These phrases are extremely bothersome. Overpayment of health insurance premium needs to be changed urgently

The Ministry of Health sees the need to change the extremely bureaucratic procedures that have to be dealt with when overpaying health insurance premiums – and these are often penny amounts. The draft amendment to the act is already in the Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers, which is a pity – it is not perfect.

Currently, ZUS works on overpayments in accordance with applicable regulations – it requires taxpayers to apply for overpayments of pennies. The bizarre procedure results from regulations introduced as part of the Polish Order and without changing the law, the institution cannot simplify it. The cost of this absurdity is borne by everyone: entrepreneurs, accounting offices and ZUS itself.

Refund of overpaid health insurance premiums is an example of bureaucracy

The carousel of absurdity started spinning because ZUS has already started refunding the overpaid health insurance premium. According to data from May 14, the amount of refunds exceeded PLN 64.6 million. 71.9 thousand people are waiting for the return of another PLN 105 million. payers. Sometimes it’s a penny, sometimes it’s three cents, sometimes it’s thousands of zlotys.

– Today it looks like this: even if a taxpayer has an overpayment of a few cents, he or she still has to pay the full contribution and then separately apply for a refund of this small amount. ZUS returns the overpayment to the account, and at the same time, the payer must pay current contributions in full. The money goes both ways – the entrepreneur receives a transfer from one ZUS account to immediately credit the other one. This is a double operation that has no economic justification – explains Piotr Juszczyk, chief tax advisor at inFakt, in an interview with Interia Biznes.

Who is opposed to a flexible approach to overpayment of health insurance premiums?

Experts indicate that it would be more beneficial to be able to choose whether the overpayment is to be refunded or credited towards current or future contributions, which would significantly reduce bureaucracy and the burden on ZUS.

The new bill provides for, among other things, changes to this procedure. If adopted, ZUS will ex officio refund the amount of the overpayment after the annual settlement is submitted by the contribution payer, without the entrepreneur’s application required by law. The exception is the situation when the payer did not provide the payment account number.

Piotr Juszczyk is of the opinion that the structure of the new regulation should be even more flexible and leave the choice to the entrepreneur himself. – The annual settlement form should include a field in which the payer indicates one of three options: refund to the bank account, credit towards current and future contributions or a mixed solution – he suggests. Just like in the case of VAT settlement, where the taxpayer decides to refund or transfer the amount to the next settlement period. Only such a change will be a real relief for entrepreneurs.