What are quantitative criteria?
Quantitative criteria are the minimum amount of eligible costs that a company must commit to incur in order to apply for a support decision under the Polish Investment Zone.
Required amount of eligible costs
Under the Regulation of the Council of Ministers of 27 December 2022 on state aid granted to certain entrepreneurs for new investments, the minimum amount of eligible costs depends on the unemployment rate in the county where the investment is located:
Special rules for municipalities losing socio-economic functions and selected counties
Regardless of the unemployment rate in the county, the minimum amount of eligible costs is PLN 10 million if the greater part of the investment site is located in:
- A medium-sized town losing socio-economic functions listed in table no. 3 of annex no. 1 to the Regulation
- A municipality in which a town losing socio-economic functions is located
- A municipality bordering the municipality in which a town losing socio-economic functions is located
- A municipality located in selected eastern counties: Augustów, Bartoszyce, Biała Podlaska, Białystok, Bieszczady, Braniewo, Chełm, Gołdap, Hajnówka, Hrubieszów, Jarosław, Kętrzyn, Lubaczów, Przemyśl, Sejny, Siemiatycze, Sokółka, Suwałki, Tomaszów Lubelski, Węgorzewo or Włodawa county
- The city of Suwałki
How to check the requirements for a specific municipality?
The average unemployment rate is based on the data valid on the date the application is submitted, as published by the President of Statistics Poland (GUS) in the Monitor Polski official journal. The minimum requirements for individual municipalities can be checked in our municipality database.
Reduction of the required eligible costs
The regulations allow the minimum eligible cost thresholds to be reduced depending on the size of the company and the type of activity. The percentages below mean a reduction by the given value – for example, for a micro-enterprise the threshold is reduced by 98% of its value.
By company size
- by 98% – for micro-enterprises
- by 95% – for small enterprises
- by 90% – for medium-sized enterprises
By type of activity
- by 95% – for large and medium-sized enterprises providing specific services (including IT, accounting, auditing, consulting, architectural services and call centres), provided that these are the main activities specified in the support decision
By type of investment
- by 50% – for investments that increase the production capacity of an existing plant, diversify production or fundamentally change the production process
A practical example:
A micro-enterprise planning an investment in a municipality where PLN 10 million is required benefits from a 98% reduction. This means: PLN 10 million − (PLN 10 million × 98%) = PLN 10 million − PLN 9.8 million = PLN 200,000 of eligible costs.
What are eligible costs?
Eligible costs fall into two main categories. One of them must be chosen at the application stage – they cannot be combined:
1. Two-year costs of newly hired employees
Gross salary costs, including social security contributions, for the first two years of employment of staff directly related to the new investment.
2. Investment in tangible fixed assets
- Costs of acquiring land or the right of perpetual usufruct
- Purchase price or production cost of fixed assets
- Costs of extending or modernising existing fixed assets
- Purchase price of intangible assets (patents, licences, know-how)
- Costs of renting or leasing land, buildings and structures (for contracts of at least 5 years; for SMEs – 3 years)
- Purchase price of assets covered by financial leasing
Important: All of the above costs are reduced by VAT and excise duty if they are deductible.
Consequences of not meeting the criterion
Note: If the planned investment costs are lower than the required threshold, the zone manager (SEZ) will reject the application for support. That is why it is worth carefully calculating the planned expenditure before submitting the application and making sure it meets the minimum requirements for the location.