In 2019, PwC prepared a report which explicitly stated that maintaining the historic pace of economic growth, the Polish labor market may be short of even 1.5 million employees by 2025. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions introduced in connection with it, e.g. in the area of running a business, slightly slowed down the trend of the widening gap in the labor market, but did not eliminate the problem.
The registered unemployment rate in May and June 2021, according to GUS statistics, was about 6%, compared to this period from 2019 it is an increase of about 0.5 percentage points, but from January 2021 a downward trend is already visible. Employers, on the other hand, are struggling with the growing problem of staff shortages in their companies.
According to the Professions Barometer 2021, in Poland, problems in recruiting employees may concern 29 professions that were considered deficit due to the insufficient number of candidates ready to work in a given profession.
The money from the Reconstruction and Development Fund, which Poland is to receive from the European Union, is to be used to support the economy in the process of overcoming the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Polish Deal is to be one of the tools to improve the economic situation in Poland.
Will the Polish Deal fill the gap in the labor market?
Some of the proposed solutions of the Polish Deal support the "Polish migration policy - directions of action 2021-2022" announced in July this year, including in particular support in filling the shortage of employees on the labor market and attracting foreign nationals to Poland (in particular those with deficit qualifications, e.g. medical, technical, IT). The proposed mechanisms that seem to fit in with the above goals include: PIT and ZUS relief for return from emigration and reduced flat tax rates on revenues from business activities.
Relief for return - PIT
The relief is to apply to people settling in Poland and, consequently, changing their tax residency. It is a relief thanks to which in the next 4 years the taxpayer will be able to deduct 50% of the personal tax due for the previous tax year. The relief will be available to both: people employed in Poland and posted to work in our country. Moreover, it also covers income from non-agricultural economic activities and copyrights.
Relief for return - ZUS
There are also plans to introduce a relief for return from social security (ZUS), under which a person settling in Poland would not have to pay for retirement, disability and sickness insurance for 4 years. This would also apply to individual entrepreneurs. The conditions for using the return relief and sample calculations are presented in the previous article.
Reduced flat tax rates on revenues from business activities
The Polish Deal assumes a reduction in the flat tax rates for people performing, among others, medical and technical professions, and a lower flat rate of 12% for certain revenues related to the provision of IT services. The proposed changes may encourage highly qualified employees to work in Poland and address, at least partially, the problems with the deficit of programmers, designers and database administrators.
Although the Polish Deal also provides for the unification of the health insurance rate to the level of 9% for all taxpayers, including the elimination of the possibility of deducting health insurance contributions from personal income tax, it does not necessarily mean resignation from self-employment. Provision of services as part of a sole proprietorship may still turn out to be more advantageous in the case of entrepreneurs with a certain amount of income and may be used in industries where B2B contracts are a popular form of establishing cooperation with specialists.
The solutions proposed with the Polish Deal in conjunction with the introduced and planned changes in the immigration law may bring many benefits to Polish entrepreneurs. It is worth, among others to recall the highly popular Poland.Business Harbor program, which, through a number of facilitations regarding the legalization of stay and work in Poland, such as a faster visa procedure and the possibility of working in Poland by the beneficiaries of this program without a work permit, supports the relocation of IT specialists to Poland from countries such as Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine. It is also worth emphasizing that the aforementioned Polish migration policy provides for additional directions of changes addressing the economic and social needs of our country.
What is worth remembering when employing a foreign national?
When employing a foreign national, apart from tax issues, one should consider and choose the path of legalizing work and stay in Poland that is adequate to his/her situation. In the case of B2B cooperation, it is worth remembering about choosing a form of activity appropriate to the immigration status of a foreign national (e.g. sole proprietorship or company).
How can we help?
If the matters seem interesting to you - we invite you to talk to us. We can help, among others in:
- considering and selecting optimal forms of employment / cooperation with foreign nationals;
- estimating the benefits and costs for selected forms of employment / cooperation with foreign national from the point of view of the employer and the individual;
- legalization of work and stay of foreign nationals in Poland.
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