The EU has recently put pressure of Poland to ammend its deficit situation and most resonable people would agree that the pension and health insurance system in Poland is a mess. Take the health payments for example. I have a full time job where my employer pays full health and pension contributions. As part of this I am entitled to use any public hospital or doctor in the country. However, I recently opened a private company in order to take a few private students in the evenings. To do this I have to pay 237 złoty to ZUS (the health insurance office) for health insurance. Need I point out the bizzare nature of this? I can have one job and pay once, but if I choose to take more work, I must pay again. My private students do not bring much money and so most months most of my money goes to ZUS.
On the opposite side of the coin are farmers where one farmer pays 300 złoty every three months for everything: health insurance and pension. So I pay for a second unusable bed in hospital nearly the same amount as a farmer pays in three months for all his social care. If this meant that I had superior treatment by the health service, then all very well. Alas, I don't!
The obvious affect is that small businessmen like me are dissuaded from starring a business. Why should I operate legally if most of my money will disappear? This is a serious reason to stay in the grey economy. While PM Tusk argues with PIS about Smolensk (which of course is a serious issue) the economy is going down the toilet.
I agree with you here ZUS is a pain in the bum and your not exactly getting top notch service for what you pay for.
ReplyDeleteKeep your private income grey, your not really doing anything morally wrong cos the system is robbing you!
The problem is you can't advertise. It is a catch 22 situation. If you advertise without having a registered company you risk prosecution. If you register you lose most of the benefits of working and advertising. Having the odd student by word of mouth is one thing, but you can't get any real numbers/money.
ReplyDeleteAren't social security payments in the UK based on % of earnings? If so - I am not sure - the situation is little different.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest Pan Steeva I haven't had a company in the UK, yet as there are Polish companies advertising help with Poles setting up companies in the UK to do business in Poland I would assume that British regulations are better. The problem in Poland is that you pay twice for the same service.
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