Legal alert for Poland

Published

Oct 20 2019

Written By

As a partner and Head of our Employment team in Warsaw, I am an experienced employment law expert specialised in litigation, including civil and criminal cases involving corruption and trade secrets.

By 31 October 2019, employers are obliged to supplement payments to their Social Benefits Funds (ZFŚS), if any, for the period from 1 August 2019.

The obligation of additional payments results from the National Budget-Related Act, which has introduced the new, higher base for calculating ZFŚS write-offs for the period from 1 August 2019 to 31 December 2019.

As a result, in 2019 employers must calculate the ZFŚS write-off on the following bases:

PLN 3,278.14 for the period from 1 January 2019 to 31 July 2019 (old base)
PLN 3,389.90 for the period from 1 August 2019 to 31 December 2019 (new base).

This change leads to ZFŚS write-off recalculations and additional payments to ZFŚS bank accounts.

The calculation of ZFŚS shortfall requires introducing the 'principle of proportionality'. To calculate the actual ZFŚS write-off amount in 2019, employers need to apply the following proportions – 7/12 from the old base, and 5/12 from the new base.

The additional ZFŚS payments should be paid by 31 October 2019, and the final correction of ZFŚS write-off and its increase should be made by 31 December 2019.

Bird & Bird supports clients in implementing social benefits funds, and provides day-to-day assistance in their management.