SMEs are the engine room of the Poland's economy. Do they get the respect they deserve?

The structure of enterprises by size in Poland is as follows: microenterprises - 3,672,853 (94.7% of all registered businesses), small businesses - 170 182 (4.4%), medium - 31 648 (0.8%) and large - 5 554 (0.1%). The number of SMEs amounted to 3 874 683, which accounted for 99.9% of all enterprises. Government seems to bend over backwards for the big guys while tying up small business in red tape and fleecing them through taxes. How do you see it?

The complexities of tax that they have to deal with should be simplified, as well as the high cost of employing staff on an umowa o pracy.

It's a difficult one.

For instance - taxes. For businesses, income taxes aren't really crippling - I can make all sorts of deductions, and my tax burden came out (after all the deductions, but including ZUS payments) at about 14% last year - that's really not bad. ZUS is a problem, what with the high rate kicking in after 2 years - but at the same time, if the Government lowered this - we'd have a generation of people who wouldn't put any money at all aside for their retirement. So - I wouldn't say I'm being fleeced at all.

Red tape? It's not as bad as it's made out to be. The biggest problem in Poland isn't the rules, but rather the inconsistent application of them - however - if you know the rules and the law, it's often not a problem.


This is the real killer. When you look at the taxation involved - it's just absolutely prohibitive for any small business that needs flexibility to hire people under umowa o pracy. I'm looking at hiring three or four people at the minute - and it's scary how much is swallowed up in taxation if they have a proper contract.

At the same time - Poland allows the use of umowa o dzieło contracts - which are fantastic for the small employer.

All in all, it could be much worse, could be better - but on the whole, it's not bad.

The biggest problem, I think, is the labour law.

I'm a one-man band so I don't do too badly, although ZUS is a pain. I wouldn't mind paying it if I knew I was going to get something back, but as things stand, retirement is not something I even think about. Yes, there needs to be something done to help SMEs employ people without tax rates so punitive that potential employers are put off. Perhaps raising the income tax threshold so low paid people were out of the system altogether, at least temporarily. Better than the awful situation we have now with very long term unemployed people sitting around doing nothing. Just think how much would be saved if you put three or four people to work.