
Ask HN: Working for a German Company, Living in France - stormwatcher
Hi all,
I work for a German company and currently live in Frankfurt.
Last week, my employer told me I can have full remote if I want it either as a fulltime employee or a freelancer.<p>Before I investigate the Freelance option I want to see if the fte status is even an option.<p>Can I be a fte for a German company (the company doesn&#x27;t have any affiliates in France) without having a TAX ID &#x2F; Residency in Germany?<p>(I obviously have a german tax id NOW but I will probably lose it upon leaving the country, I reckon)<p>Thank you all.
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romanovcode
Assuming German company won't have branches in France you will have to
register as a freelancer/self-employed in France anyway to pay taxes in France
(If you are to become Tax Resident of France).

Also note that first 6 months of officially moving out of Germany you are non-
tax-resident of any country if you are self-employed and can pay 0 tax if you
do everything correctly.

Regarding choice between fulltime or freelance contract - this is where you
need to check pros and cons. As a freelancer contract you should take more
money because it involves more risks (in Germany if you are contractor they
can fire you with a moments notice, if you are full-time employee it gets much
more complicated to fire people)

Unfortunately you cannot just go to tax authority at the end of the year and
say "I got this money, now I want to pay tax on it".

TL;DR; Pay tax advisor (good one) in France for an in-depth consultation if
you are serious about this, it will be worth the money.

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stormwatcher
Coming back to what @BjoernKW mentioned about "frontier-workers". Are you
saying that all those people that hop over the borders for work have to
register themselves as freelance/self-employed workers in their country of
residence ?

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BjoernKW
Yes, that's possible.

Technically, you're in the same situation as workers who live near the border
and commute to another country every day.

You'd be liable to pay income tax in France.

~~~
stormwatcher
good point - "frontier-workers" are in the exact same legal situation as I am,
I guess. Do you, by chance, know of any German governmental institute that can
help me with the legal things surrounding such a move ?

~~~
BjoernKW
German authorities unfortunately usually are of little help, especially in
situations other than the default case. They usually also don't speak
languages other than German - neither English nor French (which might or might
not be relevant in your case).

I'd suggest talking to a registered accountant / tax counsellor
("Steuerberater" in German) instead.

~~~
thiago_fm
Yes, just get a good Steuerberater, try to find one that knows this stuff. You
can also try to find people who do similar things and ask for their
Steuerberater.

