How to register with the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) and for insurance

Entrepreneur as payer and insured person

As an entrepreneur, you usually fulfil two roles before the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS):

• of a contribution payer, i.e. an entity that pays contributions for their own insurance, insurance of your employees and persons assisting in the business,
• of an insured person, i.e. as a person covered by social insurance.

The insurance contribution payer is the person responsible for calculating the contributions in the correct amount and paying them to the Social Insurance Institution. For example, the employer is the contribution payer for the employee.

<strong>The insured person</strong> is the person covered by at least one type of social insurance: old-age pension, disability, sickness, accident.

Registering as a social insurance contribution payer and registering for insurance are two separate processes. You must first be a registered contribution payer in the Social Insurance Institution, and only then can you register yourself, your family members or your employees and persons assisting in the business for insurance.

Read what types of contributions the entrepreneur pays to the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS).

ZUS PUE profile

As of 1 January 2023, every contribution payer is required to have a profile on the ZUS Electronic Services Platform (PUE).

This means that every entrepreneur, regardless of whether they employ employees or pay contributions only for themselves, must have such an account.

Find out how to register your profile with PUE ZUS.

If a contribution payer fails to establish a profile on PUE ZUS by 30 December 2022, ZUS will establish one for them.

On PUE ZUS, entrepreneurs have access to, among others:

• information on the current balance and monthly balance, showing the balance of contributions paid to ZUS
• information on contributions due to be paid and payments made
• annual information for the contribution payer
• settlement declarations that the payer has sent to ZUS
• list of persons registered with insurance
• list of employees on sick leave.

In addition, they can submit electronic applications to ZUS for:

• issuance of a certificate of not being in arrears with the payment of contributions
• account reconciliation
• a check whether a medical certificate for an employee has been issued correctly
• confirmation of insurance, related to EU social security regulations
• granting a power of attorney.

Payer registration – a company entered in CEIDG

The Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) will register you as a contribution payer based on your entry in CEIDG. This means that your business data from the application submitted to CEIDG when registering your business activity will be automatically transferred by CEIDG to the Social Insurance Institution.

On this basis, the Social Insurance Institution will prepare the following:

• ZUS ZFA – your application as the contribution payer,
• ZUS ZBA – information on your bank accounts as the contribution payer,
• ZUS ZAA – information on your business addresses.

In the event of a change of data in CEIDG, the Social Insurance Institution updates the data in its system on the basis of the information provided automatically by CEIDG.

Read how to change your entry in CEIDG.

You will be registered as a contribution payer from the day you start your business activity. After registration, the Social Insurance Institution will create a contribution payer account for you.

Please note! If you run a one-person business, are registered as a payer and as an insured person and pay contributions only for yourself (you do not pay contributions for your employees or contractors), you do not need to submit registration documents for your next business, for example when you become a partner in a registered partnership. You are already registered with the Social Insurance Institution on account of your previous business activity. However, you must pay a health contribution on account of each business you run.

Payer registration – a Civil Code partnership

If you run a business in the form of a Civil Code partnership and will be employing employees or contractors, you must register your partnership as a contribution payer with the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS).

You have to submit the following forms:

• ZUS ZPA together with a copy of: the decision of the tax office on granting tax identification number (NIP), a certificate from the statistical office on granting statistical number (REGON),
• ZUS ZBA if the partnership has bank accounts other than those provided in the ZUS ZPA form,
• ZUS ZAA (indicating business addresses if different from your registered office address).

You have 7 days to do this starting from the date on which the insurance obligation arises, i.e. from the date your employee or contractor starts their employment.

Please note! When a Civil Code partnership does not employ employees or contractors, it does not have to be registered with the Social Insurance Institution as a contribution payer.

If you don't know how to fill in a contribution payer application form, read the Social Insurance Institution guides:

• Registering/changing data of a contribution payer – a legal person or an organisational unit without legal personality
• Information on the bank account numbers of the contribution payer
• Business addresses of the contribution payer.

Payer registration – a commercial company and partnership

The Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) registers commercial companies and partnerships as contribution payers automatically, based on the data provided to the Social Insurance Institution by the National Court Register (KRS) and the tax office.

These are so-called supplementary data, including the abbreviated business name of the payer (not exceeding 31 characters), the date on which the obligation to pay contributions arose, the list of bank accounts, and the business address.

On the basis of the data from the National Court Register and the supplementary data (from the NIP-8), the Social Insurance Institution prepares the following application documents for the company:

• ZUS ZPA – Applying/changing data of a contribution payer – a legal person or an organisational unit without legal personality
• ZUS ZAA – Business addresses of the contribution payer
• ZUS ZBA – Information on the bank account numbers of the contribution payer

The Social Insurance Institution will also create a contribution payer account for the business.

Whom the entrepreneur registers for insurance with the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS)

The following persons must be registered for old-age pension insurance and disability insurance:

• yourself if you run a one-person business activity entered in CEIDG or are a partner in a Civil Code partnership
• yourself if you are a partner in a limited partnership, registered partnership and professional partnership, or a single-member limited liability company
• employees
• persons engaged in home-based work
• contractors, i.e. persons performing work under an agency or a mandate contract or any other contract for the provision of services
• persons assisting in the business (spouse, own children, children of the other spouse and adopted children, parents, stepmother, stepfather, adopters) if they share a common household with you and assist you in conducting your business activity.

Important! If your contractor is a middle school, secondary school, high school or university student and is under 26 years of age, then the contractor is not subject to compulsory social insurance and you do not have to register them with the Social Insurance Institution.

Persons who are subject to old-age pension insurance and disability insurance must also have accident insurance.

The following persons must be registered for sickness insurance:

• employees who have an employment relationship with you
• yourself if you run a one-person business activity entered in CEIDG or are a partner in a Civil Code partnership, in which case the insurance is voluntary, which means that you can opt out of it
• persons who perform work on the basis of an agency contract or a mandate contract, or other contract for the provision of services concluded in accordance with the Civil Code (persons performing home-based work and persons assisting in the business), at their own request – in this case, the insurance is voluntary

Please note! Registering for social insurance means that you have registered for health insurance.

Whom and for which types of insurance the entrepreneur should register.

	disability	old-age pension	accident	sickness	health
Entrepreneur registered with CEIDG	yes	yes	yes	voluntarily	yes
Partner in a Civil Code partnership	yes	yes	yes	voluntarily	yes
Partner in a limited partnership, registered partnership and professional partnership, and single-member limited liability companies	yes	yes	yes	voluntarily	yes
Shareholder in a multi-member limited liability company and joint-stock company	no	no	no	no	no
Shareholder in a simple joint-stock company making a contribution to the company in the form of the provision of work or services	yes	yes	yes	voluntarily	yes
Shareholder in a simple joint-stock company making a cash contribution to the company	no	no	no	no	no
Partner in a limited joint-stock partnership	no	no	no	no	no
Person engaged in home-based work	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Employee	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Contractor who is not a student and has attained 26 years of age	yes	yes	yes	voluntarily	yes
Contractor, middle school, secondary school, high school or university student who has not attained 26 years of age	no	no	no	no	no
Person assisting in the business	yes	yes	yes	voluntarily	yes
The entrepreneur’s family member assisting in the business	yes	yes	yes	voluntarily	yes
A family member of an employee who has no other title to insurance	no	no	no	no	yes

Registering the entrepreneur for insurance

Registering for social insurance with the Social Insurance Institution means that you have registered with the National Health Fund (NFZ).

From the moment you register, you are entitled to use public healthcare services.

Entrepreneur registered with CEDIG

The easiest way is to submit the insurance application forms when you register your business with CEIDG – you can attach them to the CEIDG registration application either when you register your company in the municipality office or online.

Read how to submit the application to CEIDG online.

If your business is your only title to insurance (i.e. you do not have a full-time employment contract or you are not a pensioner), then you register for:

• old-age pension, disability and accident insurance on a compulsory basis
• health insurance on a compulsory basis
• sickness insurance on a voluntary basis.

If you did not register for insurance when registering your business with CEIDG, you must apply to the Social Insurance Institution within 7 days of starting your business.

You register for insurance on the following forms:

• ZUS ZUA – if you register for social and health insurance (and voluntarily for sickness insurance).
• ZUS ZZA – if you register only for health insurance, e.g. when Relief for starting a business is applicable.

Note! As of 16 May 2021, you have to provide an occupation code, i.e. information about the profession pursued by the professionally active insured person in the ZUS ZUA and ZUS ZZA forms. You can check the occupation codes in the occupation description search engine.

The occupation code will have to be provided:

• always on your first application documents (also submitted after 15 May 2021 for past periods)
• on application documents submitted as correction or change, for example in connection with the correction of address details, change of period or of type of insurance.

The occupation code does not need to be provided for those registered for insurance before 16 May 2021.

Partners in Civil Code partnerships

Each partner prepares and submits insurance documents to the Social Insurance Institution themselves and pays their own insurance contributions. Partners who register for insurance as contribution payers may not use NIP or REGON numbers of their partnership – they should use their own numbers.

A partner in the partnership who runs a business and pays contributions only for their own insurance, settles their contributions only in the settlement declaration (ZUS DRA), which they submit for themselves.

Important! If you are registered with CEIDG and become a partner in a Civil Code partnership, you do not need to submit another application to the Social Insurance Institution – your registration as the payer and insured person also includes a Civil Code partnership. You have to pay a health contribution on account of each type of your business.

Shareholders in companies

Shareholders in the following companies: multi-member limited liability companies, joint stock companies and limited joint stock partnerships are not subject to compulsory insurance – they do not have to register for insurance. This also applies to members of the management boards, unless they perform their functions on the basis of employment contracts or civil law contracts.

Important! Partners in limited joint-stock partnerships may join the voluntary old-age pension and disability insurance and pay old-age pension and disability insurance contributions for themselves. They are not subject to health insurance, either. They can be registered for health insurance by their spouse when the spouse has a title to insurance (for example, their spouse is an employee).

Partners in partnerships: limited partnership, registered partnership and professional partnership, and single-member limited liability companies are subject to insurance and are contribution payers of their own insurance. They must register themselves with the Social Insurance Institution as both a contribution payer and an insured person (at least for health insurance).

They have 7 days from the registration of the partnership with the National Court Register (KRS) to do this.

Partners provide the Social Insurance Institution with the following:

• registration of the contribution payer ZUS ZFA in which they provide their own identification data, i.e. PESEL (Personal Identification Number) and NIP or NIP, REGON and PESEL (if the partner also runs a separate business other than that of a partnership/company)
• their own registration as an insured person for insurance:
• ZUS ZUA (registration for social and health insurance) or
• ZUS ZZA (registration for health insurance only).

Registering employees and persons assisting in the business for insurance with the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS)

You must register your employee or person assisting in the business with the Social Insurance Institution within 7 days from the date of commencement of the work or assistance, i.e. from the date of commencement of the contract of mandate, agency contract or a different contract for the provision of services.

If the 7-day period ends on a non-business day (Sunday or a public holiday), the last day of the period falls on the first business day.

Example

Anna Nowak was employed on 2 July 2018. She came to work for the first time on that date. The time limit for registering her for insurance runs from 3 July. The employer must register Anna with the Social Insurance Institution by 9 July at the latest.

You register your employee or person assisting in the business with the Social Insurance Institution:

• on the ZUS ZUA form – if the person you are registering is subject to full insurance, i.e. social and health insurance
• on the ZUS ZZA form – if the person you are registering is subject only to health insurance
• when you list the person concerned in the ZUS RCA personal monthly report with the correct insurance title code – this applies to persons on parental leaves or receiving maternity benefit (listing a person in a personal report means that they have been registered for insurance).

Please note! The correctness of the data provided in the application for social insurance is confirmed by the employee with their own signature, with the exception of persons registered for social insurance due to being on parental leave or receiving maternity benefit.

Important! From 2019 onwards, employers insured in the Social Insurance Institution may register their employees with the Social Insurance Institution online via CEIDG (this possibility does not apply to employers insured in KRUS). Applications must be made on separate forms:

• ZUS ZZA – registration for health insurance
• ZUS ZUA – registration for social and health insurance

You can also register hired employees in the Payer (Płatnik) programme or in the ePayer (ePłatnik) app on the Electronic Services Platform ((Platforma Usług Elektronicznych, PUE).

Important! As of 16 May 2021, you have to provide an occupation code, i.e. information about the profession pursued by the professionally active insured person in the ZUS ZUA and ZUS ZZA forms. You can check the occupation codes in the occupation description search engine.

The occupation code will have to be provided:

• always on your first application documents (also submitted after 15 May 2021 for past periods)
• on application documents submitted as correction or change, for example in connection with the correction of address details, change of period or of type of insurance.

The occupation code does not need to be provided for those registered for insurance before 16 May 2021.

Registration codes for entrepreneurs and employees

The relevant six-digit insurance code must be indicated on the insurance registration documents.

Entrepreneurs and partners/shareholders in partnerships/companies

Insurance title code	Description
05 10 xx*	a person running non-agricultural business activity on the basis of the provisions on business activity or other special provisions and who has no established right to disability pension for incapacity for work, for whom the base for social insurance contributions is the declared amount not lower than 60% of the average monthly salary, a person running a non-public or public school, an institution or a complex of schools or institutions pursuant to the provisions on the educational system, and a person running non-agricultural business activity in the field of a liberal profession
05 12 xx	a person running non-agricultural business activity pursuant to the provisions on business activity or other special provisions and who has an established right to disability pension for incapacity for work, for whom the base for social insurance contributions is the declared amount not lower than 60% of the average monthly salary
05 20 xx	a creator
05 30 xx	an artist
05 40 xx	a person benefitting from the Relief for starting a business
05 43 xx	a shareholder in a single-member limited liability company, a partner in a registered partnership, limited partnership or professional partnership, and a shareholder in a simple joint-stock company providing work or services as a contribution
05 44 xx	a person running non-agricultural business activity who is not subject to health insurance pursuant to special provisions
05 70 xx	a person running non-agricultural business activity who has no established right to disability pension for incapacity for work, for whom the base for social insurance contributions is the declared amount not lower than 30% of the minimum salary
05 72 xx	a person running non-agricultural business activity who has an established right to disability pension for incapacity for work, for whom the base for social insurance contributions is the declared amount not lower than 30% of the minimum salary
05 90 xx	a person running non-agricultural business activity who has no established right to disability pension for incapacity for work, for whom the base for social insurance contributions depends on income
05 92 xx	a person running non-agricultural business activity who has an established right to disability pension for incapacity for work, for whom the base for social insurance contributions depends on income

Employees and persons assisting in the business

Insurance title code	Description
01 10 xx	employees covered by social security and health insurance
01 20 xx	employees between the age of 15 and 18
02 00 xx	persons engaged in home-based work
03 10 xx	members of agricultural production cooperatives and cooperative agricultural groups or any other cooperative engaged in agricultural production
04 11 xx	persons performing work under an agency contract, a mandate contract or a different contract for the provision of services
05 11 xx	persons assisting persons running non-agricultural business activity who are subject to health insurance
05 45 xx	persons assisting persons running non-agricultural business activity who are not subject to health insurance
05 81 xx	a person assisting a person running non-agricultural business activity whose maternity benefit does not exceed the amount of parental benefit
12 11 xx	persons on child care leave
12 40 xx	persons receiving maternity benefit

xx – the fifth and sixth digits of the code refer to the old-age pension and disability pension entitlement and the designation of the disability degree.
If you are not entitled to these benefits or do not have a disability certificate, please enter 00.
However, if you are entitled to an old-age or disability pension or have a disability certificate, please enter the correct code as instructed below.

The fifth digit of the ZUS code
0 - if you do not have an established right to an old-age or disability pension,
1 - if you have an established right to an old-age pension,
2 - if you have an established right to a disability pension.

The sixth digit of the ZUS code
0 - if you do not have a disability certificate,
1 - if you have a light disability certificate,
2 - if you have a moderate disability certificate,
3 - if you have a severe disability certificate.

Read the list of insurance codes in the guide issued by the Social Insurance Institution (Chapter VII).

Registration for health insurance of a family member of an entrepreneur or employee

Who may be registered for health insurance

If your family members do not have a title to health insurance, you are obliged to register them for health insurance. Also, your employee or a person assisting in the business must inform you that they wish to register a member of their family for health insurance.

Registering family members of an entrepreneur, employee or contractor for health insurance does not involve any additional costs.

Family members, both yours and those of your employees or persons assisting in the business, must be registered for health insurance if they:

• do not have compulsory health insurance, for example as an employee, contractor, person running non-agricultural business activity, an unemployed person
• are not entitled to healthcare benefits under the provisions on the coordination of social security schemes for the provision of healthcare benefits in kind.

Example

Your company employs Anna, whose husband is employed and she has two minor children. Anna can register her children for health insurance. Anna’s husband is subject to health insurance as an employee.

Example

Katarzyna, who is employed in your company, has a husband and an adult child. Katarzyna’s husband does not work, nor does he have a disability certificate, nor is he registered as an unemployed person. Katarzyna’s child is studying and not working. Katarzyna can register both her husband and her adult child for health insurance, as they have no other title to health insurance.

The following persons are considered family members for health insurance purposes:

• own child, a spouse’s child, an adopted child, a grandchild or a non-related child for whom custody has been established, or a non-related child within a foster family or a family-type children’s home, until the child attains the age of 18, and if the child is still obtaining education at a school or a teacher training institution, or is obtaining education at a university or a doctoral school – until the child attains the age of 26; and if the child has a certificate of a severe degree of disability or another equally treated certificate – without age limitation
• a spouse
• ascendants (for example, parents, grandparents, etc.) who share a household with the insured person.

Persons living in informal relationships, even if they share a household with the insured person, are not considered family members for health insurance purposes.

Grandparents may only register their grandchild if neither of the grandchild’s parent is:

• covered by compulsory health insurance
• entitled to benefits under coordination provisions on professional activity as an employed person or self-employed person
• covered by voluntary health insurance.

By registering for health insurance, family members gain the right to healthcare benefits from the date of registering for insurance and may use the services of the state healthcare services under the National Health Fund – the state medical outpatient clinics and hospitals.

The time limit for registering family members for health insurance

You register your family member within 7 days of the date when the circumstances justifying the registration arise.

You register the family members of the insured persons you have hired within 7 days of the date on which the insured person informed you of the need to register them.

The employee must inform you that they wish to register their family member for health insurance within 7 days of the date of their employment or from the time their family member becomes eligible for health insurance.

How to register family members for health insurance

You register family members (both your own family members and your employee’s family members) for health insurance using the ZUS ZCNA form.

Read how to fill in the ZUS ZCNA form.

The easiest way is to submit the health insurance registration forms when you register your business with CEIDG – you can attach them to the CEIDG registration application, either when you register your company in the municipality office or online.

Read how to submit the application to CEIDG online.

If you did not register yourself and members of your family for insurance when registering your business with CEIDG, you must apply to the Social Insurance Institution within 7 days of starting your business.

Read how to submit documents to the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS).

How to correct the data of the contribution payer and insured person

Correction of entrepreneur data

The change or correction of data contained in the contribution payer’s registration document, such as: NIP, REGON, PESEL, abbreviated business name, surname, first name, date of birth, passport series and number, must be submitted within 7 days from the occurrence of changes or from the identification of incorrect data, on the ZUS ZIPA form.

You report a change or correction of the insurance title code, type of insurance or the date on which the period of being subject to insurance commenced, by:

• deregistration from insurance, using the ZUS ZWUA form (deregistration from insurance)
• further correct registration for insurance, on the ZUS ZUA or ZUS ZZA form.

If the data you are correcting (identification or registration – concerning addresses) also concern yourself as an insured person, attach the following documents to the CEIDG-1 application:

• ZUS ZUA – when you change or correct your address details as an insured person and you have been registered for social insurance and health insurance
• ZUS ZZA – when you change or correct your address details as an insured person and you have been registered for health insurance only
• ZUS ZIUA – when you change your identification data (PESEL, surname, first name) as an insured person
• ZUS ZCNA – when you change the address details of your family members.

Note! You do not have to send deregistration or correction forms to the Social Insurance Institution if your company is:

• registered with CEIDG: it is enough if you correct the data in the CEIDG entry. The change will be automatically transferred to the Social Insurance Institution.

Read how to correct data in the CEIDG entry.

• registered with the National Court Register (KRS): you only need to update the data in the KRS entry – when you make a change to the master data, or in the tax office on the NIP-8 application – when you make a change to the supplementary data. The change will be automatically transferred to the Social Insurance Institution.

Correction of data of an employee or a family member

If you have made an error when registering an insured employee or a family member (yours or the employee’s), you must correct these documents by submitting the relevant forms to the Social Insurance Institution. You have 7 days to do so from the date when the incorrect data are identified.

You can change or correct the data of an insured person’s family member on the ZUS ZCNA form.

You change or correct the identification data of the insured employee, such as PESEL (Personal Identification Number), surname, first name, series and number of identity card or passport, on the ZUS ZIUA form.

Other data of the insured employee, for example the address of the insured person, the insurance title code, the type of insurance or the date on which the insurance starts, can be changed or corrected by submitting the ZUS ZUA or ZUS ZZA forms:

• first, deregister the insured person from insurance on the ZUS ZWUA form
• then enter the correct data on the ZUS ZUA or ZUS ZZA form.

Example

Wojciech registered his employee for insurance on a ZUS ZUA form. He entered the wrong date of the commencement of the insurance obligation. Instead of 1 September 2019, he provided the date of 1 August 2019. In order to correct this error, he must deregister the employee on the ZUS ZWUA form with the registration date, i.e. 1 August 2019, and then make the correct registration on the ZUS ZUA form with the date of the commencement of the insurance obligation, i.e. 1 September 2019.