Can anyone explain what taking out a B2B contract rather than a regular one might involve?
A consultancy firm is offering both options and it would appear that the salary offered is the same but with the B2B contract it is paid net rather than gross, leading me to suspect the B2B route requires paying polish employment taxes through my own (Polish?) limited company
eg normal contract pays 12k gross, b2b pays 12k net
You mean B2B as in a back to back rotational contract - meaning the work involves being in a different country? If yes (I'm on a back to back contract) it means that someone else and I alternate months in a particular place. These are common in petrochemicals and shipping. The tax is often something called 'equalised taxation' which is usually very advantageous however the exact terms depend on the actual employer - usually large and/or state owned concerns. In the case of Poland, you'd be out of the country for more than 183 days so unlikely you'd have any liability at all.
Or perhaps they're naughty and have made up a term like 'business to business' contract. That would just mean you'd be freelance and paid gross. You'd still have to pay tax on it, but you'd be a freelancer so the employer wouldn't get involved in deducting it. This could also work to your advantage, however there'd be a lot more paperwork.
B2B always means business to business, here what it means is you're not technically an employee of the company, but an external contractor - at the end of each contractually defined period (e.g. each month) you invoice the company for your services. You don't necessarily to register a company for that, you may be able to invoice as a private person up to a certain volume of revenue.
Crucially if you choose the B2B option, you will be responsible for reporting your income to the relevant authorities and paying income tax, national insurance, health contributions etc.
You will end up with a bit more paperwork to do, and may need the help of an accountant with it.
If you go with the 'regular' employment contract you will be on the company's payroll with all the taxes etc. being taken out of your salary by the accounts department of the company. You get better job security as all the employment law regulations regarding holiday, sick leave, termination periods and such will apply to you.
This is definitely the easier option if you're going for a long term contract. But mind you, if it's only a few months and you don't expect to pay much tax in Poland for that tax year, it may be easier to get the gross pay and then sort out any tax with the Polish authorities or the authorities wherever you are resident, rather than have to claim back refunds etc. from the Polish 'Urzad Skarbowy' after the end of the tax year, when you're likely not in Poland any more.
Always as in sales. This is just a scam to employ people as contractors rather than employees. Yes, it may be beneficial for the employee as long as job security isn't an issue.
Exactly that and made a lot of analysts and programmers rich, back in the glory days of late 80s, early 90s, especially with all the deductibles. They mostly insisted that the contractor formed a limited company and for some the tax expenses funded their whole life. Not so much now unfortunately, and in Poland the tax office are wise to it.
In PL, 12000 to your a/c every month is nice - you do have to have a very good book keeper to maximise the deductions in order to pay no more tax than you have to or a good understanding of Polish and accounting yourself.
