Czy polski Zakład Ubezpieczeń Społecznych może pełnić rolę odpowiednika SOKA BAU?

Some countries have their equivalents of the construction industry vacation funds like SOKA BAU; such countries include, among others, France, Austria, Italy, and the Netherlands. In such cases, after obtaining the appropriate certificate from the national institution, SOKA BAU exempts the employer delegating construction workers to work in Germany from paying contributions to the German fund, thus avoiding double social security contributions on wages. Unfortunately, Poland does not have an institution similar to the German construction industry vacation fund, and it should be remembered that the Polish Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) is not a Polish equivalent of SOKA BAU. The Polish ZUS is an institution responsible for collecting contributions to provide social security benefits such as accident pensions or retirement pensions, while SOKA BAU collects contributions that protect construction workers in the event of work stoppages and leave situations, where the fund covers the corresponding costs of holiday pay. Accordingly, it can be confirmed that the activities of ZUS and SOKA BAU are not identical, and Poland lacks an equivalent of the German construction industry vacation fund. Therefore, Polish employers delegating construction workers to Germany are obliged to pay contributions to the German construction industry vacation fund.

Agreement between ZUS and SOKA BAU.

In cases of employee delegation to Germany, if no benefits were claimed during the delegation period, it is possible to recover the paid contributions. The employee can do this by submitting an application for the payment of an equivalent for unused holiday benefits. Thanks to the agreement concluded on 24 May 2018, along with the payment of the equivalent, SOKA BAU will transfer to ZUS, to the payer’s account, the appropriate amount of contributions on the paid equivalents in the part financed by the employee. In this way, contributions financed by the employee go directly to the contribution payer’s account.

The transfer of the relevant amounts by ZUS causes, as before signing the agreement between SOKA BAU and ZUS, the payer’s obligation to include the amount of the paid equivalent in the basis for contributions, to settle the due contributions in the appropriate monthly settlement documents, and to include the part of contributions financed by the payer when paying contributions.

The above-described rules for transferring funds apply to contributions on equivalents paid based on applications submitted to SOKA BAU after 1 June 2018. The rules for transferring funds by the fund to cover contributions due for paid holiday benefits have not changed based on the agreement.

Tax matters.

When paying the equivalent to the employee, SOKA BAU is obliged to withhold 21.1% of the paid amount. Of this withheld portion, 20% of the equivalent is the amount allocated for income tax payment in Germany, and 1.1% is the so-called “solidarity surcharge,” which together with the previous part is automatically paid to the Tax Office in Wiesbaden (the city where SOKA BAU is based). Accordingly, this income is taxed in Germany, will be exempt from taxation in Poland, and should be reported on the PIT-11 form as income earned in Germany.