Polish “Anti-Crisis Shield”. See how coronavirus will affect your legal status in Poland (changes for foreigners, employees and companies!)

Recently, because of coronavirus epidemic, Polish parliament passed a bill of provisions. The goal is to better adjust legal status of many citizens and residents, as well as provide help for some groups. The changes made affect mostly employees, companies and foreigners. Here are some of the more important points.

Foreigners

• If you want to apply for temporary residence permit, know that the deadline to submit an application is extended to 30 days after the end-date of epidemic status. So if you submit an application before this deadline, then your residence will be considered as legal. The same applies for permament residence permit and long-term UE residence permit.
• If the last day of period of validity your temporary residence permit falls on the epidemic period, then validity your permit is extended to 30 days after the end-date of epidemic status. So until the epidemic is over, your residence will be considered as legal.
• If you stay in Poland thanks to national visa and the last day falls on the epidemic period, your period of stay and validity of visa is extended to 30 days after the end-date of epidemic status. So until the epidemic is over, your residence will be considered as legal.
• If you are obligated to leave the territory of Poland during the epidemic status period, the deadline to leave is extended to 30 days after the end-date of epidemic status. So until the epidemic is over, your residence will be considered as legal. The same goes for so-called “voluntary return” to the country of origin.

Employees

• If there is an economic downtime at your workplace, then your salary can be reduced, but no more than by 50% and not lower than the amount of minimum wage.
• Your employer can reduce working hours by 20%, but it cannot be lower then the amount of half of full-time job and your resultant salary cannot be lower than minimum wage.
• If you are self-employed and work on a b2b contract, then you can receive sum in the amount od 80% of minimum wage to help your situation. This applies only if you were forced to limit your work because of the epidemic.
• If you have to take care of your child, because of nursery, kindergarten or school being closed, you can receive additional care allowance for a maximum of 14 days. The same applies if your child has a babysitter, that is not available because of the epidemic.

Entrepreneurs’s cases

• You will be able to apply for funding of employee salaries, in case of downtime or reduced working time.
• You can change the working time system for the time of epidemic period and you can order your employee to work overtime, if it is necessary to keep workplaces.
• You can apply for funding of part of salary costs from the Starosta, if you experience a decline in economic turnover, because of coronavirus epidemic.
• If you don’t employ workers, then you can apply for funding for part of running a business costs from Starosta if you experience a decline in economic turnover, because of coronavirus epidemic.
• If you are micro-entreprenuer (i.e. you employ 10 employees or less), then the Starosta can give you a loan to cover running cost of running a business.
• If you rent a place for your company and the day of termination falls on the epidemic status period, then the contract is extended to 30^th of June. In order to benefit from this, you have to provide a statement for your landlord. Until this time landlord cannot terminate a contract and cannot change the amount of rent.
• Your working capital credit will be extended based on financial data from the end of 2019,
• You cannot use prices higher than maximum prices set by law.

Taxes and contributions:

• Rada Gminy can exempt from property tax chosen groups of entrepreneurs, whose financial status got worse because of the epidemic. The same applies for tax payments, which can be postponed until 30^th of September.
• You can file your tax return from corporate income tax (CIT) until 31^th of May.
• You can apply for exemption from payment for ZUS and NFZ (for months: March, April and May) if you employ less then 10 employees. The same applies for self-employed, whose revenues are up to triple average salary.
• You can deduct the costs of expenses made to counteract coronavirus from the amount used to calculate income tax.
• You can lower your income from the amount used to calculate PIT or CIT by the amount of loss, but no more than by 5 000 000 PLN.
• The new matrix for VAT amount will apply not from 1^st of April, but from 1^st of July.

Tourists

• You can renounce the contract of your trip because of epidemic status period. However, you won’t be able to do this if you agree to receive a voucher for future trips or travels.

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If you are interested in getting help with any issues related to your stay in Poland, feel free to contact us and take advantage of our services.