How we calculate Polish net pay

The calculator reproduces the payroll of an employee on an employment contract (umowa o pracę) for the whole year, with one employer and the same pay every month. The rules come from the consolidated texts of the Personal Income Tax Act, the Social Insurance System Act and the Healthcare Benefits Act, the notices on the contribution cap and the minimum wage regulations — see data sources.

ZUS contributions

Employees pay 9.76% pension, 1.5% disability and 2.45% sickness contributions. Pension and disability contributions are charged only up to an annual base of 282,600 zł in 2026 (260,190 zł in 2025), 30 times the projected average wage: on part of the pay in the month the cap is reached, then not at all. Sickness has no cap.

Health contribution

9% of pay after ZUS contributions. Since 2022 it is not deductible from tax. At very low pay it cannot exceed the advance calculated under the rules of 31 December 2021 (17%, 43.76 zł reducing amount), under article 83 of the Healthcare Benefits Act; a full-time job at the minimum wage is not affected.

PIT advance

A month's income is pay minus ZUS contributions and allowable costs (250 zł, or 300 zł when commuting from another town), rounded to whole złoty. The advance is 12% until income since January passes 120,000 zł; in the month it does, the excess is taxed at 32%, and in later months all of the income. With a PIT-2 form the employer cuts each advance by 1/12 of the tax-reducing amount (300 zł), or by 1/24 or 1/36 if it is split between employers. The advance is rounded to whole złoty.

The 85,528 zł exemption and PPK

The under-26 relief and the reliefs for returnees, families with four or more children and working pensioners exempt pay up to 85,528 zł a year. Up to that limit no advance is withheld; costs apply only to the taxable part and contributions on exempt pay are not deductible. The health contribution is still due. In PPK the employee pays 2%, and the employer's 1.5% counts as the employee's income and raises the advance.

Annual return

After the year the tax follows the scale: 12% minus 3,600 zł up to a 120,000 zł base and 10,800 zł plus 32% of the excess. The difference from the advances is a refund or a payment on the return; with one employer and PIT-2 it comes from rounding only, but with the exemption or without PIT-2 it can run to hundreds of złoty.

Employer cost

Employers pay 9.76% pension and 6.5% disability contributions (up to the same cap), the accident contribution (1.67% by default — the rate for payers with up to nine insured people; larger firms have their own), 2.45% to the Labour Fund with the Solidarity Fund, 0.10% to the guaranteed benefits fund, and any PPK payment.

Tests

Not yet included

• Civil-law contracts (zlecenie, o dzieło), 50% author's costs, several employers and joint filing with a spouse.
• Pay changes during the year, bonuses and benefits in kind, sick leave.
• Reliefs on the annual return (child relief, thermal modernisation, internet) that reduce tax after the year.

Estimates only. Not tax, legal or financial advice.