Accounts for freelancers and sole traders

Freelancers should maintain a financial buffer covering 3-6 months of expenses. Open a separate savings account and transfer a fixed percentage of income (e.g. 20-30%) in every good month. When work returns, resist tapping the buffer for luxuries - it is your cushion for lean periods.

The bank will not collect the debt for you, but you can use factoring - a service where the bank or a factoring company pays you the invoice amount upfront (minus a fee) and then handles collecting payment from the client. This is a separate financial product, not a free feature built into the account - it requires its own application, a creditworthiness assessment, and signing a factoring agreement with its own fee schedule; some banks (e.g. mBank) offer factoring to sole traders who hold a PLN current account with them. An alternative is a formal written payment demand.

It can be worthwhile - a EUR or USD account lets you receive payments without immediate conversion to zloty, so you can wait for a better exchange rate and reduce conversion costs. Some Polish business banks, e.g. mBank, offer auxiliary accounts in several currencies (including EUR, USD, GBP, CHF) alongside the zloty account. Terms (maintenance fees, the number of free months, available currencies) vary between banks, so check the specific bank's offer before opening an account.

Open a separate business account and immediately set up a standing order - transfer a fixed "salary" from the business account to your personal one each month. Pay business purchases with the business card only, and personal purchases with the personal card. One month of this discipline and you will never again wonder what to deduct from taxes.

There is no general rule requiring every entrepreneur to hold a separate business account - a person running a sole proprietorship (JDG) can use their private account for business, declaring its number on the CEIDG-1 form. A payment account is, however, required for transactions with another business where the single transaction value exceeds PLN 15,000 (Art. 19 of the Entrepreneurs' Law); in practice a business account is also often needed for VAT settlements (e.g. the split-payment mechanism), and the tax office may ask for a business account number when issuing a NIP.

Yes - Ukrainian citizens with temporary protection status (a PESEL number with UKR status) whose stay in Poland is legal can currently register and run a sole proprietorship in CEIDG on the same terms as Polish citizens. Since 5 March 2026, this right no longer comes from the original special act of 12 March 2022 (its business-activity provision was repealed), but from the new act phasing out those arrangements, signed on 19 February 2026; under it, temporary protection status - and this right along with it - is set to remain in force until 4 March 2027. To open a business bank account you need a PESEL number, an identity document, and a CEIDG entry; registration can be completed online via biznes.gov.pl, using a trusted profile or a qualified electronic signature.