Business trip or posting?
November 4, 2019
Often the terms ‘business trip’ and ‘posting’ are used interchangeably. However, in Poland this approach is not correct because these solutions are based on different regulations. Moreover, the application of each of them results in different tax and contribution effects.
Business trip
In accordance with art. 29 § 1 of the Labor Code, the contract should specify the place of work.
In accordance with art. 775 § 1 of the Labor Code, „an employee performing official duties at the employer’s order outside the place where the employer’s seat is located, or outside the regular place of work is entitled to receivables for paying costs associated with a business trip.”
Therefore, in accordance with the above provisions, a business trip occurs when three conditions are met:
- The trip takes place at the employer’s order.
- The trip is outside the place of performance or outside the place where the employer’s seat is located.
- The purpose of the trip is to perform an official task and not to perform regular employee duties.
Posting an employee
In accordance with art. 2 par. 1 of the Directive 96/71/EC, „”posted employee” means an employee who, for a limited period of time, carries out his work in the territory of a Member State other than that in which he normally works.”
Posting is an agreement between an employer and employee regarding a change in working conditions. By agreement, the employee agrees to travel for a specified period of time to work in another country. Employee duties remain unchanged.
Differences between the business trip and posting
As shown above, the right assessment whether a work performance is a business trip or posting, influences directly determining what benefits the employee is entitled to. It is important also to set the tax basis and the basis for social and health insurance contributions. Therefore, it is worth to take a look into presumptions on which employees are „sended” to another country in order to avoid correction of PIT and Social Insurance Institution (in Poland: ZUS) declaration.
The above article is an update of the previous one:
https://vgdpoland.pl/en/news-business-trip-or-secondment-poland/
