Posts by vejemyte

vejemyte

17 Feb 2012

Law / Legal help with ZUS for American please? [7]

I cant recall the office names but I went through 3 steps.....declaring the company at the Urzad Gmina, then went to the tax office and statistics office for a NIP and some business #.....next was supposed to be ZUS and one other if I recall. I stopped before ZUS and thought since I didn't complete all the process it would just die. I was wrong. I guess a friend there was able to close the company at the Urzad Gmina and she said this probably triggered ZUS to ask "where is our money?". One lawyer I talked to made it sound like I was probably going to have to pay AND with 15% interest. It's a real mess for me. Going to work on it more next week. I simply cannot pay that and if they can get into my bank account and take it then I really can't manage returning to Warsaw....which I needed to do.

Heading to bed for now...thanks for your help. Will check up in a few hours.

vejemyte

17 Feb 2012

Law / Legal help with ZUS for American please? [7]

Well then I cant imagine how this can go well for me. I cannot pay that and will not be able to live fully with that hanging over and no banking etc. Seems so wrong that I can be required to pay for a business that was stillborn. I never finished the registration process I was told was required to operate. Ugh....never the luck. I really needed that bank account too.

vejemyte

17 Feb 2012

Law / Legal help with ZUS for American please? [7]

I wrote a letter to close the company and then left Poland. They later said it had to be done in person so I have to deal with that now as well.

I have a bank account there. Not happy to hear what I think I am hearing....that they will take it from there.

I am going to respond and explain what happened but like you said Polish govt offices don't often care about reason. Hope this doesn't screw things up for me as I was planning to return there for good and don't want this looming over my head.

It's my fault for not understanding the process so I am not blaming anyone...just hope they will be reasonable about the error and not charge me for 3 years of ZUS as I cannot pay it. I just don't know how I can prove to them I never ran the business. They just want the money and can claim I did and was not reporting it.

vejemyte

17 Feb 2012

Law / Legal help with ZUS for American please? [7]

Hello,

A few years back I began the process of registering a private company in Warsaw...there were something like 6 steps and I only made it half way through before giving up on the business idea. In my ignorance it seems since I started the process at all that the company is registered, I had thought since I didn't complete the steps it would just not be official. 3 years later my friends who's address it was registered at received a letter and a call from ZUS saying I owed them for the past 3 years.

I am in the USA now and they are trying to get advice locally how to handle it. It is in my eyes a communication/paperwork error and I am hoping when it is properly explained they will let it go. However knowing how things work with governments I am worried they won't and I cannot pay them tens of thousands of PLN.

Has anyone had any experience like this or know someone who could help and that wouldn't charge thousands more? I called a couple of firms and they said it would be several thousand for them to look into it and even then I may not be able to get the ZUS bill removed.

It's frustrating since I never "birthed" the company...it was stillborn. It never operated and I never made money from it. But I don't know how to prove that.

Thanks for any advice. I had hoped to return to Warsaw soon and am concerned this could cause me problems.