This section identifies the bureaucratic and legal hurdles an entrepreneur must overcome to incorporate and register a new firm in Poland.
The country data appearing on this page was collected as part of the Doing Business project, which measures and compares regulations relevant to the life cycle of a small- to medium-sized domestic business in 183 economies. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2009.
The table below provides a summary of the procedures and the associated completion time and cost for setting up a standardized company. The table is followed by additional country-specific information on registering a company.

Standardized company

Legal Form: Sp z.o.o - Limited Liability Company
City: Warsaw


Registration Requirements Summary:

* Takes place simultaneously with another procedure.

Registration Requirements Details

Procedure 1. Notarize company agreement

Time to complete: 1 day
Cost to complete: PLN 1,010 notary fee + 0.4% of the amount of capital over PLN 60,000 + 22% VAT on notarial fees of 0.5% of share capital (civil law transactions tax)
Name of Agency:
Comment:
The maximum fee to notarize the company agreement cannot exceed six times the average monthly wage (PLN 2,703.41 x 6 = PLN 16,220.46) plus VAT and civil law transaction tax. If the company has only one shareholder (or a shareholder with definite majority of votes at the shareholders’ meeting), the company does not need legal services to write the agreement but rather can use a boilerplate or standard agreement, which must be notarized. To set up the whole company (taxes, social insurance, and so forth) for cases with more than one shareholder, a lawyer would normally charge between PLN 5,000 and PLN 25,000.

Procedure 2. Deposit paid-in capital at the bank

Time to complete: 1 day
Cost to complete: no charge
Name of Agency:
Comment:
To open a bank account, a limited liability company must provide the bank with the founding deed and a REGON certificate.

Procedure 3. File at National Court Register for company registration, REGON, NIP, Statistical Office and ZUS

Time to complete: 4 weeks
Cost to complete: PLN 1,500
Name of Agency:
Comment:
Since March 31, 2009 new provisions of the Act on the National Court Register came into force, and now during company registration at the National Court Register the applicant can also obtain: the statistical number (REGON), tax identification number (NIP) and entry in the Social Insurance Office (Zakład Ubezpieczeń Społecznych). The procedure to obtain all the registrations completed takes about a month.

Procedure 4. Register for VAT

Time to complete: 1 day, simultaneous with procedure 3
Cost to complete: PLN 170
Name of Agency:
Comment:
The company must register for VAT by the date when the company carries out VAT-covered business activities for the first time. The registration must be submitted with the Tax Office (see Procedure 4). The company must provide information on (a) its business name and legal form; (b) the REGON (statistical number); (c) start date for its business activities; and (d) the address of its registered office.

If the Company is planning to conduct future foreign trade activities within the European Union, the company must register as an EU VAT taxpayer. The company must submit that application before commencing foreign trade activity within the European Union. However, before registering as an EU VAT taxpayer, the company must be registered as a regular VAT taxpayer.

Procedure 5. Register the company at the National Sanitary Inspection

Time to complete: 1 day
Cost to complete: no charge
Name of Agency:
Comment:
The founders must register with the National Sanitary Inspection (Panstwowa Inspekcja Sanitarna) within 30 days of starting business.

Procedure 6. Register the company at the National Work Inspection

Time to complete: 1 day
Cost to complete: no charge
Name of Agency:
Comment:
Within 30 days of commencing business, the company must register with the National Work Inspection (Panstwowa Inspekcja Pracy) and, in writing, inform the relevant labor inspector about the location, type, and scope of business. Note that the State Labor Inspectorate defines "commencement of business" to mean the date on which the first employee was hired.