The Anti-Crisis Shield 2.0 published on April 17, 2020 introduces, among others, exemptions for social security (ZUS) payers, who employ between 10 and 49 insured. The exemption applies to ZUS contributions that are due from March 1 to May 31, 2020. The amount of the exemption is limited to 50% of the total amount of the ZUS contributions due, which are disclosed in the declaration for the respective month.

The exemption can also be used by payers who have already paid the insurance contributions due for March 2020. The ZUS contributions paid will be refunded, in the exempted part, to the payer.

The exemption applies if the applicant as a ZUS payer:

• was registered before February 1, 2020 and registered from 10 to 49 insured persons as at February 29, 2020;
• was registered in the period from February 1 to February 29, 2020 and registered from 10 to 49 insured persons as at March 31, 2020;
• was registered in the period from March 1 to March 31, 2020 and registered from 10 to 49 insured persons as at April 30, 2020.

For the purposes of ZUS exemption, the number of insured persons is calculated without taking into account workers up to the age of 18. This applies to both small businesses and payers who registered between 10 and 49 ZUS insured.

Applications for exemption from ZUS can be found on the Platform for Electronic Services of ZUS (PUE) and on the website www.zus.pl. They must be submitted in paper or in electronic form.

In addition, the ZUS exemption has also been extended to ZUS payers who register up to 9 insured persons and who were registered as ZUS payers between February 1 and March 31, 2020.

With the change of the Anti-Crisis-Shield, income from the ZUS exemption is excluded from tax revenue for both natural and legal persons. The original version of the law provided tax exemption only for natural persons.

In addition, for the ZUS payers, who have difficulties with the timely payment of the contributions due to COVID-19, a waiver of late payment interest for contributions due since January 2020 was introduced. This relief applies to all ZUS payers regardless of the size of the company.

The Anti-Crisis-Shield 2.0 also provides for exemption from ZUS contributions for the period from March 1 to May 31, 2020 for social cooperatives, regardless of the number of registered insured persons if they were registered payers before April 1, 2020.

Source: Art. 73 of the law of April 16, 2020 on special support instruments in connection with the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus (Journal of Laws 2020, item 695, hereinafter: "Act on Special Support Instruments") regarding the modification of Art. 31zo and art. 31zx in the law of March 2, 2020 on special solutions in connection with the prevention, counteracting and eradication of COVID-19, other infectious diseases and crisis situations caused thereby (Journal of Laws 2020, items 374, 567 and 568) and Art. 113 of the Law on Special Support Instruments.