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Contracting in Poland

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    #11
    Hi,

    I did a short stint ( only 8 weeks ) in Warsaw this time last year.

    My daily rate was better than I get in the UK.

    The work was actual "nearsourced" UK work - brought to Poland in order to make it cheaper. They needed me, so they paid my price as long as they could. The UK managers were always out and trying to get them to not extend me another week or so. The truth is the locals were highly qualified ( eg. testers were brilliant, especially compared to the Bobs normally at the clients over here ) and Romanians were willing to work the market for peanuts.

    My girlfriend of 15 years is Polish ( best girls in the world ), so she was over with me. However, I fell in love with a new "hottest woman I ever saw" on the tram everyday - it was heaven!

    In short, loved it and would go back there in a hearbeat.

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      #12
      Originally posted by herman_g View Post
      My girlfriend of 15 years is Polish.......
      You are Jimmy Savile and I claim my Five Pounds.....

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        #13
        I'm from Poland, contracting now in UK.

        Few thoughts:
        • living in Poland is cheaper in general:
          • in smaller cities you can rent a nice flat for <200 GBP, in large cities (Warsaw, Krakow, Wroclaw) flat range may be 300-600. Crossing 1000 even for a house is almost impossible (assuming you don't need swimming pool in the property )
          • food and drink prices are similar (or a little bit lower), services are lot cheaper - expect lunch in restaurant to be 50% of UK price, beer for a 0.50 - 1.00 GBP
          • assume Polish Zloty (PLN) is 1/5 of pound (GBP), so 5 PLN = 1 GBP,
          • don't convert money in banks, look for something called "kantor" (money exchange) in non-commercial places. Don't exchange money at airports or big shopping centres - they'll charge you 5-10%. Instead, use small "kantor" points, and expect they take just 0.5 - 1.5 % (or even less if you know how to talk to them).
        • taxes
          • you can work in Europe country if you're not a resident of that country as your UK Limited Company. In Poland (and most of the EU) you become resident if you're >183 days in a tax year in that country. So up to 183 days - go as UK LTD.
          • if you need to register as a company there anyway, use the self-employment form. This is less restricted than in UK. There is no IR35 and nobody asks usually if you're limited or self-employed.
          • self-employment has 3 different ways of being taxed (progressive, linear and special), for simplicity - take linear, then you pay 19% profit tax (income - expense), and 23% VAT (if it's needed) and nothing else. For other (progressive or special) this needs more details from your side.
          • for self-employment you have to pay a kind of NI there (called ZUS). There is a lot of rules, but assume for initial 2 years it's <80 GBP. After 2 years it goes to <200 GBP. If you have your NI paid in UK during that time, then you don't need to pay ZUS at all. For more about this, read about "form A1" on HMRC web - it's a form issued in EU to avoid double health/pension/insurance costs for people working in 1+ EU countries.


        Hope I helped someone with this post
        My studio: kemu Studio
        My site for calculating stuff: Calculla - online calculators and for managing time during work: Pomodorro

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