Fewer inspections, but a success rate above 91%
The Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) has radically changed its approach to inspecting businesses. Instead of the mass inspections that only a few years ago covered 60,000-80,000 companies a year, ZUS has focused on risk analysis and the precise selection of entities to inspect. The results of this strategy are hard to ignore.
In 2025, 31,130 inspections were carried out, of which as many as 28,407 ended with irregularities being found - a success rate of 91.3%. The financial impact of these proceedings came to PLN 545.6 million. Between January and July 2026, inspectors had already carried out 18,414 inspections with total findings of PLN 339.3 million.
As Dr Szymon Kasprowski, Chief Inspector of ZUS Inspections, explains, in individual cases the amounts found reach tens of millions of zloty. This signals that ZUS is not looking for minor mistakes - it is targeting systemic irregularities of high financial value.
What leads inspectors to a particular company? Above all, an unusual employment structure, a specific way of calculating remuneration, the repetition of certain types of contracts and discrepancies between data from different registers - including the National Court Register (KRS), the National Revenue Administration and the National Labour Inspectorate.
Overlapping insurance titles and work for one's own employer
One of the most important areas of inspection remains overlapping titles to social insurance. In practice, these are situations in which an employee is formally employed under an employment contract at one company, while at the same time performing a contract of mandate or a contract for specific work whose real beneficiary is the same employer - except that the contract was concluded through another, often related, entity.
Under the regulations, if the work is in fact performed for the employee's own employer, the remuneration from the additional contract should be taken into account when determining the contribution assessment base. Having a civil law contract concluded by another entity does not automatically protect against such a classification.
A warning sign for inspectors can be a situation in which the same group of people "circulates" between related companies - holding employment contracts in one and performing similar tasks as contractors in another. Inspectors then check not only the content of the contracts, but also how the work is actually organised. If the people concerned cannot say when they worked under the employment contract and when under the mandate contract, ZUS sees this as an indication that the real nature of the employment differs from the formal structure.
Artificial splitting of remuneration and serial contracts for specific work
Another risk area is the artificial splitting of remuneration. The scheme usually looks like this: an employee or contractor receives one part of their pay as remuneration subject to contributions, and the rest under another contract or in the form of a benefit that is not subject to contributions. The mere use of several types of settlement does not in itself mean a breach of the law, but ZUS examines whether the formal split reflects genuinely separate activities and legal relationships.
Inspectors pay particular attention to the following situations:
- Contributions paid only on the minimum wage, while actual earnings are many times higher
- Structures based on shares in companies or so-called non-cash benefits, behind which lies de facto the performance of work
- Serial contracts for specific work - concluded regularly over many months, with almost identical content and relating to repetitive activities (in the first half of 2026, more than 609,000 such contracts were reported)
- Improper use of unregistered work - that is, artificially splitting a single legal relationship into a civil law contract and unregistered work solely to reduce contributions
ZUS also uses advanced analytical tools, including text mining methods, which make it possible to identify patterns in the content of thousands of contracts and select entities for inspection.
Platforms, transport and high-risk sectors
ZUS is paying increasing attention to platform work - passenger transport and food delivery. In this sector, settlements through fleet partners are common, and the work is often performed by foreign nationals. Inspectors come across models in which the official pay for work is small, while a large part of the settlement is presented as a fee for the use of a car, bicycle or other equipment.
As Dr Kasprowski admits, it often turns out that the value of the "rental" of a bicycle is priced higher than the person's work itself. Such structures raise justified suspicions that their purpose is to reduce the contributions due.
As for the sectors that most often appear in inspectors' findings, international transport and employment agencies top the list. Security services and sectors with a high share of civil law contracts and high staff turnover also rank highly. Large businesses are inspected more often because of their scale, but small companies are not overlooked - for them, the grey economy is often the harder problem to detect.
How to check your employer and prepare your company for an inspection
Every insured person can check for themselves in their PUE/eZUS account whether they have been registered for insurance and on what base the employer pays contributions. If the data does not correspond to actual earnings, it is worth clarifying the matter - because the consequences of an understated contribution base are felt mainly by the employee. In the event of illness, sickness benefit will be calculated on a lower amount, and over the years the pension will be lower.
For business owners, the key point is that a ZUS inspection is not a penalty. Its purpose is to establish the correct amount of contributions. If irregularities have occurred, the company will be required to correct its documents and pay any arrears - but this is the payment of amounts due, not a sanction. More serious consequences, however, apply to obstructing an inspection - a court may impose a fine of up to PLN 46,000.
The most common errors are unintentional - late insurance registrations, calculation mistakes, an incorrectly determined contribution base. They can be fixed by submitting correcting documents. The faster the response, the lower the risk of the problem growing.
It is also worth remembering that correctly settling contributions and remuneration is not just a matter of inspections - it is the foundation of a company's legal security. Business owners who use complex employment or settlement structures should regularly verify that they comply with the regulations. In a properly planned structure, e.g. a limited liability company (sp. z o.o.) with professional HR and payroll services, the risk of errors and costly corrections can be significantly reduced thanks to ongoing oversight of documentation and the timeliness of settlements.
Don't wait for an inspection - make sure your settlements are compliant now
A ZUS inspection success rate of over 91% shows that inspectors do not turn up at companies at random. Risk analysis, the combining of data from several institutions and advanced analytical tools mean that irregularities in contribution settlements are being detected faster and more precisely.
If you run a business and are not sure whether your contribution settlements, employment structure or the contracts you use are fully compliant with the regulations - do not put off verification. The Global Accounting team specialises in full accounting, HR and payroll services, including settlement audits for limited liability companies (sp. z o.o.), branches of foreign businesses and general partnerships.
Book a free consultation and find out whether your company is prepared for a ZUS inspection. Call: +48 505 684 412 or write via globalaccounting.com.pl.
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