Legal help with ZUS for American please?

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.

Write to the ZUS office in question and explain everything. See what they say (they may well not be in the slightest bit reasonable).

Have you made sure that the company is now officially and legally closed?

If ZUS won't be reasonable about this, you don't need to worry too much, but you might want to make sure that you never have a bank account in Poland which is in your name

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.

They can and they will. Don't put any money in it.


Unfortunately the obligation to pay ZUS exists whether you run it or not. If I take two months off work, I'll still have to pay ZUS for that time.

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.

Which step did you not take?

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.