Have you entered into a specific work contract? Report it to ZUS!

March 24, 2021

As a rule, a specific work contract is not subject to the obligation to calculate and pay social and health insurance contributions. It is only taxed. Agreements for specific work concluded with your own employer are an exception. In such a case, all contributions should be calculated, as for the salary under the employment contract.

ZUS and changes in the specific work contract

In theory, therefore, contracts for specific work should be outside the area of ​​interest of the Social Insurance Institution. However, over the last few years it can be seen that ZUS is willing to look for additional money. It often happens that, as a result of an inspection, payers of contributions have to reclassify the contract for a specific work under a mandate contract. Then charge and pay overdue contributions together with interest on late payment.

It seems that the Social Insurance Institution has now received an additional tool, thanks to which it will be easier and faster to check whether a given contract should actually be classified as a specific work contract. However, according to the assumptions to the act, the register of contracts for specific work is to serve verification and statistical purposes. Entrepreneurs – payers of contributions, however, do not hide their fears.

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Which specific work contracts must be reported to ZUS?

According to Art. 22 of the Act of March 31, 2020 amending the Act on special solutions related to the prevention, counteracting and combating COVID-19, other infectious diseases and crisis situations caused by them, and some other acts (the so-called anti-crisis shield) each contribution payer or natural person who has concluded a specific task contract, is obliged to notify the Social Insurance Institution of this fact within 7 days from the date of concluding such a contract. Only contracts concluded from January 1, 2021 are subject to notification.

Exceptions when you do not have to report the specific work contract

There are some exceptions. The fact of concluding a specific task contract is not reported in the following situations:

• a specific work contract was concluded with an own employee
• under the concluded contract for a specific task, the person performing it does not provide work for his employer

How to register the specific work contract to ZUS?

The information that ZUS will require:

• employee data
• the date of concluding the contract, commencement and completion of the work
• the subject of the contract for specific work
• number of contracts for specific work concluded

Information on the concluded contract is reported on the ZUS RUD form.

Failure to submit the RUD form within the required deadline may result in a fine of up to PLN 5,000 being imposed on the contribution payer.

Summary

We recommend that you verify concluded contracts for specific work to make sure that the criteria for qualifying a given contract to this category are actually met. Remember that what matters in this contract is the result (created work). It has to be something unique and individual. Thanks to this, it may be possible to avoid inspections and challenging the given contract by ZUS.

Autor: Róża Śleszyńska