Can everyone decide to take such a step? How does the tax authority view this type of activity? Read about it in the text below.

Employment plus your own business—no obstacles under the law

Neither the Labour Code nor any other statute contains provisions preventing people employed under an employment contract from starting their own company. Under the law, the matter is simple—employment and business activity can go hand in hand without (almost) any obstacles.

Why “almost”? Because we must remember about the non-compete prohibition. Under the Labour Code, an employee may not conduct competing business activity or perform duties of this nature for another employer. Competing activity includes, among other things, taking clients away from the employer—which, when running a business in the same industry as the employer, may entail legal consequences.

Separate provisions may also be found in the employment contract itself. Many employers specify competition-related rules in its content—prohibiting business activity of a similar nature or indicating the period during which, after termination of the contract, the employee may not start such activity. Such provisions are usually accompanied by contractual financial penalties (and, of course, the potential termination of the contract).

There should be no doubts, however, about starting a company unrelated to the current employer’s business—the non-compete prohibition does not apply here.

You can read why it is worth taking such a step at https://podatkiprogramisty.pl/etat-i-dzialalnosc-gospodarcza-9-zalet-jednoczesnej-pracy-na-etacie-i-prowadzenia-dzialalnosci-gospodarczej/.

An “employed” entrepreneur and the tax authority

If you are considering working for your own account, you must remember that employment and business activity involve different obligations towards the Tax Office. This applies both to income taxation and to ZUS contributions.

Taxation method

Here, the matter is relatively simple—income from business activity and employment is settled separately. Employment is reported on PIT-37, while the business is settled according to one of three methods:

  • under the general rules (PIT-36)—with a tax rate of 12% for income up to PLN 120,000 and 32% for higher income;
  • with the flat tax (PIT-36L)—at a uniform rate of 19%;
  • with the lump-sum tax on registered income (PIT-28)—calculated not on income but on business revenue; in the case of programmers, this means a rate of 12% or 8.5%, depending on the scope of the services provided.

ZUS contributions

The second issue concerns ZUS contributions, which are divided into social-security and health contributions. In the case of the former, employee status exempts you from paying them—provided that the remuneration under the employment contract is equal to or higher than the minimum wage (PLN 4,242 gross in 2024), which may exclude many entrepreneurs employed part-time.

As for health contributions, paying them is mandatory both under an employment contract and in self-employment. An “employed” entrepreneur will therefore pay it twice.