A sole trader business (JDG) alongside a job – how to combine employment and your own company legally

Running a job and your own company in parallel is a popular arrangement in Poland – it lets you test a business without giving up the security of a regular salary. In 2026 the law does not forbid this model, but there are three areas to think through before setting up a sole trader business (JDG): the non-compete ban, the overlap of ZUS (Polish social insurance) insurance titles and taxes.

In this article we explain what is allowed, how contributions are calculated, when it pays off, and when you fall into the trap of “business for a former employer”.

The non-compete ban – what to check in your contract

The first step before setting up a company while employed is to review your employment contract and the work regulations. Typical clauses you will come across:

• A non-compete ban during employment – you may not carry on activity that competes with your employer
• An obligation to report additional work – written into the work regulations or the contract
• A non-compete ban after the employment relationship ends – rarer, it applies to key posts; it must be paid for by the employer

If the contract contains none of these clauses and your company does not compete with your employer, you can set it up without formally informing them. If your company does the same as your employer (for example, you are a programmer employed at a software house and you open a programming company), you need your employer’s written consent – otherwise you risk disciplinary dismissal and compensation.

Overlap of ZUS insurance titles – the key benefit

This is the biggest difference between a JDG alongside a job and a stand-alone JDG. If your contribution base from the job is at least equal to the minimum wage (in 2026 – PLN 4,806 gross, one rate for the whole year), then on the business activity you pay only the health insurance contribution.

Social insurance contributions (pension, disability, accident, sickness) go from the job. From the JDG:

• You do not pay – pension, disability, accident and sickness contributions, or the Labour Fund
• You pay – only the health insurance contribution (9% of income on the scale, 4.9% on the flat tax – in both cases with a minimum of PLN 432.54 from February 2026; fixed amounts under the lump-sum tax: PLN 498.35 / 830.58 / 1,495.04)

In practice, with a full-time job and income from the JDG of PLN 3,000 a month, 9% of income is PLN 270, but the minimum applies, so you pay PLN 432.54 of health insurance. What you do not pay is the social insurance contributions from the JDG, which with full ZUS in 2026 come to PLN 1,788.29 a month (without voluntary sickness insurance; at an accident rate of 1.67% for a payer with up to 9 people). That is a saving of about PLN 1,788 a month = about PLN 21,459 a year.

When the overlap does not work

The overlap of insurance titles works only if:

• Your base from the job is at least the minimum wage – with a half-time job at a gross below PLN 4,806 you lose the overlap and pay full ZUS from the JDG
• The job is an employment contract (not a contract of mandate or for specific work) – with a contract of mandate the overlap is counted differently, and most often you must pay on both titles
• You work in Poland (not for a foreign employer who does not pay ZUS) – otherwise it is full ZUS from the JDG straight away

If you have a half-time job or a contract of mandate as your main source, check your base on PUE ZUS (the ZUS Electronic Services Platform) before setting up a JDG.

The trap of business for a former employer

If you set up a JDG in order to continue working with a former employer as “self-employed”, you lose all the preferences:

• no right to the Start-up Relief (ulga na start) for the first 6 months
• no right to preferential ZUS contributions for 24 months
• no right to Mały ZUS Plus

The statutory condition concerns a former employer for whom, in the current or the previous calendar year, you performed, as part of your job, activities within the scope of your business (Article 18(2) of the Entrepreneurs’ Law Act, Article 18c(11) point 5 of the Social Insurance System Act). If you now issue an invoice from your JDG to such an employer, you automatically fall into full ZUS from the first day. The details are in the article on the Start-up Relief and preferential ZUS contributions.

With a job and a JDG at the same time this trap is easier to detect – the tax authorities and ZUS simply see in the database that one PESEL (personal ID number) issues invoices to the NIP (tax identification number) of its employer. It happens that companies suggest “self-employment instead of an employment contract” – this is a scheme that ZUS actively inspects.

PIT – two sources of income

With a job and a JDG you have two separate sources of income and two separate ways of accounting for them:

• The job – the employer pays the PIT advance every month, and at the end of the year you receive a PIT-11
• The JDG – you calculate the PIT advances yourself (monthly or quarterly, depending on the form) and pay by the 20th day of the following month

In the annual return you combine both sources – if you chose the scale for your JDG, the job and the company add up on one 12%/32% scale (and family reliefs are counted on total income). If you have the flat tax on your JDG, the company’s income is settled separately on PIT-36L, and the job on PIT-37.

Joint filing with a spouse works if both people are on the scale. If you have the flat tax on your JDG, joint filing is not available – a spouse with a job must file alone.

When it is worth moving from a job to a full JDG

The mere fact that you combine a job and a JDG does not mean it should stay that way for ever. It is worth considering a full JDG when:

• revenue from the JDG regularly exceeds the net pay from the job – the company is already your “main occupation”
• the company’s hours clash with the job and it is hard to reconcile them
• you want to use the Start-up Relief and preferential ZUS contributions for the full benefits
• you plan to hire people in the company – the job becomes an obstacle in terms of time

A move from a job to a full JDG is worth preceding with an accounting consultation – the tax + ZUS calculation without the job can be surprising.

What next

If you are only considering combining a job with a JDG, start with the article How to set up a sole trader business in 2026 – there we lead you through the whole registration process. If you want to check whether your overlap of insurance titles works correctly, get in touch with Profais. If you are setting up a company and sign a contract with us, we guide you through setting up the company, registration and KSeF access free of charge.

Sources: zus.pl, biznes.gov.pl, the Social Insurance System Act (Article 9), the Labour Code (Article 101⁴ – the non-compete ban).