Investment and commercial law Accident Insurance Contribution - What It Is and How It Can Be Reduced

What is the accident insurance contribution?

The accident insurance contribution forms part of social security contributions and is intended to finance benefits payable to employees in the event of, among other things, a workplace accident or occupational disease. Its amount is not the same for every employer — the percentage rate is determined individually and depends on a number of factors.

The most important of these include:

• the type of business activity carried out,
• the level of occupational risks in the workplace,
• the number and nature of workplace accidents,
• the data submitted to ZUS in declarations, particularly the ZUS IWA form.

How is the accident insurance contribution determined?

The Polish Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) determines the percentage rate of the accident insurance contribution based on the information provided by the contribution payer. In practice, this means that historical data — often from several years earlier — is of key importance, even though it does not always reflect the company’s current situation.

Organisational changes, investments in workplace safety, or the implementation of new health and safety procedures are not always reflected in the documents on the basis of which ZUS calculates the contribution.

Why do many companies pay an excessively high accident insurance contribution?

An overstated accident insurance contribution often results from very simple reasons, including, in particular:

• errors in completing ZUS IWA declarations,
• failure to verify data submitted to ZUS over the years,
• failure to take into account occupational health and safety measures, reducing employee risk,
• incorrect or overly cautious classification of incidents as serious workplace accidents,
• the assumption that once determined, the contribution rate cannot be changed.

As a result, businesses bear higher costs for long periods of time, even though there may be grounds for reducing them. This issue is particularly significant for large enterprises employing many workers.

Documentation audit as a way to reduce the accident insurance contribution

Conducting an audit of documentation — including accident reports, occupational health and safety records, and ZUS IWA declarations — enables assessment of whether the accident insurance contribution has been calculated correctly.

Importantly, in many cases, it is possible not only to correct the contribution for the future but also to verify data from previous years. The regulations allow corrections of declarations even several years after the fact, which may create a genuine opportunity to recover overpaid contributions.

If you would like to learn more about what the accident insurance contribution is and how it can be reduced, we invite you to join our webinars from the “ Academy for Production ” series.