Business Incubators in Poland

A business incubator is a structure that takes over the legal and accounting side of your work so you can earn without registering as a sole trader. The word has two meanings, and they are often confused.

• In the classic sense, it is a physical space for startups with an office, mentors and access to investors.
• In Poland, the term more often refers to an umbrella employment structure. Legally, the incubator runs the business, while you remain its resident and do your own work. It is this model that interests most freelancers from Ukraine and the CIS. Łatwy Start works this way too.

You pay a fixed monthly amount and work under the incubator's NIP, with its accounting and contracts. You don't need your own company for this.

An incubator differs from an accelerator in stage and purpose. It is needed at the very start and takes the routine off your hands, whereas an accelerator works with a finished product and takes equity in the company for it.

An incubator is just one link in a large business support system, and it helps to understand how that system works before choosing how to operate. Alongside incubators there are technology parks, accelerators, venture capital funds, grant programs and industry hubs, each covering its own stage of a startup's development.

• Technology parks (parki technologiczne) provide infrastructure and incentives for manufacturing and tech projects.
• Accelerators such as the programs at Google for Startups Campus Warsaw, scale products that are already on the market.
• Venture capital funds and the state-owned PFR finance growth in exchange for equity.
• Grant operators PARP and NCBR award non-repayable funding for innovation and research, complemented by EU funds and regional competitions run by voivodeships (Masovian, Lower Silesian and others).
• Platforms such as Startup Hub Poland offer community and contacts.

In this picture, the incubator is the lowest and most widely used rung, that is, the entry point for someone who is only starting to earn in Poland and does not yet need investment or their own company. The incubator does not provide money for growth, though; for that, people turn to the funds and grant programs listed above.

The client's money goes to the incubator, which transfers it to you after deducting tax and its service fee. The whole model rests on this. Both the savings and the limitations follow from it.

First you sign a contract with the incubator and become its resident, after which the invoice (faktura) to the client is issued in the incubator's name and under its NIP. The incubator handles accounting, VAT and reporting. For foreign clients, the reverse-charge VAT mechanism often applies, in which case the client pays the tax in their own country. The relationship with the resident is based on a contract for specific work (umowa o dzieło, Art. 627 of the Polish Civil Code) or a contract of mandate (umowa zlecenie), depending on the nature of the work.

Not under a contract for specific work (umowa o dzieło): the resident is not registered as an entrepreneur, and no contributions are paid on such a contract. This is the main saving compared with a JDG, where contributions are charged every month whether or not there was any income. If a pension record and health insurance matter to you, though, you can work under a contract of mandate (umowa zlecenie), on which contributions are paid, so together with tax about 40% of the amount goes instead of 6%.

In addition, creative professions can use 50% deductible costs (koszty uzyskania przychodu, KUP 50%, Art. 22(9)(3) of the Polish PIT Act). A designer, programmer or copywriter who transfers the rights to their work pays tax on only half of the fee, so PIT comes to about 6%. However, there are three nuances. Only the types of creative work listed in Art. 22(9b) qualify for these costs, the transfer of rights must be set out correctly in the contract, and over a year these costs cannot exceed 120,000 zł (Art. 22(9a)). More details in our breakdown of how copyright transfer and the 6% rate work.

There is no universal answer: in pure money terms an incubator wins across a wide income range, while your own company is usually needed for a brand and a team. The table compares the four models on seven parameters.

The table shows that an incubator removes the entry threshold and fixed ZUS costs, but it does not make you the owner of your own brand and legal entity. If you are moving from employment to working under a contract, see our guide on how the switch to B2B works in Poland.

An incubator covers the whole set of tasks you would otherwise have to handle yourself, from accounting to paying out profit. The exact list depends on the tariff. At Łatwy Start, the basic set is this:

• The contract with the resident and invoices (faktura) to your clients, including foreign ones.
• Accounting, calculating and paying taxes, handling VAT and the annual PIT return.
• Reviewing contracts with clients and transferring the rights to the results of the work under those contracts.
• Payouts to you, minus tax and the incubator's fee, as soon as the client has paid the invoice.
• A curator on Telegram who answers your work questions.

What each item covers and what the services do not include is described in detail in our overview of what programs and services business incubators offer.

An incubator is designed for people who want to earn legally in Poland but are not yet ready for the costs and paperwork of their own company: freelancers, remote specialists, people who have just relocated, and people with irregular or seasonal income.

However, the model does not suit everyone. In some cases it loses out to your own company or does not work at all.

• With a very high income, by our calculation from roughly 0.5–0.65 million zł a year, your own JDG is better in money terms.
• If you need your own brand and legal entity, an incubator will not work, because it remains the legal owner of the business.
• Licensed and high-risk activities cannot be run through an incubator, so the field of work is agreed before the contract is signed.
• To hire employees, you need your own company.

All the deal-breakers and borderline cases are collected where we cover the risks and limitations of working through an incubator and who it doesn't suit.

Łatwy Start has two tariffs with a fixed monthly fee: 500 zł for those who do not need legalization in Poland (EU citizens, Polish residents) and 600 zł for foreigners who do. The price difference comes from legalization. In addition, the tariff with legalization includes 2 invoices a month and the one without it includes one, and each additional invoice costs 50 zł. The third option, FlexiProfit, has no monthly fee. A commission is taken from each payout on a degressive scale, and this option suits those who do not need legalization and whose income is irregular. Current figures are on the page Łatwy Start tariffs.

The savings are easiest to see on contributions. With an income of about 12,000 zł a month on a JDG with the flat-rate tax (ryczałt), once the relief periods are over, ZUS and the health contribution (składka zdrowotna) alone come to about 2,757 zł a month, and that is without an accountant. In the incubator, under a contract for specific work, you pay no ZUS contributions of your own. The monthly fee is fixed at 500 or 600 zł.

The savings have a flip side, though. Under a contract for specific work, without contributions you do not accrue a pension record, there is no paid sick leave, and health insurance has to be arranged separately, so if you wish you can pay voluntary ZUS or switch to an umowa zlecenie, where contributions are paid. In addition, the rate of about 6% has a ceiling. Once your copyright fees for the year go above roughly 240,000 zł, the 50% costs hit the cap and the rate starts to rise.

Beyond the model itself, a resident should sort out tax, legalization and social security in advance.

As described above, tax is reduced by transferring copyright with KUP 50%. 

Income earned through the incubator serves as a basis for a residence card (karta pobytu), and highly qualified specialists can also use the EU Blue Card. Banks consider the same income too, and getting a mortgage on it is realistic, usually after 12 months of working through the incubator. The decision rests with the bank.

Social security is more complicated. Since no ZUS of your own is paid under a contract for specific work, you have to plan sick leave, vacation and insurance differently from an employee, and it is better to work this out before you switch.

Official information on registration and taxes should be checked on the government portal biznes.gov.pl. The whole relocation path, from a visa and residence card to legal income, is covered in our guide on how to relocate and legalize your stay in Poland through an incubator.

Once the model is clear, choosing a specific incubator comes down to the contract terms, that is, what the monthly fee covers, when it starts, how quickly contracts are reviewed and the exit terms. What to check before signing is covered in detail in our article on how to choose a business incubator in Poland.

It is worth leaving the incubator when you have a team, investment and your own brand, or when your income becomes very high. It is an ordinary step up to the next level of the ecosystem.

There are several signals. Your own company starts to win in money terms, and you need to hire people and take contracts in your own name. And if investors become interested in the project, the deal will require a company of your own. 

Whether the model pays off for you often depends on the details of the contract, and ads rarely mention them.

• Through the incubator you do work commissioned by a client, so the rights to the result pass through the incubator to the client to the extent stated in the contract for specific work. For creative work this is normal. It is the transfer of rights that gives you 50% deductible costs, provided the work falls under the list in Art. 22(9b) of the Polish PIT Act.
• Invoices to clients, including foreign ones with reverse-charge VAT, are fully issued by the incubator, and it is the incubator that is responsible for them.
• Once the 50% costs reach the annual cap, the rate goes up. Your own company, however, overtakes the incubator in money terms much later, at an income of around half a million zł a year and above.
• If a client does not pay, the incubator, as the party to the contract that issued the invoice, will remind them to pay. It will not take the debt to court. The incubator does not guarantee that the money will be recovered either, so keep the contract and your correspondence with the client from day one.
• Finally, find out in advance which account holds your money until it is paid out and how quickly the incubator transfers it after the client pays, because this determines what happens to your money if the incubator closes.

If you are just starting to earn in Poland, a business incubator gives you legal income for a fixed fee, with no ZUS or accounting of your own, and to see whether it suits you, work out your income using the table and the section on costs, then compare tariffs for your activity.