SoCap Bonus is a court-tested programme built on Polish social security law. Same team, same contracts — your monthly payroll bill simply goes down, by up to 25%.
Upheld against ZUS — Court of Appeal, Warsaw
PIP labour inspection: no violations
Ministry of Finance position on file — EUREKA
A Polish employee on PLN 10,000 gross actually costs you PLN 12,198 a month once mandatory contributions are added.
That is an extra 22% on top of every salary, before income tax. On a team of twenty, over PLN 1.2 million a year of your money goes to contributions and tax.
Most of it is unavoidable. Up to a quarter of it is not.
PLN – EMPLOYER COST
PLN – THE SALARY YOU AGREED
PLN – YOU PAY ON TOP, EVERY MONTH
Polish social security law — § 2(1)(26) of the Regulation of 18 December 1998 — excludes from the contribution base certain material benefits granted under a company’s remuneration rules, where the employee has the right to acquire goods or services below retail price. This exclusion has existed for over twenty-five years. It is not a loophole and it is not new.
We implement the benefit properly: we draft the remuneration regulations, structure the employee co-payment, deploy the digital benefit platform, and integrate the result into your monthly payroll. Contracts, job titles and reporting lines are untouched.
A defined portion of the compensation package is delivered as a co-financed digital benefit rather than as cash. That portion is outside the ZUS contribution base — so your contribution bill falls, month after month. Your team loses nothing: their disposable value actually rises.
Base salary stays a real salary. Employees keep full social insurance cover on it. Income tax on the benefit is still calculated and withheld — this programme reduces social security contributions, not income tax.
Court of Appeal, Warsaw — ruling III AUa 1247/24, 19 February 2025
ZUS challenged the programme, arguing the benefit was disguised remuneration. The court disagreed and held that employer co-financed access to the digital programme constitutes a material benefit in the form of a digital service, excluded from the contribution base. The ruling is final.
final ruling
National Labour Inspectorate (PIP)
Inspected. No violations found.
inspection passed
Ministry of Finance position (EUREKA)
The Ministry of Finance’s official position, published in the EUREKA database and available for review by your advisors.
eureka.mf.gov.pl
Independent legal opinion
Prepared by external counsel and provided to every client before implementation.
per client
IT FITS YOU IF
You employ people in Poland on employment contracts (umowa o pracę); you have at least ten employees; salaries are above the statutory minimum; and you want the saving documented rather than improvised.
IT DOES NOT FIT YOU IF
Your team is entirely on B2B contracts; you employ fewer than ten people; or you are looking for something that lets you cut base salaries to the minimum wage. That last one is exactly what the regulations penalise, and we will not build it.
Assessment
We review your payroll register and model the saving. You get a written projection before you commit to anything.
Documentation
We draft the remuneration regulations and the benefit rules, and align them with your existing HR documents.
Deployment
Employees are onboarded to the benefit platform. We run an information session in English, Polish or Russian.
First payroll cycle
The programme runs inside your normal payroll. We reconcile the first cycle and hand you the compliance file.
No. The exclusion is written into Polish social security regulations and has been applied for over two decades. Our specific implementation was challenged by ZUS and upheld by the Court of Appeal in 2025.
No. Contracts, salaries and job structures stay as they are. The programme is implemented through your remuneration regulations.
No. Base salary remains fully subject to contributions, so pension, disability and sickness entitlements are unaffected.
No. The benefit remains subject to personal income tax, which we calculate and withhold as normal. The saving is on social security contributions.
You receive the full compliance file — the court ruling, the Ministry of Finance position from EUREKA and the legal opinion. We support you through any inspection at no additional cost.
Then start there. We register the entity, then implement the programme once your team is hired. Company information →
written projection · 12-month view
Send us your headcount and salary bands. We come back with a written projection — what you spend now, what you would spend with the programme, and the difference over twelve months. No charge, no obligation.
