By the way, isn't it too early to be taking breaks, lumper? Get back to those trucks, they won't unload themselves!

The PGCE? Passed it. It's only a pass / fail anyway, nothing more.

Work / Diary of a Teacher in Poland [181]

Or in my case, a first degree, a PGCE (one year training), plus a two year MA that included two years of practical and theoretical training, plus the Polish induction year / ongoing training to get promoted further (I'm a "nominated teacher", working towards being a diploma teacher) . And I've got QTS in England, and I didn't have to do the induction because I'm fully qualified in Poland.

Certainly beats working in a warehouse like some jealous Americans here.

Law / Poland's ZUS/NFZ payments for businesses [27]

The problem with ZUS is that successive governments have failed to deal with the real issue, which is that hard currency pensions are being paid to people that only earnt in soft currency. Add the special pensions for miners and other politically sensitive groups, and you understand why it's impossible to reform the system.

Morawiecki keeps talking about linking the payments to earnings, but it's clear that the money lost needs to be replaced - and increasing ZUS further is a no go.

Work / Diary of a Teacher in Poland [181]

Unless, of course, you work in an international school teaching the English curriculum for an English salary... :)

Teachers in international schools are well paid in Poland.

Real Estate / Looking for a reputable Lodz Estate Agent & Solicitor [8]


Echo is reputable and has a long history. The rest, not so much.

Travel / Western Poland Destination Ideas? [6]

Visit Kostrzyn nad Odra, it's an hour from Berlin on the train and is a nice example of history. There's a lot to see there, and you can easily spend a day there.

News / Poland's PiS government falls into its own trap on the issue of disabled children [12]


I think there's some truth in that. His rise was strangely suspicious, though it's generally seen that he was faithful to the Irish masters at the time and had no qualms about increasing profits at BZWBK at the expense of people (see also; CHF mortgages).


It's been nothing short of a disaster. Morawiecki, far from showing stability, appears to be blundering from one mistake to another. It seems that his lack of experience in politics is showing more than anything. The reaction to this "solidarity tax" has been incredibly negative, and as Ziemowit showed, even Kukiz is gaining some support over it.

News / EU budget revamp set to shift funds to southern states. What can Poland do about this? [12]


There's nothing Poland can do beyond falling into line. They will undoubtedly try the "we were misunderstood, please forgive us" line, but it won't work. France and Germany (and other net contributors) know that it's the weak point of PiS, and I wouldn't be shocked if the CAP 'reform' will include linking the funds to the rule of law alongside the cohesion funds.

Warsaw is about to find out exactly why antagonising partners is a terrible idea.

Law / Poland's residence permit after marriage to a Polish citizen [24]

What's normal in this case is for the physical copy of the certificate to be issued no more than 3 months previously. It's quite common when marriage/birth/death certificates are involved for there to be a time limit on the certificate.

The idea, as far as I remember, is that the original documents are held in the USC, and the copy issued is just that, a copy.