When should you start a business?

Starting a business in 2025 seems easier than ever—everything can be done online, often in a single day. But the registration process itself is just the beginning. Many people ask themselves: when do you need to register a business, and when can you operate without registration? What changes if you exceed the revenue limit or operate in a regulated industry?

In this article, we explain when formalities are mandatory, what the rules for conducting so-called unregistered business activity are , and what you should know before you start. We also provide up-to-date tips for 2025 and answer the most frequently asked questions that we receive from novice entrepreneurs.

What is economic activity?

The term business includes all forms of activity conducted for profit. However, there are different legal forms of conducting it. It can be a sole proprietorship, limited liability company, limited partnership, joint-stock company, general partnership, partnership. What legal form to choose is best to know already when you decide to establish a business.

One can also divide business activities by the type of activity performed: production, services, sale of goods.

One-person business activity in the Polish classification of activities

The simplest form of business is a sole proprietorship. It is subject to registration in the Central Register of Economic Activity. Registering a business in CEIDG involves choosing a PKD code. There are many codes, and for someone who has not been in business it may be difficult to choose the right one. In this case, you can apply for a code at the Polish Institute of Standardization.

Entry in the register of regulated activities

A number of activities in Poland fall into the category of regulated activities. This category includes those areas of activity that require additional permits or licenses for their operation. In this case, it does not matter whether you run a sole proprietorship or in the form of a company. What matters is the field of business activity.

And so we distinguish here, among others: banking and finance, insurance, healthcare, law and legal consulting, architecture, environmental protection, energy, education, etc.

Responsibilities after the establishment of the company

Unfortunately, establishing a company in Poland involves a number of subsequent obligations, and this is true regardless of whether the company makes money or not and whether it is a sole proprietorship or a large company.

Income tax

In this world, only death and taxes are certain, Benjamin Franklin stated, and this truth has not aged. Every company must pay taxes on recorded income. The most common is the Corporate Income Tax, more commonly known as CIT from the English name Corporate Income Tax. This is a tax on corporate income and is 19%. The tax rate is the same for sole proprietorships and large publicly traded companies.

If an entrepreneur employs employees or has employee status himself, he must pay PIT on personal income.

If an activity is subject to excise taxes, the entrepreneur must also pay them.

Many entrepreneurs find it profitable to be a VAT payer because they can deduct this tax when buying materials and more. Once a company reaches a certain amount of turnover, it must become a VAT payer. Below this threshold, it can use a flat rate on registered income.

Social Security Contributions

Social Security contributions are an obligation that finishes off many start-ups. One has to pay social security regardless of whether the company earns money or not. The burden is hardest to bear for a one-person business. To make matters worse, Social Security premiums are constantly being raised and Social Security has almost nothing to offer entrepreneurs.

Storage of accounting records

Accounting records generally have to be kept for five years. But already documents related to employee employment must be available for 50 years and real estate documentation for 10 years. In Polish conditions, with constantly changing laws accounting and employee matters are best left to a professional company to handle.

Starting your own business - company registration options

Starting your own business is no longer associated these days with having to run around offices and stand in lines. Digitally excluded people have no choice but to stand in lines or pay an attorney to handle the paperwork. But also anyone who does not want to waste time working out new and rather rarely needed procedures can entrust the establishment of their business to professionals.

Just as practical as external support in setting up a business is resolving the issue of a registered office through a virtual company headquarters. For many new entrepreneurs, this is an excellent starting option—you get an address in the city center that is suitable for all registration formalities, while avoiding the high costs of renting traditional office space.

Who can start a business?

Anyone who has full legal capacity can start a business can be started by any person who has full legal capacity. Natural persons obtain this capacity upon reaching the age of 18 or as a result of marriage. Persons under the age of 13 and those who are completely incapacitated are not legally competent.
Persons convicted of a final judgment for an economic crime or a fiscal offense are also deprived of the right to establish a business by a final judgment for an economic or fiscal offense. Senior state and local government officials are also deprived of this right. In their case, the restriction is intended to prevent corruption.

Starting a business online

The easiest and quickest way to start your own business is to do it online. The key issue in this case is authentication. Simply put, the authorities to which we send documents must be certain about the personal data of the person registering the business. That is why a number of banks offer this service, as they have all their customers' data. At the same time, they gain a corporate customer, because usually the condition for using the service is to open an account with them.
The second method of authentication is purchasing a qualified signature. This service has recently become very popular among entrepreneurs because it makes life so much easier. A qualified signature can be used not only to set up a business online, but also later, for example, to conclude contracts without having to meet with the other party. With such a signature, you can theoretically do everything online.

How to start a sole proprietorship in practice?

Setting up a sole proprietorship is basically limited to submitting an application to CEIDG-1. This also serves as a notification of new business activity to the relevant tax office, ZUS/KRUS, GUS, and an application for NIP and REGON numbers. This step can be done either in person or online. A trusted profile greatly facilitates the handling of all official matters.
Unfortunately, the next step requires you to leave your home. This is a visit to ZUS. You need to register for social security there by filling out the appropriate forms. You have seven days from the start of your business to do this.

How long does it take to start a business?

Starting your own business is the simplest form of company. It also takes the least time. In practice, if we do not make any mistakes when filling out the forms and go straight to the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) to set up a sole proprietorship, we can do it in one day. The day after registration, we can already legally run our business.
A sole proprietorship is a risky form of business. The entrepreneur is liable with all their private assets in the event of failure. Setting up a limited liability company, which limits potential losses, is not so easy.

When is it necessary to establish a sole proprietorship?

At the beginning of the Polish transformation in the early 1990s, a large part of business was conducted in the gray zone or even in the black market. Now it's much rarer, because it's not so easy to avoid the tax office, the whole economy has become professionalized and it's not easy to hide doing business. Besides, new regulations have emerged, the enforcement of which belongs not only to the tax office, but to other administrative units.

Activities require permits or licenses

In most cases, business is conducted on a general basis, but in some areas either licenses or permits are required to conduct business. Concessions are required, for example, to trade in alcohol or cigarettes, to run a clinic, to operate a cab service, etc. Conducting such business is necessarily combined with the establishment of a company, for example, a sole proprietorship or a limited liability company.

Monthly income above 50%

The need to set up a sole proprietorship also arises if you are operating an unregistered business and your income exceeds the ceiling of 50% of the lowest salary in any month.

A period of 60 months after the end of the previous activity

An entrepreneur cannot open a new business within 60 months after termination. This restriction is a safeguard against tax avoidance. In the past, it has happened that by closing down and starting a business, an entrepreneur has avoided taxes without stopping the business.

During these 60 months, the entrepreneur may also have limited opportunities to receive social benefits.

When is it okay not to start a business?

There are exceptions to the need to establish a company when you want to provide services for a fee. These are unregistered activities. However, there are serious limitations here. Income in any month cannot exceed 50% of the amount of the minimum wage. In practice, such activity can be legally carried out by supplementing one's basic income by repairing a neighbor's car or knitting.