My wife (and family) and I are planning to move to Poland next year. I am currently working in the UK and run my own business. However, an opportunity has arisen whereby I will be starting to work for a UK based company. My wife is a Polish National, but I plan to still work for this company remotely from Poland.
I would still be coming back to the UK, but my time would be mostly spent in Poland
My questions therefore are:
- How would I avoid being double-taxed? - How would health care in Poland work? - If I become an an employee of this company (using my UK NI) does this have an other knock on effects - Besides just working for this company, I would have a couple of extra sources of income
Hope this makes sense. Any advise or experiences on this would be really appreciated.
Hi, I'm in a similar position - I've moved to Poland with my Polish wife but am still working for my uk employer. There is a double taxation agreement with Poland so you will not pay tax twice. I've only been here for a few months but expect I will need an accountant at some point to sort my liabilities as Polish tax is higher so I may need to pay the difference. My advice would be to make sure you have plenty of savings to protect you from any tax you may have to pay and claim back later. Having said that, both my uk and and a polish family accountant have told me I won't pay any tax in Poland at all.
You will need health insurance to emigrate but you should be able to get an S1 form and have your uk NI contributions pay for your nfz (Polish national health) entitlement. You apply for this on the government gateway and the lead time is currently 3 weeks. You can also do by post but this is currently 12 weeks lead time!
Good luck!
It's probably obvious but once you've got the Polish healthcare via the s1 you won't qualify for NHS treatment but as you will be living abroad that would be the case anyway
No problem. Keep us posted on your progress! One other thing i probably should have mentioned is health care for my wife relies on my S1 as she is not working and I am. Without the s1 i can buy health insurance to meet the visa requirements but she would have to register as unemployed to get state health care as she cannot buy the same insurance.
As I should qualify for an S1 I have been told that neither myself or my wife can make voluntary nfz contributions and pay for health care that way.
It's all very odd. It means I have temporary basic health insurance to cover my residence requirements while I wait for my s1 and my wife is uninsured even though she is a Polish national.
Hey OJK. So the HMRC finally wrote back to say I need to write to ZUS who will write to HMRC who will write to me and maybe send me an S1.
Well, I say they wrote back but I mean they finally confirmed via a telephone call. The actual letter is still in the post and expected to take 3 weeks to arrive!
I am in a similar situation. Arrived in PL on January 22nd 2021. My wife is a Polish national and I am British working for a UK based company. They agreed for me to work remotely from Poland, but now seem to be worrying about tax and getting me to be a contractor. Which I do not want to do for job security reasons.
From what I can see, there isn't an issue as they just list me as no longer residing in the UK via P85? I would still pay UK income tax etc. Looking at the HMRC guide the double taxation treaty doesn't apply to personal incomes so potentially I would be taxed twice. Looks as if I can claim the UK portion back.
What was your experience with your employer @rtfm - What did they do to still have you on the PAYE books, but allow you to work from PL? I'm happy to jump through hoops etc so long as I can remain employed with my company rather than go contractor.
Generally speaking, you can't stay on the PAYE books while living in PL. They'll have to open a branch company and pay you through that, which I assume they won't do. In terms of taxation, you'll get a tax credit for any tax paid to the UK government while being tax resident in PL.
BTW, as you've arrived now, you legally can't work for the UK company until you obtain a residence permit. As it stands, you're breaking the law by working illegally in PL. They can and will check this - be warned, particularly of jealous family members who might not be too happy about you getting a UK income while living here.
Yikes! Thanks for the info. I'll have to sort that out pretty quickly. My wife hasn't lived here for 10 years so is off the system effectively. We'll have to get registered pretty quickly
One of the better ones. Lower Silesia is a total disaster in comparison.
Anyway, the biggest issue for you is the legal work - to explain, the 90 day Schengen visa waiver allows you to do business, but not to work here. For that reason, you might be forced into being a contractor - you'll be in the non-EU queue for residence permits, so you'll have to wait at least 2-3 months to get it. Until you get it, you can't work - even remotely.
Hi all, so I am looking into doing this as well, living in PL and working for a UK company, so it sounds like i will need to apply for a residency permit first, can i do this while still in the uk?
just dont tell anyone u work for a UK company including Polish tax collectors. problem solved. Remember as lyzko said, you're living in a former black market society. you gotta be smart.
Firstly you need to complete a P85 form with HMRC in UK so they know you live abroad and want to use the double tax agreement between Poland & UK. This means you need to do self assessment yearly as if you were self employed. You then need to declare yourself somehow in Poland with tax authorities (I've not done that bit myself 🙈😊)
Hi everone! This thread is very insightful. Thank you. I have a bit of a diferent situation. I have dual Pol/UK citizenship. I live in the UK and work here. I want to go to Poland to see my family and work remotely for 4 weeks. My employer refused due to tax complications. I am not entirely sure four weeks would affect this, but I don't seem to be able to find a definite answer anywhere. Does any of you know? Many thanks in advance.
@Ania_Bat if you want to live Poland fulltime and remain employed in UK you would need to complete a P85 form to declare this. However you don't need to do this if you are only going on short term visit, as long as your employer agrees with that.
Hi all, same problem here. I am trying to find the way of legally living in Poland and working for Uk based company. I am Spanish national. UK gov website seems quiet clear about P85 to avoid double taxation and pay taxes in Poland yearly. On the other hand I am planning to pay monthly the NFZ to get the public health insurance. I thought that would be enough, but the company I work for came to me saying that it wasn't legal for them to employe me while living in Poland, exactly what you say @delphiandomine.
Could you please tell me what are you based to say so? I am trying to find out what obligations have UK company to hire me while living in Poland but I haven't found much.
You can work in poland for a UK company but it isn't simple as your UK company becomes liable to pay employers contributions to polish authorities (but then they wouldn't pay to uk authorities).
There are international payroll companies that can help you and your employer sort this out but it requires your employer to be pretty flexible and for you to be prepared to pay whatever admin fees the payroll company take (as your uk employer won't want to pay).
On the plus side you'll be registered for nfz too as you'll be paying ss in poland. If you have dependents (spouse, kids etc.) they will also be insured with nfz via your contributions.
Hi All. Its interesting what you said about the S1, I moved here 2 years ago and I work for a UK company and was told the same about Poland writing to the UK and it'll all be sorted out. After all that time HMRC now say I can't have an S1 and they are cancelled my NI payments and told me to register with NFZ. They will send me a letter to explain and told me to show it to NFZ/ZUS. Has anyone else had that experience? I messaged ZUS and NFZ but no idea how to make payments to them. Tax in Poland was pretty easy to sort out but this seems tricky. Any help would be appreciated :)
I visit my Polish boyfriend around every 6 weeks for 7-10 days. My Uk employer allows me to work remotely from Poland for a few days (2-3) while my boyfriend is working so I am not using all my leave entitlement sitting around at home waiting for him to finish work. Am I doing something illegal here? Should I be filling forms out for hmrc?
this seems a very good thread and one that i am trying to get my head around, i married my Polish wife this year and plan to move over to Poland in 2024, at present i work for a UK company and have been here for about 8 years and im keen to carry on working for them when i move, all the work i do will be uk based im just trying to gauge how hard it will be for my company to set it up so i can still work for them
