Suspend your business registered with CEIDG

Are you an entrepreneur registered with the Central Register and Information on Economic Activity (CEIDG) and do you want to suspend your business? You can do it at any time. Learn how to suspend a business in CEIDG.

How to proceed

What you should know and who can use this service

Before submitting an application to CEIDG to suspend your business:

• check what the suspension of business is and what conditions you must meet to benefit from it 
• plan the day on which suspension is to take place
• decide if you want to suspend your business indefinitely or for a fixed period.

Please note! You can suspend your business as long as you do not employ any people.

The start date of the suspension may be the same as the date of the application, but you can also indicate a date earlier or later than the submission of the application. Make sure that the chosen date does not conflict with your activities as an entrepreneur. Also check the ZUS (Social Insurance Institution) and tax implications of your chosen suspension date. If you have any doubts, contact your tax office and ZUS/KRUS (Agricultural Social Insurance Fund).

The period of suspension is up to you, but it cannot be less than 30 days.

If you indicate the date of resumption of your business in the application for suspension, the business will be resumed on the chosen date, without the need to submit an additional application in this regard. If you do not provide the date of resumption, the business will be suspended indefinitely, until you either resume or remove it.

If your business is a Civil Code partnership, the suspension will be effective when the business is suspended in CEIDG by all partners.

When you should complete this procedure

At any time

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 the suspension of your business

You can apply for the suspension of your business in 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 are applying to suspend your business online, you can involve an attorney whose details have been disclosed in your entry in CEIDG. However, the power of attorney must include in its scope suspending a business. You do not need to pay stamp duty for a power of attorney if you refer to an attorney disclosed in CEIDG. The power of attorney is visible in the public register and does not need to be further confirmed by a power of attorney 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.

Your identity document can be: an identity card, passport or mDowód (mObywatel document).

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 application from the Biznes.gov.pl/ceidg website, complete it, print it out and sign it in your own hand 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. Remember that the power of attorney must include in its scope suspending a business. 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.

If you use a written power of attorney, remember that you have to pay stamp duty, PLN 17, each time you submit a power of attorney (this does not apply to your immediate family).

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

2. The office will verify your application

If the application submitted electronically is incorrect, the CEIDG ICT system will let you know immediately.

If the application submitted in person or by registered post to the city/town council or municipality/commune authorities of your choice is incorrect, the office will immediately request that you correct or supplement the application to the indicated extent – within seven business days of receiving the request. An application that is not corrected by this time limit will not be considered.

3. Your business will be suspended

Time limit

The period of suspension begins from the date indicated in the application to register the information on the suspension of business and continues until the date:

• indicated in the application
• indicated in a separate application to resume the business

• of establishment of successor administration.

How much you will have to pay

• PLN 0 – suspension of business in CEIDG is free of charge.
• PLN 17 – stamp duty for the power of attorney (optional).

If you file a power of attorney with a public office, you must pay the stamp duty. However, powers of attorney granted to your husband, wife, children, parents, grandparents, grandchildren or siblings are free of charge.

Where to pay: pay the stamp duty for the power of attorney 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 (check the account number on 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

What you can do in your business during the suspension

During the period of business suspension: 

• you can perform any activities necessary to preserve or secure the source of income – such as renting the premises to conduct your business
• you can accept receivables and you must pay your obligations incurred before the date of suspension of your business
• you can dispose of your own fixed assets and equipment
• you have the right or obligation to participate in legal proceedings, tax and administrative proceedings related to your business activity performed before the date of its suspension
• you may be subject to inspection under the rules provided for entrepreneurs
• you can either appoint or dismiss a successor administrator.

Suspension of your business and advance income tax payments

During the suspension of your business, you do not have to calculate or make advance income tax payments.

Suspension of your business and VAT

During the period of suspension, you do not have to file returns for the accounting periods to which the suspension applies.

Please note! The exemption from filing returns does not include:

• taxpayers making intra-Community acquisitions of goods
• taxpayers importing services or purchasing goods – for which they are a taxpayer (e.g. importing or purchasing goods from outside the EU)
• accounting periods in which the suspension of business did not involve a full accounting period
• accounting periods within which the taxpayer must account for tax on taxable activities and within which the taxpayer must make adjustments to input tax.

If you perform VAT-taxable activities (e.g. rental services, sale of a fixed asset) during the period of business suspension, you must notify the head of the tax office before the day on which you suspend your business or start performing such activities. In the notification, write in which period you will perform these activities. If you suspend your business for an uninterrupted period of six months, the head of the tax office will remove you from the register of active VAT taxpayers. Once the suspension is over, you will be reinstated in the register automatically (you do not need to submit any application).

Suspension of you business and relief for starting your business (Ulga na start)

If you suspend your business during the relief, the period of suspension will not interrupt the 6-month period, i.e. it counts towards the period in which you can benefit from the relief.

Suspension of your business and KRUS

Are you a farmer and entrepreneur? Read what happens when, as a farmer, you suspend your business.