Electronic delivery: from 1 October the obligation reaches sole traders

On 1 October 2026 an electronic delivery address becomes mandatory for businesses registered in CEIDG, Poland's register of sole traders, before 1 January 2025. That is the largest group of companies in the country, and also the one that has heard least about the obligation.

The good news is that registering the address is an hour of paperwork and costs nothing. The bad news is that the problem starts the day after. The inbox goes live, letters begin to arrive, and in most companies nobody has settled who checks it or what happens to what they find there.

Who the 1 October deadline covers, and who it does not

Electronic delivery has been phased in since the start of 2025 and most organisations are already through it. The October deadline closes the last group.

• Public bodies and the regulated professions came under the obligation at the beginning of 2025.

• Businesses registered from 1 January 2025 onwards receive an address as part of registration, so they have had one from day one.

• Companies entered in the KRS court register before 2025 were covered from 1 April 2025.

• Sole traders in CEIDG registered before 1 January 2025 have until 1 October 2026. That is the group this piece is about.

The trap nobody mentions: you may have had an address since last year

This is the most common misunderstanding around the deadline, and it is worth resolving before you start registering anything.

The 1 October 2026 date applies to those CEIDG businesses that have filed no application to change their entry since 1 July 2025. If you updated anything in that window, an address, a business activity code, a bank account, contact details, then an electronic delivery address had to be supplied or created with that application.

In practice this means some businesses have had a live inbox for months without knowing it. So before you begin the procedure, check your own entry. If an address is already there, you have nothing to register, and everything below still applies.

What actually changes: the clock runs without you

A paper letter from a public office had a safety net built in. The postal worker left a notice, then a second one, the item sat at the post office, and there was a decent chance somebody would collect it or at least notice it.

Electronic delivery drops the letter into an inbox where it starts working on its own. If it is not collected, after fourteen days it is treated as delivered exactly as though somebody had read it. The deadline to reply, to appeal, to supply missing documents runs from that moment.

There is no ill will here on the part of the authorities. There is a new operational risk: a company can miss a deadline without making any mistake other than not opening an inbox for a fortnight. And a fortnight is one holiday.

How to register the address, step by step

The procedure is straightforward, you can do it yourself, and there are no intermediaries and no fees. An address in the public registered electronic delivery service is free for a business.

1. Check your CEIDG entry to see whether you already have one. It takes a minute and sometimes ends the matter.

2. Go to biznes.gov.pl and choose the application for an electronic delivery address. You will need a trusted profile, an electronic ID or a qualified signature.

3. Name the inbox administrator. This is a decision, not a form field. Come back to it after reading the next section.

4. Once the address is granted, activate the inbox. Only activation makes it start receiving correspondence.

5. Confirm that the address reached the electronic address database and your own entry.

Three things to settle the same day

Here begins the part no application form handles, and it is the part that decides whether you miss a deadline.

1. Who checks the inbox, and how often. The answer “me, when I get a moment” is not an answer. Set a specific rhythm, every working morning for instance, and write it into somebody's duties.

2. What happens to a letter once collected. Who reads it on the merits, who drafts the reply, where that reply is recorded, and how anyone knows it was sent.

3. Who does it when that person is away. Holiday, illness, leaving the company. The inbox should be attached to a role rather than to a name, and more than one person should have access.

In a one-person business the answer to all three is “me”, and that is fine. Do one thing anyway: set a standing reminder, and name someone who can get in during a longer absence.

What the inbox does not do

An electronic delivery inbox is a channel for receiving correspondence and nothing more. It is not a case register, it does not watch response deadlines, it does not link a letter to a client or a project, and it does not show how far along the reply somebody is currently drafting has got.

For a business with a few letters a year none of that matters. For one receiving dozens, it is precisely the problem they used to have with a shared mailbox, now with a hard legal deadline behind it.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need this if I am a sole trader?

Yes, if the business was registered in CEIDG before 1 January 2025, the obligation reaches you on 1 October 2026. If you registered later, or updated your entry after 1 July 2025, you most likely have an address already.

What does the address cost?

An address in the public registered electronic delivery service is free for a business, as is correspondence with public bodies. Commercial operators charge for their own services, and you do not need one to meet the obligation.

What happens if I miss the deadline?

There is no financial penalty attached, so nobody will fine you on 2 October. The real consequence is less visible and more painful: public bodies will still have grounds to serve you electronically, and the first time you update your CEIDG entry you will have to supply an address anyway. Postponing buys nothing but risk.

What to do this week

Check your entry. If there is no address, file the application, because it is one afternoon now and a queue in late September. If you already have one, go straight to the three questions above and answer them in writing, even if it is a single paragraph.

The obligation is met in an hour. Being ready for the first letter with a deadline on it is a different matter, and it is the one that separates the businesses that pass through this calmly from those that learn about it from a decision issued while they were away.