B2B Reclassification in Poland: A Contractor's Checklist

Short answer

Since 8 July 2026 the National Labour Inspectorate (Państwowa Inspekcja Pracy, PIP) can declare, by an administrative decision, that a relationship run as a B2B or other civil-law contract is in fact employment. Three things matter more than the headlines suggest:

The test is old. Whether you are an employee still depends on Article 22 § 1 of the Labour Code: work under the other party's direction, at a place and time it sets. The reform changed who can apply that test and how, not the test.
A decision is not the first step. The inspectorate must first let both sides state their position and issue a written instruction to put things right. A decision can follow only if that instruction is not carried out.
It does not stay between you and your client. A decision has effect in labour law, tax, social security and health insurance, and the inspectorate informs the tax authorities when a case goes to court.

Who this applies to

This guide is for people who run a sole proprietorship (jednoosobowa działalność gospodarcza, JDG) in Poland and invoice one main client for work that, from the outside, looks like a job: the typical IT or professional-services B2B setup. It describes the law and its accounting side. Whether your own contract would pass the test is a legal question, and the last section says who answers it.

What changed on 8 July 2026

The Act of 11 March 2026 amending the National Labour Inspectorate Act (Journal of Laws 2026, item 473) was published on 7 April 2026. Apart from a few provisions, it came into force three months later, on 8 July 2026 (Article 20).

It gives the inspectorate a new power: to declare, by decision, that an employment relationship exists where a civil-law contract was concluded, or where someone in fact works for pay, in conditions in which an employment contract should have been concluded under Article 22 § 1 of the Labour Code (Article 11(1)(7a) of the PIP Act). Until then the inspectorate could go to the labour court with a claim to establish that employment exists. That route remains (Article 10(1)(11)); the decision is the new one.

Inspections now also cover businesses that are not employers but for which, currently or in the year before the inspection started, work was done by individuals, "including persons carrying on business activity on their own account, regardless of the basis on which the work is provided" (Article 13(1)). In plain terms: your client can be inspected because of your B2B contract.

The test did not change

Article 22 of the Labour Code says:

By entering into employment, an employee undertakes to perform work of a specified kind for the employer, under the employer's direction and at the place and time designated by the employer; the employer undertakes to employ the employee for pay (§ 1).
Work under those conditions is employment, whatever name the parties give their contract (§ 1¹).
Replacing an employment contract with a civil-law contract while keeping those conditions is not permitted (§ 1²).

The 2026 reform does not amend these paragraphs. If your B2B arrangement was lawful on 7 July 2026, the reform alone did not make it unlawful on 9 July. If it was not, the reform made it easier to act on.

How a case runs

Inspection. In justified cases it can be carried out remotely (Article 26(5) of the PIP Act). The inspector may demand all documents connected with work done by people working on a basis other than employment (Article 23(1)(5)).
Both sides are heard. Before issuing an instruction, the inspectorate must give the parties the opportunity to state their position (Article 11(2)).
Written instruction. Where the features of employment dominate, the inspector can issue a written instruction to remedy the breach. Its deadline is set so that compliance can be assessed while the inspection is still running (Articles 11(2) and 34(1c)).
Decision, only if the instruction is not carried out. The statute makes failure to comply with the instruction a condition of the decision (Article 11(1)(7a)). The district labour inspector opens the proceedings and issues it (Article 33a(1) and (3)). The parties are the businesses and people the decision may concern (Article 33a(2)), and their will is taken into account unless it is contrary to law or aimed at getting around it (Article 33a(4)).
Appeal to the common court. Each party can appeal under the Code of Civil Procedure, which means a court, not a higher administrative authority (Article 34(5a)).

Instead of issuing a decision, the district inspector can bring a claim in court to establish that employment exists, in particular for a period earlier than a decision can cover (Article 33a(3) and (6)).

What a decision says, and from when

The decision names the parties, the type of employment contract, its date, the type of work, the place of work, working time and pay (Article 34(2b)). It is based on the facts during the inspection, from the day it started (Article 34(2d)). Where the evidence does not establish them, the decision states an open-ended contract, the employer's registered office as the place of work, full time and the minimum wage (Article 34(2e)).

Two dates are worth knowing:

The employment contract is dated the day the decision is issued (Article 34(2f)). The decision works forwards; it does not reach back to the start of your B2B contract.
If the client ends the contract, lets it expire or stops the work between the start of the inspection and the end of the case, the date moves back to the day the inspection started (Article 34(2g)).

From the day it is issued, the decision has the legal effects of an employment relationship in labour law, tax law, social security and health insurance (Article 34(2j)). It becomes enforceable when the appeal deadline passes without an appeal, when a court judgment becomes final, or when it is declared immediately enforceable (Article 34(2k)).

Contracts signed before 8 July 2026

They are covered. The new rules apply to civil-law contracts under which work is performed that were concluded before the reform and were still running on 8 July 2026 (Article 14 of the amending act). The date on your contract protects nothing; how the work is actually done is what counts.

The "amnesty": what it covers and what it does not

Article 16 of the amending act gives a business a window of 12 months from the reform, until 8 July 2027, if before 8 July 2026 it engaged someone on a civil-law contract, or took their work for pay, although the relationship had all the features of employment under Article 22 § 1. If the business puts things right voluntarily by concluding an employment contract, it is not liable for the petty offence in Article 281 § 1(1) of the Labour Code: concluding a civil-law contract where an employment contract should have been concluded.

Read it for what it is:

It protects the client, not the contractor.
It removes liability for one offence. It says nothing about social security contributions or tax, and we have found no provision that waives them.
It requires the client to act voluntarily, by signing an employment contract.

What happens to your ZUS

The same act amended the Social Insurance System Act. These are the provisions that touch you directly:

Contributions you paid as a business count. Contributions paid for you under the business title are treated as paid towards what is due under the employment title (Article 38b(1)).
The base in between. From the day the decision is issued until it becomes final, or until a court judgment on it becomes final, your contribution base as an employee is the amount reported under the business title (Article 18(1b)).
Registration. You are registered for social insurance as an employee within 7 days of the decision, or the court judgment, becoming final (Article 36(4e)). The client submits the social insurance documents for the period the decision covers by the same deadline (Article 38b(2)).

What changes on your side, such as the ZUS relief you are on or whether your business registration still has a purpose, depends on what else you do besides this client. Work through it with your accountant as soon as a decision is issued, not after it becomes final.

Your tax office will know

The district labour inspector informs the tax authorities when an appeal against the decision is passed to court, and when the court's ruling becomes final (Article 19(1a) of the PIP Act).
From the day such an appeal is passed to court, the limitation period for the tax liability does not start, or stops running if it has started (Article 70 § 6(3a) of the Tax Ordinance). The income tax authority must tell you about it (Article 70ca).
ZUS runs an IT system for exchanging data with PIP and the National Revenue Administration, to analyse the risk of breaches of labour, tax, social security and health insurance law (Article 68ac of the Social Insurance System Act).

In practice: once a case reaches a decision, the tax and social security side follows. Whether invoices already issued need correcting, and what happens to VAT and to your form of taxation for the rest of the year, are questions to settle with your accountant on your own facts; the statute does not answer them in one line.

Certainty in advance: an individual interpretation from PIP

The reform also created a way to ask before anything happens. On the application of a business that PIP inspects, which in a B2B setup means your client, the Chief Labour Inspector issues an individual interpretation of whether the relationship described is employment under Article 22 § 1 of the Labour Code (Article 14b(1) of the PIP Act). It is not issued on facts that are already the subject of pending PIP or ZUS proceedings.

The fee is PLN 40, and the interpretation is due within 30 days of a complete application (Article 14b(4) and (6)).
It binds the inspectorate (Article 14b(17)). It does not bind the applicant, but an applicant who follows it cannot be penalised for doing so (Article 14b(16)).
It covers the facts described. If an inspection finds different facts, the inspector can assess the relationship afresh (Article 14b(5)).
It is passed to ZUS and the National Revenue Administration (Article 14b(18)) and published without identifying data (Article 14b(15)).

A contractor's checklist

The statute gives you three questions. Answer them about how the work actually runs, not about what the contract says:

Who directs the work? Do you decide how the task is done, or does someone at the client assign, supervise and sign off your work the way a manager would?
Who sets the place? Do you choose where you work, or does the client designate it?
Who sets the time? Do you decide your hours, or are you on the client's schedule?

Then three practical steps:

Read your contract against those answers. Where the document says one thing and practice another, practice decides (Article 22 § 1¹ of the Labour Code).
Know what an inspector can ask for: all documents connected with the work you do for the client (Article 23(1)(5) of the PIP Act). Your contract, your invoices and the correspondence about how the work is organised are part of that picture.
If the answers worry you, raise it with your client now. Only the client can apply for an interpretation, and only the client benefits from the window to 8 July 2027.

Who to ask

Whether your contract passes the Article 22 test is a question for a labour lawyer (radca prawny or adwokat); we do not give legal advice. What we do is the accounting side: your contributions, your invoices, the tax consequences if a decision is issued, and the paperwork to keep or close your JDG afterwards. If you are setting up a B2B arrangement now, B2B contracts in Poland for foreigners covers the business side, and you can send us your accounting questions.

Legal basis

Act of 11 March 2026 amending the National Labour Inspectorate Act and certain other acts (Journal of Laws 2026, item 473), Articles 14, 16 and 20
Act of 13 April 2007 on the National Labour Inspectorate (Journal of Laws 2024, item 1712, as amended), Articles 10(1)(11), 11(1)(7a) and (2), 13(1), 14b, 19(1a), 23(1)(5), 26(5), 33a and 34(1c), (2b)–(2k) and (5a), as amended by the 2026 act
Act of 26 June 1974 – Labour Code (Journal of Laws 2026, item 1245), Articles 22 § 1–1² and 281 § 1(1)
Act of 13 October 1998 on the Social Insurance System (Journal of Laws 2026, item 199, as amended), Articles 18(1b), 36(4e), 38b and 68ac, added by the 2026 act
Act of 29 August 1997 – Tax Ordinance (Journal of Laws 2026, item 622, as amended), Articles 70 § 6(3a) and 70ca

This article is for information only and does not constitute tax or legal advice. Legal status as of 29 September 2026.