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

What are you talking about? My exact words, the first time I brought this up I wrote -


I never said that you can go to a market and they'll slaughter it in front of you - I don't know where you got that from. I specifically wrote that you can go to small towns, buy fresh meat there, and SOME will even slaugther the animal in front of you... I never even once used the word 'market.' Of course they don't slaughter animals in the markets. At targi (open air bazaars) you can buy fresh meat but it is usually already salted.

No, you can't retire at 45 with krus ;)
You googled something wrong.

I really don't know where you come from in Poland but where I live people in towns don't keep farm animals.
People in the country may kill their own farm animals for family and friends but won't sell the meat to a random Swedish guy ... Why would they kill them in front of his eyes, I don't know.

There are certain regulations concerning slaughtering animals.

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them with tax certificates proving that total tax paid is less than the regulated yearly amount, you automatically get withdrawn from KRUS.

Yes it means that effectively you can only get the benefits from KRUS if the profit from your other activities are below about 24,000 zloty. Which is more or less equivalent to the minimum wage in Poland.

Quite a lot of small landowners are switching from KRUS to ZUS at the moment.

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.

What scenario do you have in mind?

buyer: "I'll have that pig!"
farmer: "Sure thing boss!"
pig: "SHREEEEEEEEEeeeeeeee..... gurgle gurgle.....gurg."

It takes a lot of time and effort to turn a live farm animal (even a chicken) into food. A pig takes several people most of the day and there's no way they're going to kill one in order to sell a kilo of schabowy to some out of town rando...

Yes, people with contacts to a person who's going to slaughter an animal anyway can 'order' or buy after the fact (or help with the tedious work in actually butchering and receive a portion that way) but as a piece of advice for a foreigner mentioning that is worse than useless.

Yes that's how it is in Ireland too. You can buy a whole sheep or pig for example. You order it from the farmer in advance but you can only have it when he's scheduled to take a few to slaughter. Basically he reserves one for you. When you go to collect it, it'll be all butchered and cut up into the various chops, joints etc. There are a few farmers who do that as a regular business and sell the meat direct to buyers in small quantities but otherwise it's generally only done if you live locally and the farmer will do it as a casual thing for a neighbour who wants a whole animal for the freezer as their meat supply for the year. It's only pigs and sheep though. With Irish beef, we let it hang for up to a month after slaughter before it's butchered. It depends on the breed, but you'd have a long wait for your meat. Mind you I doubt many people could fit a whole cow in their freezer. On average you get around 400kg of meat from a carcass!

However, as you say, be it Ireland or Poland,that's no use to someone who lives in a small flat and just wants a chop for their dinner :) Not that you'll get a decent chop in Poland or a steak either if it comes to that because they butcher the animals differently. I wonder how they do it in Sweden. Maybe Mike will return and let us know.

Quite. Even far from it; it is a less desirable form of social insurance.


Not in Poland. That would by the way be illegal.


Except for 'Dirk' who has 3000 cows on the balcony and slaughters them in front of people.

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.

@kaprys

After paying krus for 25 year, i believe 20.for females, you are eligible for pension. Only a few other positions in poland have thay for example prison workers. You go 10 mins outside of wroclaw and the small towns aka wioski almost all households have animals to varying degrees. Some will have a few chickens and rabbits, some will have dozens or even hundreds of various animals.

@maf

No **** thats why we only purchase pigs when there's a large gathering and its usually for a pig roast. With chickens though thats the only way we buy them.

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

Nope, the only requirement is that you've paid up for 20-25 years. You do not have to wait till 60-65 to receive a pension with KRUS. There's plenty of people with KRUS receiving a pension in their late 40's 50's. Other positions are eligible for such pensions as well - mostly government positions. The problem is though the pension is tiny.


No sh1t... hence the KRUS acronym - name R standing for ROLNICZEGO - meaning agricultural...

Also the laws and rules are totally different if you've had agricultural land for several generations/pre-1991... BUT the new laws as far as sale/transfer of agricultural land still apply.The whole purpose of this was to protect family owned farms and help out the people who were screwed over by the USSR - namely exiled, forced to work, etc.

Delph is right.
You may get wczesniejsza emerytura at 60/65 depending on your gender (not 67) if you have paid into KRUS for 25 years. But only if you reach 60/65. And the pension is really low.

And your pension has nothing to do with how long your family have owned land.

No you don't you can get EARLY RETIREMENT after 25 years for males provided you owned the farm for 30 years. BUT you won't receive the full pension as if you waited till 65 - you get 75%

All the laws, exemptions, stipulations, etc would fill a novel. Theres different rates for different sizes fo farm, when you retire, whether you're a dependent or spouse or family member, whether you're the owner of the farm or just a worker... Unfortunately though pensions are very small in Poland.

serwisy.gazetaprawna.pl/emerytury-i-renty/artykuly/1096560,wczesniejsza-emerytura-rolnika-2018-waloryzacja-emerytur-2018.html

I hope it will you help you understand it.

Unless you can provide a link confirming statement.