Letter from Poland.

 

The dreaded ZUS

26.11.2007
Anna Piwowarska tries to get to grips with Poland’s system of national insurance contributions
While all the journalists in the UK are getting their knickers in a twist over British tax official’s humongous mistake, of losing 25 million’s peoples personal details, I thought I’d take this opportunity of having my own self indulgent little rant about the tax man. The Polish tax man, that is. Or woman, should I say.
But before I tell you about the ZUS woman, let’s start at the very beginning. I am a freelancer as is my husband. Most people in this country get their ZUS – that’s national insurance (their healthcare and pension) paid for as part of their wage by their employer. We, crazy freelance people, obviously don’t. Freelancers are divided into those who follow their freelance philosophy and don’t pay voluntary national insurance. Usually because they are a) freelance so they’re broke b) young so they don’t really need it and c) because the national health service in Poland is in such a pitiful state with doctors and nurses either having emigrated or on strike. Then, there are those freelancers who do pay. And I and my husband, belong to this group.
I remember the moment when we had to decide whether to submit to the system. I blame my mother-in-law. She evoked an image of us as washed up, old losers with no pension or medical care, having failed at our artistic career and having no savings left for the simplest of geriatric operations. I wasn’t convinced. Especially as we had the example of one of our poor uncles who spends all month working hard just to pay his national insurance contribution and has nothing left over to take home to his family. But my young husband, with a wise old head on his shoulders, bit the bullet and entered the ZUS system for the two of us.
He explained that he did this for a number of reasons. a) because I’m a hypochondriac. Which is true, I am b) because one day when we have a family, we’ll need the services of a doctor often c) because his mum has brainwashed him (the whole washed up, geriatric failed artist argument) and d) because if we ever, god forbid, were in need of long term medical help we may not have enough money to pay for it ourselves (which is more than certainly true). The most convincing of these arguments is of course - d. Obviously the best thing would be to put that 250 zloty into a secret bank account each month and then if you’re ever ill you can spend it on the best and quickest medical assistance. But who in the world, has the self control of putting money into a ‘secret’ account which you only touch if something horrible happens to you – rather than spending it on a trip to Peru, for instance. Not us, that’s for sure.
So back to the Polish tax woman. This lady and I have a somewhat tense relationship. Every couple of months she sends me a letter to tell me that I have to come and confirm that I have paid my contribution. Surely, she should know if I have or not. But no, I have to go and fill in a different form for each month, stating how much I have paid. Then I have to photocopy it (which at first I thought was ridiculous but now I’m glad that I did) to have a record for myself. A few months later the ZUS women writes to me to tell me that I haven’t filled in the forms to confirm that I paid my contributions. Then we have an argument and I tell her that I have. Then she tells me to come in and show her the photocopy…. And this is why I never get any work done.
To be fair, Polish bureaucracy is slowly getting better. I remember when I first came to this country I would spend days, weeks, even months sometimes, trying to fill in forms to obtain my ID card, residence or insurance here. Needless to say, I rarely understand how to fill them in and the ladies working in the bureaucratic institutions that I was frequenting, were too busy having their mid morning coffee and doughnut to help me out. Thankfully, this has changed. With an influx of energetic, young civil servants who speak English and go out of their way to help you, the ZUS system seems to be going in the right direction. I even started to feel sorry for my ZUS woman recently. “I hope now that the government has changed this nonsensical system of filling out forms each month, will also change” I barked at her during our last conversation. “So do I” she answered rather wearily….