National Court Register

The Polish National Court Register (NCR) – (formerly: Trade Register in Poland) was founded according to the Act adopted on 20th August 1997 on the National Court Register. It is developed and organized by the Polish Ministry of Justice. Since January 1, 2001 it constitutes an electronic base of data containing information about entrepreneurs, companies, foundations and non-governmental institutions, therefore it is divided into three separate registers:

• the register of entrepreneurs,
• register of associations, other social and professional organizations, foundations and independent public health care establishments,
• the register of insolvent debtors.

The register of entrepreneurs in Poland, which consists of 6 sections, includes individuals engaged in business, companies, co-operatives, state enterprises, foreign enterprises and other types of legal entities which are subject to registration. The types of entities entered in the register of associations in Poland are foundations, social professional organizations, guilds, trade unions and public institutions of health service.

The register of insolvent debtors in Poland which was maintained until December 1, 2020, included individuals declared insolvent, associates who are liable with their personal assets or persons who have been deprived by the court to conduct business activity on their own account. By disclosing this information, creditors could avoid entering into legal relationships with uncertain entities.

The National Court Register of Poland has two fundamental functions, informational and legal (legalization). The informational aspect refers to providing competent information to the public, about the legal status, economic situation, representation of Polish companies, entrepreneurs, organizations etc. This is because the NCR constitutes a nationwide database of entities participating in economic turnover. The other aspect provides following of certain steps in order to register different types of entities, fulfilling legal requirements and giving legal personality to an institution allowing it to perform legal acts, which is legal only after the NCR entry.

The registration process with the Company Registrar in Poland implies filing official application forms along with fee for publishing in the Polish Official Gazette and court fee. The applications are available in courts and in communes, but only for application forms for registration of individuals engaged in sole proprietorships, or general partnerships.

The Polish Ministry of Justice has made it easier to access the registry via internet, so registration can also be made online.

Besides registration, NCR regulates changes and modification in the constitution of Polish legal entities,, mostly concerning important details of the company’s capital and partners, or shareholders of the company in Poland, changes of the authorized representatives of companies. The changes must be submitted at the court register, which decides to gather more information or to simply approve the documents submitted.

The National Court Register (NCR) is a centralised, electronic database introduced in 2001.

• register of entrepreneurs;
• register of associations, other social and professional organisations, foundations and independent public health service establishments;
• register of insolvent debtors (maintained until December 1, 2020).

Following entities are, among others, subject to registration in the register of entrepreneurs: commercial companies (registered partnership, limited partnership, limited joint-stock partnership, professional partnership, limited liability company, joint-stock company) as well as branch office of the foreign entrepreneurs conducting activity within the territory of Republic of Poland.

• registration of a new entity;
• changes and modification of important details of an entity, in particular concerning capital and partners (shareholders), persons authorised to represent an entity and members of organs, financial report of an entity.

The Court maintains paper registration files for each entity registered in the NCR. In registration files are gathered documents which confirm information contained in the register as well as patterns of signatures of persons authorised to represent an entity.

• about tax and customs arrears;
• about Social Security arrears;
• about creditors and amounts of unpaid liabilities.

The National Court Register is accessible to public – anyone has access to registration files of entities registered in the NCR (in the relevant District Court). Extracts from the NCR are obtainable within the whole country in the Central Information of the NCR offices. On the other hand, nobody can plead ignorance of information contained in the NCR.

In addition, on the following web site : https://ekrs.ms.gov.pl/web/wyszukiwarka-krs/strona-glowna one may search entities entered into the National Court Register. The aforementioned entities may be searched by their business name or NCR numer. One will then find the basic data of the searched entity.