Registering a JDG (jednoosobowa działalność gospodarcza - sole proprietorship) in CEIDG takes an evening, costs nothing and happens fully online. The hard part is the tax form, and plenty of people pick it blind, then overpay by thousands of złoty for a full year. In 2026 you have three options: skala podatkowa, podatek liniowy and ryczałt. What separates them is not just the headline tax rate. It is also how składka zdrowotna (health contribution) is calculated, whether you can deduct costs, and whether the tax-free amount applies at all.
Below we walk through all three forms on concrete figures, show which one wins for which type of activity, and explain how and when the form can be switched.
Which JDG tax form to choose in 2026
Short version: with few costs and a fat margin (IT, consulting, tutoring), ryczałt usually wins thanks to its 8.5-15% rates on turnover. With heavy costs (trade, construction, transport), skala or liniowy come out ahead, because there you pay tax on profit. Skala rewards a modest income through the 30,000 zł tax-free amount, and liniowy (19%) starts to pay off from roughly 200,000 zł of annual income.
Now the detail, because that is where the money hides, and in 2026 the decisive detail is składka zdrowotna.
Three taxation forms: rates and logic
Skala podatkowa (progressive scale)
This is the default. If you selected nothing at CEIDG registration, this is where you landed. Tax is charged on income (przychód minus koszty - revenue minus deductible costs):
- 12% on profit up to 120,000 zł per year;
- 32% on the portion of profit above 120,000 zł;
- kwota wolna (tax-free amount) of 30,000 zł per year. The first 30,000 zł of profit is not taxed at all.
Skala likes costs: the more documented koszty you have, the smaller the base. It also likes smaller incomes, thanks to that tax-free amount. One advantage people forget: only on skala do family reliefs apply - joint filing with a spouse, ulga na dzieci (child relief), plus deductions for rehabilitation and internet.
Podatek liniowy (flat tax)
A single rate - 19% on profit, whatever the amount. No progression, no kwota wolna, no family reliefs. The upside is that the 32% bracket will never catch you.
Liniowy earns its keep once profit clears roughly 200,000 zł a year. On skala part of that income would already be taxed at 32%, while here everything stays at 19%. Costs are deducted exactly as on skala.
Ryczałt od przychodów ewidencjonowanych
A fundamentally different mechanism. Tax is charged not on profit but on revenue (przychód) - costs are not deducted at all. In exchange the rates are low and depend on what you do:
| Rate | Typical activities |
|---|---|
| 8.5% | Services in general, rental, activity with no special rate |
| 12% | IT services, programming, part of the software work |
| 14% | Medical, architectural and engineering services |
| 15% | Brokerage, advertising, part of consulting |
| 3% / 5.5% | Trade, manufacturing, construction (specific items) |
Ryczałt is a tax on margin. If you are a developer with almost no costs paying 12% on turnover, that is nearly always cheaper than 12-19% on profit plus a full składka. But once you have purchases, warehouse rent or wages, losing the cost deduction wipes out the whole advantage.
A key point for IT: people mix up 12% and 8.5%. Since 2022, programming and most IT services fall under 12%. The tax office contests 8.5% for developers, and the disputes end up at an interpretacja indywidualna (individual tax ruling). We prepare those requests - it is far better to lock in your rate up front than to face three years of back tax.
Składka zdrowotna 2026: where the real money hides
Many people compare only the tax rate and miss the point. Since 2022 składka zdrowotna has effectively become a second tax, and it is calculated differently under each form. In 2026, with the reform factored in, the picture looks like this.
On skala
Składka = 9% of income (profit). Not deductible from tax. There is a floor: the minimum monthly składka in 2026 sits around 314-432 zł depending on the new rules for the minimum base. The 2026 reform changes that base itself - it now starts from 100% of the minimum wage, which is a real break for low incomes compared with the old scheme.
At 8,000 zł of monthly income, składka on skala runs about 720 zł. At 15,000 zł it is already 1,350 zł a month. That sits on top of income tax.
On liniowy
Składka = 4.9% of income, with the same floor. Plus a small bonus: on liniowy part of the paid składka can be counted as a cost (the cap is indexed each year - in 2025 it was around 12,900 zł annually). At 20,000 zł of monthly income, składka is roughly 980 zł, half of what skala would charge at the same income. That is one reason high earners move to liniowy.
On ryczałt
Here składka does not track your actual income - it is fixed, tied to annual revenue (przychód) through three brackets and to the average wage in the economy:
| Annual revenue | Monthly składka zdrowotna 2026 (guideline) |
|---|---|
| up to 60,000 zł | 498.35 zł |
| 60,000 - 300,000 zł | 830.58 zł |
| over 300,000 zł | 1,495.04 zł |
The exact amounts are indexed to the average wage in Q4 of the prior year, so by 2026 they sit slightly above the figures above. The logic holds either way: on ryczałt the składka is predictable. Earn 250,000 zł in a year with low costs and you pay the middle bracket, which is often cheaper than 9% of the same sum on skala.
Which form suits whom
Here is how it plays out for the client profiles we see most in Mazowieckie.
IT, development, digital
Almost always ryczałt 12%. Costs are low (a laptop, subscriptions, internet) and the margin is high. On 200,000 zł of annual turnover the tax is 24,000 zł plus the middle składka bracket. On liniowy, with modest costs, the same turnover would cost noticeably more. The exception is if you buy equipment or run a team of B2B subcontractors - then we run the numbers on skala and liniowy.
Services: tutors, tradespeople, marketers, consultants
Usually ryczałt 8.5% or 15%, depending on the exact PKWiU code of your service. A low rate on turnover with minimal costs beats skala. But if your income is small and reliably under 30,000 zł a year, skala with its kwota wolna can bring the tax to zero.
Trade and e-commerce
Usually skala or liniowy: buying stock creates koszty that ryczałt cannot deduct. We calculate the margin. At a 20-30% margin and decent turnover, ryczałt at 3% on revenue sometimes still wins - it needs a calculation on your specific figures.
Construction, transport, manufacturing
Skala or liniowy - high costs (materials, fuel, depreciation) make tax on profit the only sensible choice in most cases.
There is no universal answer. We put your expected przychód and koszty into a table and calculate the total load (tax plus składka) across all three forms - the gap is often 10,000-20,000 zł a year.
How and when to change the tax form
You choose the form when you register in CEIDG, but it is not for life. You can change it once a year, and the deadline is firm: by 20 February (do 20 lutego) of the year you want the new form to cover. Miss the date and you stay on the old form until the next year.
How it works in practice:
- You change the form by updating your CEIDG entry (wniosek CEIDG-1) or with a written statement to the Urząd Skarbowy (tax office) by 20 February.
- The change applies "retroactively" to the whole current year, from 1 January.
- One subtlety: if your first income of the year comes later, the deadline can run from that point - but relying on this without advice is risky.
The classic mistake among our clients: they register the JDG, drift along on skala out of inertia, and a year later realise ryczałt would have halved the bill. Choose the form to fit your income before the first revenue, not after the first PIT.
Which foreigners can even open a JDG
Before you count taxes, check that you are allowed a JDG. Not every foreigner can register one. The right belongs to EU citizens, holders of a karta stałego pobytu (permanent residence card), holders of long-term EU resident status (rezydent długoterminowy UE), holders of a karta Polaka (Pole's Card), and some holders of a karta czasowego pobytu (temporary residence card) on specific grounds (for example, marriage to a Polish citizen or study on certain grounds). If your basis is not on the list, JDG is closed to you and the way into business runs through a sp. z o.o. We covered this in detail in the article on JDG for foreigners in Poland, and the choice between business forms in JDG or sp. z o.o.: what foreigners should choose.
Keep the składka reform in mind too - the details and transitional rules are in our piece on the składka zdrowotna 2026 reform. And do not forget KSeF: from February 2026 electronic invoices become mandatory, and that hits a JDG on any tax form (what KSeF and e-faktury mean).
The JDG tax form is a decision that costs real money every month, and guessing at it is expensive. We calculate the tax load across all three forms for your income and activity, lock in the ryczałt rate through an interpretacja where needed, and take the accounting off your plate. Start with choosing your tax form and opening a JDG - or hand us the taxes and accounting straight away if the business is already running.
This is general information and does not replace individual tax advice.