If you think IR35 is a heap of poo...

[Mich the Tester]

With those conditions, another alternative would be for at least three IT consultants to club together as directors of the same service company and each undertake contracts as before through that company, so each can justly claim they have at least three clients at a time.

Indeed, or form cooperatives. Either way, if the government can't fooking well make do with the enormous amounts of tax we pay then it's the government that needs drastic reform and not industry.

[scooterscot]

Is that so? If so then I'm moving.

Well I have a letter from the local Rathaus confirming my status, which more or less identifies me as a freelancer operating here in Munich. I was required to actively demonstrate my multiple client status rather than be passive and wait for a letter from the tax man.

The support comes in various guises. But my experience of the local tax office has been the polar opposite of HMRC. In fact last year a US company tried to charge me something I had not received an invoice for or ordered. I refused to pay until I had. Turned out the invoice was lost in the post. The local court received a case against me from this company, PTC, you bas£$%£Ds. The court called me on the phone, chap spoke excellent English, got a handle of the situation then passed me onto a local lawyer who deals with such cases, took charge of the whole thing and I received an apology from the US company about a month later. My involvement was next to nil and I paid nothing for this support.

[scooterscot]

With those conditions, another alternative would be for at least three IT consultants to club together as directors of the same service company and each undertake contracts as before through that company, so each can justly claim they have at least three clients at a time.

I suppose the only potential snag is the decision to take a dividend, and the dividend amounts if the income bought in by directors is not equal, unless their share proportions are constantly juggled to allow unequal dividend payments.

I've never understood why folks think they need a Ltd company in the EU.

[vetran]

So have I, and so have most freelancers here, but the misleading bit in the story is that it looks like that's the main criteria; it isn't, there are lots more and there's also the rather subjective judgment of a tax official (who are well known for not knowing what they're doing over here), and of course politics. All this has bugger all to do with 'fake freelancers', but a lot to do with an indebted, unsustainable, bloated government that is scratching around for money anywhere it thinks it can find it.

so just like Britain then!


I wish they would make it a simple checklist that we could all follow.

[Bunk]

I've never understood why folks think they need a Ltd company in the EU.

What's your liability as a freelancer in Germany? Are there any requirements to have insurance in place (professional indemnity, public liability)?

[Mich the Tester]

so just like Britain then!


I wish they would make it a simple checklist that we could all follow.

I wish they could just fook off, leave us alone and stop overspending.

[scooterscot]

What's your liability as a freelancer in Germany? Are there any requirements to have insurance in place (professional indemnity, public liability)?

Liability is agreed upon in my contract with the client.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[norrahe]

I've never understood why folks think they need a Ltd company in the EU.

I have a B.V simply due to the fact I have the 30% ruling otherwise I would lose the ruling if it takes me longer than 3 months to find a new contract.

Also for my specialization it's difficult to work on several clients at once or due to duration in one year, but effectively I'm only there for the duration of a project.

[Zero Liability]

I wish they could just fook off, leave us alone and stop overspending.

Couldn't agree more. They overspend then make it look like it's us to blame and who isn't paying 'enough' tax.

The below is a good example of simply assuming the validity of the tax measure in question:

Scrapping IR35 all very well

[Mich the Tester]

Couldn't agree more. They overspend then make it look like it's us to blame and who isn't paying 'enough' tax.

The below is a good example of simply assuming the validity of the tax measure in question:

Scrapping IR35 all very well

Trouble is, the politicians and civil servants won't fook off and get out of the way, because seemingly all of us bang our fists on the table and demand the government does something about summat or other.

The lefties demand that the government does something about poverty, or other people earning 'too much', so the government spends money on keeping poor people housed and few and wastes time on tulip like IR35 and other complex tax legislation, all the while stifling any initiative that might let poor people climb the ladder. The righties complain about the immigrants and the gypsies and the benefit scroungers, so the government spends money on extra border controls, visa officials, ID card schemes and the like, all the while failing to actually deal with the causes of poverty, the consequences of migration or plan for inevitable future migration. Either way, government just keeps growing and becoming more bloated and indebted. I'm not saying we should get rid of government altogether and move to anarchy, but maybe we need constitutional limits on the numder of people employed in government and the percentage of GDP that government may spend. Keynes would apparently have chosen 25% as a limit. Otherwise, perhaps we all have to demand a bit less of our government and sort our own bloody lives out.