Close your business with CEIDG

Are you a sole trader and do you want to close your business? Submit an application for your business to be removed from CEIDG. Read below to find out more about how and when to do it.

How to proceed

What you should know and who can use this service

Submit an application for the removal of your business from the CEIDG register when you have already effectively ceased conducting business in all forms (as a sole trader and in the form of a Civil Code partnership). The business is also closed when it is reregistered to become a single-member company registered with KRS (National Court Register). 

Please note! If you are thinking of temporarily stopping your business, you do not have to remove your business from the CEIDG register, just take the opportunity to suspend it.

If you are a partner in a Civil Code partnership, the application for removal will mean the closing of this business as well. Therefore, if you are planning to stay in a Civil Code partnership, instead of an application for removal, file an application to update your entry in CEIDG and indicate in the CEIDG-1 form that you are conducting business only in the form of a Civil Code partnership. If you are closing your business in a Civil Code partnership, but you want to continue it as a sole trader, apply for an update and indicate in the CEIDG-1 form that you will only do business as a sole trader.

If you want to close a Civil Code partnership, remember to remove the Civil Code partnership from the REGON (Statistical Number) register.

Learn more about closing a business as a sole trader.

When you should complete this procedure

You can submit an application for the removal of your business from CEIDG at any time; however, the application should correspond to the facts.

Where you can complete this procedure

You can complete this procedure at:

• city/town or commune (gmina) offices
• district offices of the capital city of Warsaw
• cities with poviat status

What to do step by step

1. Submit an application for your business to be removed from CEIDG

You can apply for the removal of your business from CEIDG in three ways

Online – via Biznes.gov.pl

Click the “Handle the matter online” button on this page or, once you are on the homepage Biznes.gov.pl, select the “Update your entry in CEIDG” service. Log in through Login.gov.pl, using your trusted profile or an e-identity card (e-dowód). If you are logging in for the first time, the system will guide you through the process of setting up your account.

If you submit your application online, you can involve an attorney whose details have been disclosed in your entry in CEIDG. The scope of the power of attorney must include a removal of the entry from CEIDG. If you are handling a matter through an attorney disclosed in CEIDG, you do not have to pay stamp duty for filing a power of attorney, nor attach the power of attorney to the application. The power of attorney is visible in the public register and does not need to be further confirmed by a document.

At an office

You can submit the application in person to any city/town council or municipality/commune authorities. The clerk will confirm the receipt of the application and enter the data from the application into the CEIDG system no later than the next day. At the office, you need to confirm your identity, so don’t forget to bring your ID card or other proof of identity with you.

You can prepare your application in two ways:

• complete the form that you will get at the office and sign it in your own hand
• download the CEIDG-1 application from the Biznes.gov.pl/ceidg website, complete it, print it out and sign it in your own hand before you submit it at the office.

An application at the office can also be submitted by an attorney appointed under the general rules. However, you do not need to additionally provide a power of attorney in writing if you have registered your attorney with CEIDG. Please note that the power of attorney must include in its scope removing the entry from CEIDG. If the matter is handled by your attorney disclosed in CEIDG, stamp duty for filing a power of attorney does not need to be paid and you do not need to show the power of attorney document.

By post

You can send the completed application by registered post. In this case, it should bear the applicant’s own signature certified by a notary.

Documents

Time limit

You can submit an application for the removal of your business from CEIDG at any time; however, the application should correspond to the facts.

2. The office will verify your application

If the application submitted online is incorrect, the CEIDG ICT system will let you know about the errors.

If the application submitted in person or by registered post is incorrect, the office will request that you correct or supplement the application within seven business days.

3. You will be removed from CEIDG

To download a certificate of removal, locate your entry in the database of entrepreneurs and select the “Download PDF” option.

Thanks to the “one-stop-shop” principle, CEIDG will send information about the removal of your business to the tax office, GUS (Statistics Poland), ZUS (Social Insurance Institution) / KRUS (Agricultural Social Insurance Fund) and to the registers of regulated activity (if your business requires a license or permit). However, if you are withdrawing from only part of your business, that which is covered by a license, permit or entry, you yourself must notify the competent authority.

Please note! Removal from CEIDG does not mean a removal of the entrepreneur’s details from the register.

Time limit

As soon as the details are posted in CEIDG, no later than the next business day following the day on which the application is received in CEIDG.

How much you will have to pay

The service is free of charge. You may incur additional fees only if the matter is handled by an attorney.

PLN 17 – stamp duty for the power of attorney (if applicable). 

If you are represented by an attorney not registered with CEIDG, you are required to pay stamp duty for attaching a power of attorney to the case. The stamp duty does not apply to you if your attorney is your husband, wife, child, parent, grandparent, grandmother, grandchild or sibling.

Where to pay the stamp duty: if you are required to pay stamp duty for the power of attorney, it must be paid to the account of the city/town council or municipality/commune authorities with jurisdiction over the seat of the office where you will file the power of attorney. The account number is provided at the website of the city/town council or municipality/commune authorities. For instance, if you file the power of attorney with the City Council in Poznań, then you must pay the stamp duty to the account of the City Council in Poznań.

How long you will have to wait

Good to know

Reinstating your business in CEIDG

Even though, following your application, your business has been removed from CEIDG, you can choose not to close it and continue running it. In this case, submit an application to update the entry and check the appropriate boxes. Remember, however, that when closing your business, you have responsibilities, such as closing your accounting records and settlements with the tax office. Reinstating your business may therefore involve additional formalities with, for example, the tax office or ZUS.

A “day by day” business is the same business

If, for example, you remove the company from CEIDG and register a new one the next day, this will be considered uninterrupted business activity. This applies if, in the removed entry, the date of removal is one day earlier than the date of commencement of business activity provided in the active entry.