Set up a company in Poland remotely

What it costs to register a company in Poland in 2026

The compulsory payments to the state when registering a spółka z o.o. with the minimum capital of PLN 5,000 come to PLN 275 in the S24 system and PLN 525 plus the notary’s fee where the company is formed by notarial deed and filed through the Portal Rejestrów Sądowych (PRS). That is the entire compulsory minimum: since 29 November 2025 the Monitor Sądowy i Gospodarczy announcement and its PLN 100 charge have been abolished, including on first registration.

The conclusion in one line: if the articles are standard, use S24 — half the cost and faster. The notarial form is needed where the S24 template cannot go: a contribution in kind (aport), share classes, non-standard voting rules, preference shares.

Our package prices on this page are quoted in euro while the state charges are in złoty. That is deliberate: the charges are set by Polish law in złoty and do not move with the exchange rate, while we fix our fee in euro for the whole engagement so you do not pay for currency movement.

Do you have to travel to Poland to form a company

You do not have to travel — but which route is open to you depends on your nationality, and since 2026 that has become the first question. A company can be registered remotely in two ways: with a qualified electronic signature from a provider on the EU trusted list, or through a notarised power of attorney to a representative in Poland. The third route — PESEL, then profil zaufany, then S24 — now requires a personal visit to a gmina office for anyone outside the EU, the EEA and Switzerland.

A profil zaufany does not preserve the written form of a transaction — it is equivalent to a handwritten signature only in dealings with a public body. A qualified signature under art. 78¹ of the Kodeks cywilny does preserve the written form and is recognised across the EU. For registering a company either will do; for contracts with counterparties only the second will.

Which e-signature actually works from outside the EU

A qualified electronic signature issued by any provider on the EU trusted list works directly in S24, in the Portal Rejestrów Sądowych and in PUESC, under the eIDAS Regulation, and requires no PESEL number. The provider does not have to be Polish: an Estonian ID card, an Italian firma digitale and a Spanish FNMT certificate are all accepted by Polish state systems on exactly the same footing as a Polish one.

This is where most founders lose time, because the market is full of things that look like electronic signatures and are not.

The practical conclusion: buy the qualified certificate first, then start the registration. It is the single item with the longest lead time — two to five days — and everything else in the S24 route waits on it.

UK citizens: where the Withdrawal Agreement line falls

A British passport on its own no longer opens the remote PESEL route. The exemption in art. 18 ust. 1a covers UK citizens who are beneficiaries of the Withdrawal Agreement — broadly, those who were exercising free-movement rights in Poland before the end of the transition period — together with their family members. A British national who first came to Poland after that is treated as a third-country national and must appear in person.

The conclusion in one line: for a UK founder the PESEL question is usually the wrong question. A Polish company can be registered and run without one, and a qualified certificate from an EU provider settles the signing problem in a few days without a flight.

The other half of the Brexit question is the company itself. A UK limited company can trade with the EU, but it is established in a third country: it needs an EU EORI number for customs, cannot use intra-Community supply rules on its own, and in several sectors cannot access EU procurement. A Polish spółka z o.o. is an EU company from day one — see the EORI number and VAT registration in Poland.

What changed for a foreign founder on 1 January 2026

Three things changed: access to a PESEL number, the VAT exemption threshold and the KSeF regime. None of them stops a foreigner from forming a company — but each changes the order of work if you are following a guide written in 2024.

The practical consequence for a new company: register it with PKD 2025 codes from the start, and set up receipt of invoices in the Krajowy System e-Faktur (KSeF) before the first purchase from a Polish supplier — otherwise invoices will arrive in a system you cannot log into.

Which documents the founder has to provide

An individual founder needs three things: a valid passport with at least six months to run, a correspondence address in Poland and an electronic signature. The correspondence address can be a virtual office — one is included in the Standard and Turnkey packages. No residence permit and no residence card is required to register a company.

Two points that cost English-speaking founders the most time. EU membership does not exempt corporate documents from the apostille — the EU regulation that removed legalisation covers civil-status records, not extracts from commercial registers. And the translation must be made by a sworn translator on the register kept by the Polish Ministry of Justice; a certified translation made in your own country will be refused.

Spółka z o.o. or JDG — which form to choose

A foreign founder almost always takes the spółka z o.o. — not for tax reasons but for liability and access to banking. A jednoosobowa działalność gospodarcza (JDG, a sole trader registered in the CEIDG) is set up in a day and needs no full accounting, but the owner is liable with personal assets, and a non-EU national can only register one if they hold a qualifying residence title.

The conclusion in one line: if you do not live in Poland, the spółka z o.o. is the only form you can reliably open and run from abroad.

How much tax a Polish company pays in 2026

The 9% CIT rate applies in 2026 where sales revenue including VAT for 2025 did not exceed PLN 8,517,000 and current-year revenue net of VAT does not exceed PLN 8,431,000. The two figures differ for a reason: the first converts EUR 2 million at the NBP rate on 1 October 2025 (4.2586), the second at the rate on 2 January 2026, the first working day of the year (4.2156). Cross the second limit mid-year and the rate becomes 19% from that point.

The 9% rate is not available to tax capital groups (podatkowe grupy kapitałowe), to family foundations (fundacje rodzinne) or to companies on Estonian CIT. Where the tax year is shorter or longer than twelve months the limit is prorated by the number of months. On registering for VAT and filing VAT-R, see VAT in Poland.

Deadlines you cannot miss after registration

The most expensive deadline is 14 days to file with the Centralny Rejestr Beneficjentów Rzeczywistych (CRBR), the beneficial ownership register, counted from entry in the KRS: the penalty for missing it reaches PLN 1,000,000. The second is form NIP-8, due within 21 days of registration, or 7 days if the company hires an employee. NIP-8 is how the company’s bank account gets onto the biała lista podatników VAT, the official list of VAT taxpayers.

What a Polish company gives you in the EU market

A Polish company is access to a single market of 452 million people: that was the population of the European Union on 1 January 2026 according to Eurostat. Poland itself accounts for 36.3 million of that and is the sixth largest EU economy by GDP. A company entered in the KRS receives a VAT-UE number, trades inside the EU under the common rules on intra-Community supply, and clears imports from third countries under the Union Customs Code.

In practice that means no customs duty inside the EU, access to EU public procurement and funding programmes, simpler business travel across Schengen, and the option to use the procedure under art. 33a of the ustawa o VAT — accounting for import VAT in the return rather than paying it in cash at the border, which is a working-capital difference rather than a tax saving but a large one.

The conclusion in one line: if most of your customers or suppliers are inside the EU, an EU entity removes the customs and VAT friction that a UK company cannot remove from outside. If the EU is a side market, the extra company may cost more in accounting than it saves.

Why banks refuse accounts and what to do about it

A bank refusal is the most common reason a company launch stretches into months, and it is almost always about the risk profile rather than the founder’s nationality. In our experience a refusal from one bank says nothing about the next: risk criteria differ, and the same company is turned down at one bank and opened in three days at another. That is why we secure a pre-approval before the company applies.

A detailed account of what banks ask a foreign management board is on our page about a bank account for a Polish company. A refusal does not undo the company: the KRS registration stands, and fixing the profile usually takes between a week and a month.

Common mistakes when registering on your own

The last row deserves a paragraph of its own. In our practice it is the most expensive misconception: someone pays for registration, a virtual office and a year of bookkeeping, then discovers months later that a residence title runs through a different procedure and needs a different body of evidence. The company remains — along with the obligation to file accounts and pay for the address.

How we work and what it costs

1. We start with nationality and your banking plans. Nationality decides which remote route is open to you; expected turnover decides which bank is worth trying at all.
2. We choose the form and the PKD codes. Only the ones you will use: surplus codes are a direct cause of bank refusals.
3. We arrange the electronic signature or prepare a notarised power of attorney with a sworn translation.
4. We register the company in S24 or before a notary and carry it through to the KRS entry, the NIP and the REGON.
5. We close the deadlines: CRBR within 14 days, NIP-8 within 21, and where needed VAT-R and EORI.
6. We obtain a bank pre-approval and see the account through to opening.
7. We hand over the company with its documents and take on the bookkeeping if you want us to.

Package prices are in the packages and pricing section higher up this page. The price is fixed before the work starts and does not change during it, and we take no advance payment. The full list of services is in our price list.

What these abbreviations mean

Polish abbreviations in registration documents are not translated, and you will meet all of these in the first few weeks.

Further reading

• The PESEL number for foreigners — who can still apply remotely in 2026 and who must appear
• A bank account for a Polish company — what banks ask a foreign management board
• VAT registration in Poland — the PLN 240,000 threshold, VAT-R and VAT-UE
• Changes in the KRS — seven days to notify, S24 or PRS
• The EORI number — no customs clearance without it
• The MIP payment licence — when payment activity needs authorisation
• Price list — every service and what it costs