The contract with no ZUSdzieło
A specific-work contract (umowa o dzieło) is the outlier of Poland’s three contract types: as a rule it carries no social-security contributions and no health contribution — neither compulsory nor voluntary. That is the design signature of this page. Because there is no ZUS layer, the take-home depends only on PIT after tax-deductible costs, and the result panel shows a tax segment and a net segment with no contributions segment at all — a deliberate, correct difference from the mandate-contract page.
The single exception is a dzieło concluded with, or performed for, your own employer: that is treated like employment and carries the full contributions. The calculator models the standard, no-ZUS case; the own-employer exception is flagged rather than computed.
Tax-deductible costs: 20% or 50%
With no contributions in the way, the one lever that moves the net on a specific-work contract is the tax-deductible cost rate. There are two, and the calculator lets you choose between them:
- Standard costs — 20%. the default for ordinary specific-work, applied to the income before PIT is charged.
- Copyright costs — 50%. available where the work transfers copyright (przeniesienie praw autorskich) — for example an author, translator, designer or developer handing over rights to what they made. At the copyright rate, half the income is treated as cost, so the tax base is much smaller and the net much higher.
The copyright rate is not automatic: it belongs to genuine creative work with a copyright transfer, and the calculator’s cost toggle is labelled accordingly so you do not apply it where it does not belong.
The 120 000 zł annual cap on copyright costslimit roczny
The copyright costs are capped: across all titles, they cannot exceed 120 000 zł in a tax year. Once the year’s copyright costs reach that ceiling, further income is taxed with no more copyright relief on top — so a large copyright payment does not keep shrinking its own tax base indefinitely.
This is the honest edge of the specific-work contract, and the calculator handles it openly: when a payment reaches the cap, it shows a clear cap-applied warning and limits the cost rather than silently over-applying the higher rate (which would understate the tax and overstate the net). Because the cap is annual and this tool models a single payment, treat the warning as a prompt to check your year-to-date copyright costs.
Reporting the contract to ZUS (form RUD)
No contributions does not mean no paperwork. Every specific-work contract concluded from 1 January 2021 must be reported to ZUS on form RUD within 7 days of signing, with a few narrow exceptions (for instance a dzieło with your own employee). Reporting is purely administrative — it records the contract, it does not create a contribution obligation — but it is a duty the payer must not overlook.
The under-26 relief does not cover a specific-work contract
An important boundary: the under-26 relief (0% PIT until age 26) does not cover a specific-work contract or self-employment. Income from a dzieło is taxed normally regardless of age; a dzieło settled inside a sole trader’s business (JDG) is likewise outside the relief.
That is why the specific-work calculator does not zero the tax for age: it is not an oversight but a reflection of the relief’s scope. If the relief matters to you, the right title is a mandate or employment, not a specific-work contract.