Employee Capital Plans (PPK) in Poland

If your company employs staff in Poland, Employee Capital Plans (Pracownicze Plany Kapitałowe, or PPK) are not optional for you as an employer. While participation is voluntary for employees, the obligation to set up and administer the scheme rests on the employer, and non-compliance can result in fines of up to PLN 1,000,000.

With the next mandatory auto-enrolment cycle falling in early 2027, foreign-owned businesses operating in Poland should review their PPK processes now. In this article, Leinonen Poland explains what PPK is, what has changed since the scheme launched, and what employers need to prepare for in the coming months.

What is PPK?

Employee Capital Plans are a long-term, co-financed savings scheme that supplements the state pension paid by the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS). The programme has been in force since 1 January 2019 and is based on the Act of 4 October 2018 on Employee Capital Plans.

Contributions to a PPK account come from three sources:

• the employee, through a deduction from gross salary,
• the employer, as an additional cost on top of gross salary,
• the state, through a one-off welcome payment and annual top-ups.

The funds accumulated on a PPK account are the private property of the employee. They are inheritable and can, in defined circumstances, be withdrawn before retirement age.

Who is Covered by PPK?

The scheme applies to nearly all employing entities in Poland, regardless of whether the ultimate owner is domestic or foreign. An employer is required to set up a PPK for any person who is subject to mandatory pension and disability insurance in Poland, which in practice includes:

• employees on a standard employment contract (umowa o pracę),
• individuals working under a contract of mandate (umowa zlecenie),
• members of supervisory boards who receive remuneration for their role,
• members of agricultural production cooperatives.

Foreign nationals employed in Poland are treated the same way as Polish citizens. Nationality has no bearing on PPK eligibility.

Age Thresholds

Enrolment rules depend on age:

• Employees aged 18 to 54 are enrolled automatically after 90 days of employment, unless they submit a written opt-out declaration.
• Employees aged 55 to 69 can join, but only on their own written request. The employer is required to inform them of this option.
• Employees aged 70 and over cannot be enrolled in PPK.

Narrow Exemptions for Employers

There are very few cases in which an employer is released from the obligation to set up a PPK. The two most relevant are:

• Micro-entrepreneurs whose employees have all submitted opt-out declarations.
• Employers who already operate an Employee Pension Programme (PPE) with a minimum contribution of at least 3.5% and a participation rate of at least 25% of eligible staff.

For most foreign-owned companies entering or operating in Poland, neither exemption applies. Setting up a PPK is a default obligation.

PPK Contribution Rates

Contributions to PPK are split between the employer, the employee and the state. The basic rates have not changed since the programme was introduced and, at the time of writing in 2026, remain as follows:

*Employees whose total remuneration in a given month does not exceed 1.2 times the minimum wage may reduce their own basic contribution to between 0.5% and 2%. The employer contribution remains 1.5% regardless.

The state adds a one-off welcome payment of PLN 250 and an annual subsidy of PLN 240, provided the participant meets the minimum contribution thresholds set by law.

How PPK Affects Payroll

For payroll teams, three points matter in practice:

• Employer PPK contributions are an additional cost on top of the gross salary. They are not deducted from the employee.
• The employer contribution is treated as taxable income of the employee. Personal income tax must be calculated and withheld on this amount at the applicable rate (12% or 32%).
• Both the employer and employee contributions must be transferred to the financial institution managing the PPK no later than the 15th day of the month following the month in which the salary was paid.

The 2027 Auto-Enrolment: The Next Key Deadline for Employers

Since 2023, the PPK Act has required a cyclical re-enrolment of employees who have opted out of the scheme. This happens every four years and applies to every employer, regardless of when the employer first implemented PPK.

The first cycle took place in 2023. The next one falls in 2027, and the timeline below is the one foreign employers should build into their HR and payroll calendar:

A few points are worth underlining:

• Auto-enrolment is not an invitation. If the employee does not actively submit a new opt-out declaration between 1 March and the March payday, contributions must be calculated and withheld automatically.
• The obligation applies to every employer, including micro-entrepreneurs whose workforce had previously opted out in full.
• Opt-out declarations submitted after the March payday are still valid, but require a payroll correction.
• The information to employees can take any reasonable written form. However, it must reach each affected employee before the statutory deadline, and the employer should be able to prove it did.

Employer Responsibilities at a Glance

Operating a PPK correctly involves a set of recurring obligations that cannot be delegated to the financial institution. The employer remains the responsible party for:

• Selecting a financial institution to manage the PPK. The choice must be made in consultation with the trade union or, if there is no union, with employee representatives.
• Signing two agreements: the PPK management agreement with the financial institution, followed (no earlier than 10 days later) by the PPK administration agreement on behalf of all eligible employees.
• Enrolling new hires aged 18 to 54 within the statutory 90-day window.
• Collecting, storing and retaining opt-out declarations, which must be signed by hand or with a qualified electronic signature.
• Calculating, withholding and transferring monthly contributions by the 15th of the following month.
• Carrying out the four-yearly re-enrolment, including the statutory notification to opted-out employees.
• Retaining all PPK-related documentation and updating it as the workforce changes.

Failure to meet these obligations exposes the employer to fines ranging from PLN 1,000 to PLN 1,000,000 per offence. In practice, the most common issues the Polish Labour Inspectorate (PIP) investigates are late payments and discouraging employees from participating, which is explicitly prohibited by law.

What This Means for Foreign-Owned Businesses

Foreign employers setting up in Poland often underestimate PPK for three reasons. First, it sits outside the ZUS system they tend to focus on, so it can be overlooked during payroll set-up. Second, the voluntary status for employees is sometimes confused with voluntary status for employers. Third, the four-yearly re-enrolment cycle is easy to lose track of, particularly when the company did not exist in Poland during the previous cycle.

For a foreign-owned entity, the practical priorities are:

• Include the 1.5% employer PPK contribution in your total employment cost calculations from day one, alongside ZUS, the Labour Fund and the Guaranteed Employee Benefits Fund.
• Make sure your Polish payroll provider is configured to handle PPK contributions, opt-out tracking and the March 2027 re-enrolment process.
• Keep the documentation in order. PIP inspections routinely check whether opt-out declarations are on file and whether the selection of the financial institution was properly consulted.
• Communicate clearly with employees. Foreign employees in particular often benefit from a short, neutral explanation of what PPK is, what it costs them and what they gain.

How Leinonen Poland Can Help

Leinonen Poland has been supporting foreign-owned companies in Poland for over 17 years. Our accounting and payroll specialists manage PPK processes end to end: from the selection of the financial institution and the initial roll-out, through monthly contribution calculations and reporting, to the statutory re-enrolment cycle and audit-ready documentation.

If you would like a review of your current PPK set-up, or support with preparing for the 2027 auto-enrolment, contact Leinonen Poland.