How to Start a US LLC From Poland

Poland and the US operate under a modernized income tax treaty that replaced the original 1974 convention, after a notably slow ratification process: the treaty was signed in 2013, received full US Senate consent in July 2022, and entered into force with the exchange of ratification instruments in late 2022. This kind of multi-year gap between signing and entry into force isn't unusual for US tax treaties generally, but it's worth knowing this is the current, active treaty rather than the older 1974 version some outdated guides may still reference. In practice, the treaty and Poland's domestic foreign tax credit matter less for a typical single-member LLC than their existence suggests, since a non-resident-alien-owned LLC earning non-US-source income usually owes $0 US federal tax to begin with. The treaty's real relevance shows up once the LLC scales into US-source income or Poland's CFC tax actually applies to a portion of the business.

Putting it together: form the LLC (Wyoming and Delaware remain the two most common choices), get the EIN using the international applicant line above, open a Mercury or Relay account without either restricting Poland, and get a Polish accountant's read on whether your specific service revenue falls into the CFC regime's broad passive-income list, that classification question, not the LLC's actual US tax rate or a source-of-income test like several other countries use, is what determines your Polish tax exposure. Remember that the EU/EEA-only substance exemption won't rescue a genuinely operating US LLC the way it might for an EU-based subsidiary.

Poland has one of Europe's largest IT-outsourcing and software-development workforces, and a growing number of Polish founders now build their own SaaS products, e-commerce stores, and consulting practices aimed at US and global clients rather than working purely as contractors. For these founders, a US LLC offers direct Stripe and PayPal access as a genuine US entity, USD invoicing that removes zloty exposure, and a formation process considerably simpler and cheaper than a Polish spółka z o.o. built specifically to serve international clients. What Polish founders need to understand before forming one, though, is that Poland's controlled foreign company rules define 'passive income' more broadly than almost any other country in this series, broadly enough that some consulting and service-based businesses can land inside the CFC regime even when the founder assumes their active work clearly keeps them out.

Poland's CFC rules (przepisy o zagranicznych jednostkach kontrolowanych) apply when a Polish tax resident, alone or with related parties, holds more than 50% of a foreign entity's shares, voting rights, or profit-participation rights for at least 30 days during the tax year, a single-member LLC's 100% owner clears this instantly. Meeting the ownership threshold alone doesn't trigger CFC status, though; the classic pathway also requires two further conditions together: at least 33% of the foreign entity's revenue must come from a defined list of passive sources, and the actual tax paid by the entity abroad must be at least 25% lower than the Polish corporate tax that would apply to the same income. If your LLC's revenue and its effective tax rate both clear these bars, its income gets attributed to you annually at a flat 19% Polish CFC tax rate, whether or not anything is distributed.

Getting an EIN as a Polish founder works exactly like it does for any other non-US resident. Without a US Social Security Number or ITIN, you can't use the IRS's online EIN application — you'll file Form SS-4 and either call the IRS's international applicant line (267-941-1099, staffed 6am-11pm ET, for international applicants only) to receive the EIN over the phone, or fax the SS-4 (855-215-1627 from within the US, 304-707-9471 from outside) for a roughly 4-business-day official turnaround that often takes 1-2 weeks in practice. Mailing to Cincinnati, OH takes 4-5 weeks and should be a last resort. On Line 7b, write 'Foreign' or 'N/A' rather than leaving it blank. The responsible party listed must be the actual Polish owner, not EasyBrise or any formation agent. If you lose your CP 575 confirmation notice, request Form 147C, a letter, not a duplicate, instead. Don't skip Form 5472 plus a pro forma 1120 each year; the penalty for missing it starts at $25,000.

On the funding side, Poland's EU membership means the zloty moves freely with no capital controls, no remittance caps, and no central-bank registration requirement for investing in a foreign company. Funding a US LLC from Poland is a standard international bank transfer with no special approval process, a genuinely simpler starting point than several countries covered elsewhere in this series that impose formal registration or quota systems on outbound investment.

On the banking side, Poland is not on Mercury's or Relay's prohibited-country list, and Polish founders go through the same standard non-resident application process, passport, LLC formation documents, and EIN, as founders from most other countries in this series. There's no distinct Poland-specific hurdle at the account-opening stage; the genuine complexity for Polish founders sits in the CFC passive-income classification question above, not in getting a US bank account.

Poland's CFC law does include a substance-based exemption: a controlled entity that carries out substantial real economic activity is excused from the CFC tax and reporting obligations. The catch, and it's a significant one for founders in this series, is that this exemption is explicitly limited to CFCs resident in an EU or European Economic Area member state. A US LLC, however genuinely staffed, operated, and substantive, doesn't qualify for this specific safe harbor simply because the US isn't in the EU or EEA. This is a real structural disadvantage compared to founders elsewhere who might rely on genuine business activity to escape CFC exposure regardless of jurisdiction; for a Polish founder, the passive-income-under-33% test is the only practical route out, not a demonstrated real presence in the US.

Here's the part worth understanding precisely: the low-tax condition is essentially automatic for a typical single-member LLC. A non-resident-alien-owned LLC earning non-US-source income usually pays $0 US federal tax, and $0 is virtually always at least 25% lower than the hypothetical 19% Polish tax that would apply to the same income. This means the reassurance some founders get from 'the US isn't a low-tax country', the logic that works in Taiwan, Iceland, or China's CFC tests, doesn't apply here, because Poland isn't comparing your LLC's tax rate against a general low-tax threshold; it's comparing the actual dollar amount paid against a hypothetical Polish bill on the exact same income. The condition that actually determines whether your LLC is a CFC is the 33% passive-income test, not the tax-rate one.

This is where Poland genuinely differs from most other countries in this series: since a 2022 expansion of the rules, Poland's list of 'passive' income for CFC purposes includes not just the usual dividends, interest, royalties, and rental income, but also revenue from advisory, accounting, market research, legal, advertising, management and control, data processing, and recruitment or staffing services, a list broad enough to sweep in a lot of consulting-style businesses that would count as ordinary active income almost everywhere else covered in this series. A SaaS product's subscription revenue or an e-commerce store's product sales generally isn't on this list and stays outside the passive-income calculation. A consulting LLC billing for advisory, management, or similar professional services, though, is at real risk of exceeding the 33% threshold on its own service revenue alone, the exact opposite of the 'active consulting income is safe' pattern seen in several other countries. This distinction is worth getting an accountant's read on specifically, based on how your invoices actually describe the services rendered.