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How to get paid as a freelancer in Germany

25th January 2017 By Andrew Leave a Comment

OK, so you’ve done that brilliant piece of work for your customer and now it’s time to get paid as a freelancer in Germany. How confident are you that you will find the agreed amount of money in your bank account at the agreed time?

At the end of the day, every piece of work you do – regardless of how artistic or creative it might be – is a business transaction. You provide a service, the customer pays you. That is how it should be.

But, sometimes, that doesn’t work. The money has NOT arrived and you have to ponder what happens next. In this article, I want to give you some guidance and advice on the way things work in Germany. [Continue Reading] about How to get paid as a freelancer in Germany

Freelancing in Germany: facts and some good advice

11th January 2017 By Andrew Leave a Comment

So you’re thinking about freelancing in Germany. In this article I want to introduce you to some of the important things you need to know.

The first thing we need to do is to clear up confusion about some of the terms flying around concerning freelancing. The confusion starts with the fact that there is no direct and perfect translation into German for the word “freelancer”. “Freelancer” does not equal “freiberuflich” (even if they do both begin with the word “free”). We have to look at certain characteristics of the work that you are doing to decide what sort of freelancer you actually are.

Anybody who works for himself and who does not have an employment contract with a company or somebody else is self-employed (“selbstständig”). This is just a broad description of your current working status. It has no further implications in terms of the German legal, tax or administrative systems. [Continue Reading] about Freelancing in Germany: facts and some good advice

Electronic invoices for freelancers in Germany

4th January 2017 By Andrew Leave a Comment

As a freelancer or small business owner in Germany, you may be unclear about the use of electronic invoices and records, or the possibility of scanning your documents.

Perhaps you send invoices to your customers as PDF documents by Email? Or you receive invoices digitally from your suppliers. Or you might have considered scanning any paper invoices or documents you receive to simplify your record-keeping. In all cases you are dealing with electronic accounting records. [Continue Reading] about Electronic invoices for freelancers in Germany

A guide to VAT abroad for freelancers in Germany

7th December 2016 By Andrew 3 Comments

Even if you are based in Germany as a freelancer, you may want to sell some of your products or services abroad. Likewise, you might be purchasing products or services yourself from outside of Germany. In this guide I will address how to handle the VAT (or “Value added tax”) elements related to these transactions.

If you do not yet have a tax number and a VAT identification number (“Umsatzsteuer-Identifikationsnummer”) in Germany and need information on how to do this, then I recommend my article “A guide to VAT for freelancers in Germany” which will give you all the information you need. [Continue Reading] about A guide to VAT abroad for freelancers in Germany

A guide to VAT for freelancers in Germany

7th December 2016 By Andrew 5 Comments

Every freelancer or small business in Germany has to deal with the issue of VAT. It cannot be ignored. VAT stands for “Value added tax”. It is one of the indirect taxes i.e. a tax on the purchase of goods and services. (Direct taxes are directly on the income of an individual). An indirect tax means that the tax is passed on to the final customer as it is added on to the bill for the product or service. [Continue Reading] about A guide to VAT for freelancers in Germany