After the expiry of the interim regulations that were in force until May 2021, employers who started business in 2021 or later or have lost the right to be exempted (from the obligation to launch Employee Capital Plans) shall implement Employee Capital Plans within the time limits as provided for in the general provisions. These provisions are laid down in Art. 16 and Art. 8(1) of the Act on Employee Capital Plans. In short, new entities are required to conclude an Employee Capital Plan management agreement on behalf of an employed person after the lapse of the third month of their employment, no later than by the tenth day of the month following the month in which a 90-day employment period lapsed. Obviously, this obligation applies unless the employed person submits a declaration to opt-out of the scheme before the expiry of this period. It should be remembered that employment periods in a given entity in the previous 12 months are counted towards the aforementioned 90-day period. The general provisions (Articles 16 and 8) should also be thoroughly analyzed and applied by entities that, under the Act, previously took advantage of an exemption from implementing Employee Capital Plans or did not have to implement them (as having no grounds for remitting social security (ZUS) contributions). These entities must review whether the circumstances that allowed them to use an exemption from the implementation of Employee Capital Plans have not changed during the course of their business activities. The exemption was available to micro-entrepreneurs, entities with Employee Pension Plans (Polish: Pracownicze Plany Emerytalne, PPE) in place, or those that did not have to remit obligatory social security contributions. Micro-entrepreneurs lose the right to the exemption if: • they lose the micro-entrepreneur status (as per the definition of a micro-entrepreneur provided in Art. 7(1)(1) of the Entrepreneurs’ Law Act; special attention should be paid to the fact that the average annual employment is calculated on an FTE basis); • despite the micro-entrepreneur status, they employ a person who does not opt-out of the Employee Capital Plans scheme; • one of the employed persons (e.g. among those who previously submitted a declaration to opt-out) submits to the employer a declaration requesting that contributions are paid to the Employee Capital Plan or all of the employed persons fail to submit another declaration to opt-out of Employee Capital Plans every 4 years (starting from 1 April 2023). On the other hand, entities with Employee Pensions Plans in place must check the participation rate in these Plans twice a year (1 January and 1 July). And verify on ongoing basis compliance with the other conditions listed in Art. 133 of the Act on Employee Capital Plans, since the employing entity cannot use the exemption from the implementation of Employee Capital Plans from the date of: • suspension of the calculation and payment of basic contributions to Employee Pension Plans in a period exceeding 90 days; • limitation of the number of basic contributions paid to Employee Pension Plans below 3.5%; • discontinuation of Employee Pension Plans; • delay in paying basic contributions to Employee Pension Plans exceeding 90 days which resulted from intentional actions of the employing entity.