How to suspend, resume and close a business (JDG) in Poland
Do you want to suspend your business because you’re taking a break, moving abroad for a while or waiting for new work? Or do you already know the business is ending, and you’re looking for how to go about closing the business? You file both applications free of charge in CEIDG (the Central Register and Information on Business, Poland’s register of sole traders), but their effects differ. This article explains how to suspend a JDG (a sole trader’s business, jednoosobowa działalność gospodarcza) and for how long, what happens in the meantime to ZUS (the Social Insurance Institution), the health contribution (składka zdrowotna), income tax and VAT, how resuming the business (odwieszenie) works, and what you have to do when closing it: form VAT-Z (VAT deregistration), the stocktake (spis z natury) and the returns for the final year.
The rules are those in force in 2026, checked on biznes.gov.pl, podatki.gov.pl and zus.pl on 30 September 2026.
Suspend or close
According to biznes.gov.pl, suspension is a break: the business stays in CEIDG, keeps its NIP (the tax identification number) and comes back whenever you choose. Closing ends the business for good: the entry disappears from CEIDG, and if you want to come back, you set up a JDG from scratch.
| Suspension | Closing | |
|---|---|---|
| CEIDG entry | stays, with the status „zawieszona” (suspended) | is removed |
| ZUS social contributions | you don’t pay | you don’t pay |
| Health contribution | you don’t pay for full months of suspension | you don’t pay from the following month |
| Tax advances | you don’t pay | you pay the last one, for the last period |
| Annual return | you file it, even with zeros | you file it for the year of closing |
| Stocktake | you don’t do one | you do one as of the closing date |
| Coming back | an application to resume, or a resumption date in the application | a new entry in CEIDG |
| Fee | free | free |
If you don’t yet know whether you’ll come back, suspension leaves that decision open. Just remember that a suspended business is still a business: the annual return and keeping your documents still apply.
Who can suspend a business
As biznes.gov.pl explains, you can suspend a JDG if you don’t employ anyone, meaning nobody on an employment contract, by appointment, by election, by nomination or on a cooperative employment contract. The exception is employees who are only on maternity, parental or childcare leave: they don’t block a suspension.
If you have employees, before suspending you have to end their contracts and deregister them from insurance (ZUS ZWUA) within 7 days. Family members registered for insurance are deregistered on form ZUS ZCNA.
How to suspend a business in CEIDG
- Log in to biznes.gov.pl with Profil Zaufany (the state’s free trusted e-identity), an e-ID card or a qualified electronic signature.
- Choose the form CEIDG-1 (the application to register, change, suspend or close a JDG) for suspending business activity.
- Enter the suspension start date.
- If you already know when you’ll return, tick the option to give the resumption date straight away.
- Sign and send the application.
The change appears in CEIDG within one working day. CEIDG passes the information on to the tax office, GUS (Statistics Poland) and ZUS itself: you don’t report the suspension of a JDG to ZUS separately. The application is free; you only pay PLN 17 of stamp duty on the power of attorney, if a representative files the application for you.
You can file the application before the planned suspension date, on that day or after it. A backdated suspension is allowed, but the CEIDG instructions advise contacting the tax office and ZUS first in that case, because a suspension can’t cover a period in which the business was actually operating.
To avoid paying ZUS contributions for a whole month, suspend the business from the first day of a month at the latest and resume it from the first day of a following month at the earliest. A suspension from the 15th means you’ll pay contributions for the first half of that month anyway.
How long you can suspend a JDG for
A suspension lasts at least 30 days, according to biznes.gov.pl. There’s no upper limit for a JDG: you can suspend the business for a fixed period or indefinitely, and do so many times. Without a resumption date, the business stays suspended until you resume or close it.
A separate case is a suspension of 36 months to personally care for a child. You report the suspension in CEIDG as usual, and deal with the childcare benefits at ZUS.
What you may and may not do during a suspension
During a suspension you don’t carry on the business: you don’t provide services, you don’t sell goods, you don’t earn current revenue. You may, however:
- receive payments that arose before the suspension, for example payment of an invoice from the previous month;
- settle liabilities that arose before the suspension;
- sell your own fixed assets and equipment;
- do what’s necessary to keep or secure your source of revenue, for example sign contracts with future clients;
- take part in court and administrative proceedings and undergo an audit.
ZUS and the health contribution during a suspension
For the duration of the suspension you’re not covered by ZUS insurance, so you pay neither social contributions nor the health contribution, and you file no settlement documents. If you want, you can register for insurance voluntarily.
When a suspension starts or ends partway through a month, a simple rule from the CEIDG instructions applies:
| Situation | Social contributions | Health contribution |
|---|---|---|
| A full month of suspension | PLN 0 | PLN 0 |
| A partly active month, suspension lasting more than 30 days | in proportion to the active days | in full |
| Suspension shorter than 30 days in total (does not apply to February) | in full | in full |
Your right to benefits from health insurance expires 30 days after the insurance ends. If the suspension is to last longer and you have no other basis for insurance (a job, a spouse, registration at the labour office), consider voluntary health insurance with the NFZ (the National Health Fund).
Revenue and costs from the suspension period aren’t included in the annual base for the health contribution. For a year in which the business was suspended for only part of the time, you file the usual annual health contribution settlement. ZUS states plainly that the settlement also covers a year in which the business was suspended or closed, if health insurance lasted for even one day in it. For a year in which the business was suspended throughout, no settlement is filed. How the contribution is calculated for each form of taxation is described in the article on the health contribution.
If you use the ulga na start (start-up relief: six months without social contributions), preferential contributions (preferencyjne składki, the “small ZUS” of the first 24 months) or Mały ZUS Plus (contributions based on income, for a small business), check how their periods are counted during a break: the article on ZUS for a JDG covers it.
Taxes and VAT during a suspension
Income tax. biznes.gov.pl explains that on the skala podatkowa (the progressive tax scale, also called zasady ogólne, the general rules) and the podatek liniowy (the 19% flat tax) you don’t pay tax advances for the months of suspension. On the ryczałt (ryczałt od przychodów ewidencjonowanych, a lump-sum tax on recorded revenue), you’re exempt from paying the ryczałt during the suspension.
Annual return. A suspension doesn’t exempt you from the return. Even if the business was suspended for the whole year and had no revenue, you file PIT-36, PIT-36L or PIT-28 and show zeros in it.
VAT. For full settlement periods of suspension you don’t file JPK_V7M (the monthly VAT file with the return) or JPK_V7K (the quarterly one). If the suspension starts or ends partway through a month (or quarter), you have to file the file for that period. What the file itself looks like is explained in the article on JPK_VAT.
Two things are easy to miss:
- a suspension of at least 6 months gets you removed from the VAT register; on resumption you’re registered again with the status you had before the suspension;
- if during the suspension you carry out a transaction subject to VAT, for example selling a fixed asset, you have to notify the head of the tax office.
Books. The obligation to keep the KPiR (the tax revenue and expense ledger, podatkowa księga przychodów i rozchodów) or the revenue record (ewidencja przychodów) doesn’t lapse. During a suspension you record only what actually happens, for example an overdue payment coming in.
Resuming the business (odwieszenie działalności gospodarczej)
As biznes.gov.pl describes, if the suspension application gives a resumption date, the business resumes by itself on that day, with no further application. If the suspension was indefinite, you file an application in CEIDG to resume business activity. You can do so before the planned resumption date, on that day or after it, but no earlier than 30 days from the start of the suspension. Want to change the date or not resume after all? File an application for a change before that day.
After resumption, CEIDG passes the information on to ZUS, and ZUS registers you for insurance on the terms you had before the suspension. The exception: if something changed during the suspension — the ulga na start ended, you employ someone or you’re entitled to a pension — you register yourself within 7 days.
From the day you resume, the usual obligations return: recording revenue and costs, tax advances, contributions and JPK.
How to close a business
The application for removal from CEIDG
According to biznes.gov.pl, you file the application for removal when the business has actually stopped operating, and you give in it the last day of business activity. You can file it online on biznes.gov.pl, at any municipal office or by post (in that case with a notarised signature). Removal happens by the next working day at the latest and is free.
CEIDG passes the information on to the tax office, GUS and ZUS, but a few things remain on your side.
Checklist for closing
- ZUS: within 7 days of ending the business, deregister yourself (ZUS ZWUA) and any registered family members (ZUS ZCNA). You can attach the forms to the CEIDG application. Without this, ZUS still treats you as a contribution payer. For the last month you pay the health contribution in full.
- VAT: if you’re an active VAT payer, file VAT-Z within 7 days of ceasing taxable transactions, as podatki.gov.pl describes.
- Stocktake: draw it up as of the closing date (more on it below).
- Cash register: if you have one (kasa fiskalna), run the daily fiscal report on the last day and complete the formalities for reading the fiscal memory with the tax office.
- Documents: keep them for 5 years, counted from the end of the calendar year in which the tax payment deadline fell.
The stocktake when winding up the business
When closing, there are two stocktakes, for two different taxes.
The stocktake for VAT
Anyone who is an active VAT payer up to the closing date draws one up, as biznes.gov.pl notes. It covers trading goods, materials, equipment and fixed assets that stay in the business and on whose purchase you had the right to deduct VAT. You pay VAT on these items as if you sold them.
- Base: the purchase price of the same or similar goods on the date of winding up, or, where there is none, the production cost.
- Rate: the one that applies to the goods in question.
- Settlement: you show the tax in the JPK_V7 file for the last settlement period of the business and inform the tax office of the stocktake.
If you sell all the business’s assets before closing, the stocktake comes to PLN 0 and there’s no tax on it.
VAT on the stocktake is a common surprise when winding up. A laptop bought with VAT deducted and taken home after the business closes goes into the stocktake. Selling such equipment before closing, with an invoice, can be simpler.
The stocktake for income tax
If you keep a KPiR (skala or podatek liniowy), you draw up a stocktake and a list of the assets remaining as of the date of winding up. The stocktake is the last entry in the KPiR, even if it comes to PLN 0. You don’t send it to the tax office, but you keep it. More on keeping the ledger in the article on the KPiR.
Returns for the year of closing
Closing the business doesn’t end your settlements on the day of removal. For the year of closing, there remain:
- the last tax advance — for the last month or quarter of business, by the usual deadline;
- JPK_V7 for the last period, with the VAT on the stocktake;
- the annual return — PIT-36, PIT-36L or PIT-28, by the usual deadline, 30 April of the following year; more in the article on PIT-28 and PIT-36;
- the annual health contribution settlement — in the ZUS DRA (the monthly settlement declaration) for April of the following year, filed by 20 May; by that day you also pay any shortfall;
- selling assets after winding up — if within 6 years of winding up you sell an asset that remained on the date of winding up, you report the revenue in the return for the year of sale; after 6 years the sale is tax-neutral.
Note the closing date and these five points in your calendar for next year. The one most often forgotten is the annual health contribution settlement, because it falls in May, long after the business was removed.
Frequently asked questions
Does suspending a business cost anything?
No. Suspension, resumption and removal in CEIDG are free.
Can I suspend my business for a week?
No. A suspension lasts at least 30 days. With a shorter break, you pay full social and health contributions for the whole period.
Can I issue an invoice during a suspension?
Only for a sale made before the suspension, or when selling your own fixed asset or equipment. You don't provide a new service during a suspension.
Do I have to notify ZUS of the suspension?
No. CEIDG passes the information on. You register with ZUS yourself only after resuming, if something that affects your contributions changed during the break.
Can I close a suspended business?
Yes. You can file the application for removal while the business is suspended too; the obligations on closing, including the stocktake and VAT-Z, stay the same.
A break or an ending — either way, one application and a few dates noted down for later are all it takes.
💜💙 Your BravoLisa Team
This article is for general information purposes only and does not constitute professional tax, legal, or accounting advice. Every situation is different — consult a qualified professional (tax adviser, accountant, or lawyer) for advice specific to your circumstances. BravoLisa does not accept liability for decisions made based on this information.
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- Biznes.gov.pl — Zawieszenie działalności gospodarczej
- Biznes.gov.pl — Jak wznowić w CEIDG zawieszoną działalność gospodarczą
- Biznes.gov.pl — Jak zakończyć jednoosobową działalność gospodarczą
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