For many Polish entrepreneurs in the USA — owners of construction, IT, engineering, or logistics companies — the “small business” status is not just a formality, but real access to set-aside government contracts, cheaper SBA loans, and advisory programs. The higher the revenue threshold or employee count threshold in a given industry, the more companies fall into this category, rather than competing with corporations for the same contracts under general rules.
What exactly is changing
The proposal, published in the Federal Register as document 2026-17042, shifts industry classifications from the six-digit NAICS code system to simplified four-digit categories where possible. The number of distinct size thresholds drops by about 65% — from nearly a thousand to 338 (276 at the four-digit level and 62 at the five-digit level). The new methodology is based on three elements: national industry size, number of geographic markets, and an import adjustment — combined into an “average market size” index.
The change is required by law every five years, but the SBA describes it as the deepest update in a long time. SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler emphasizes that the goal is to give fast-growing companies “regulatory certainty to scale their operations” instead of pushing them out of small business status just as they begin to succeed.
Specific thresholds — examples from the proposal
The scale of threshold increases varies significantly across industries. According to the SBA, the employment threshold for semiconductor manufacturers would rise from 1,250 to 2,800 employees, for shipyards from 1,300 to 2,300, and for oil and gas drilling from 1,000 to 2,650 employees. The revenue threshold for support activities for animal production would jump from $11 million to $71 million. Service industries — engineering, custom programming, IT — are among those where thresholds are rising the most, in some cases several-fold, according to analyses by law firms tracking this proposal.
Combined effect: The SBA estimates that the pool of employer businesses qualifying as small will grow by 1.8% — that is over 110,000 new companies joining the current 6.3 million small employer businesses in the USA (and more broadly 36 million small businesses in total, also counting sole proprietorships).
What this means in practice for a Polish company
If a company currently exceeds the “small” threshold in its industry by a small margin, it is worth checking whether it will fit into the small business category once the new thresholds take effect — this opens the door to programs reserved exclusively for small businesses in public procurement, 7(a) and 504 loans on preferential terms, and free advisory services through the network of SBA offices. You can check the classification and threshold for your industry code on sba.gov. For now, this is a proposal — public consultations are open until September 21, 2026, and the final version of the rule (and its effective date) will be known only after they close.
This material is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or tax advice. The qualification of a specific company for small business status and the associated benefits should be verified with an accountant or an SBA advisor.
Polish construction, IT, and service companies operating in the USA can find accounting and advisory support from specialists in the Polish Pages directory.
