Hello All,

I read somewhere these are 2 different things. I thought otherwise.

Can the fourm throw some light on some of my question?

1. Freelancer vs. self-employed what kind of visa is needed for either of them and which is easier to get.
2. Is there a restriction on the type of work done?
3. Which option is financially better?
4. Which is the easier to handle (with minimum interactions with various govt departments)

Hope to hear from you experienced people here.

Regards
Kumar

Hi Kumar,

a 'Freiberufler' is for example a doctor, a tax adviser a lawyer. A normal 'Selbständiger' has to follow the 'Gewerbeordnung' a 'Freiberufler' not. If you can read German, here is an interesting article about this:

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freiberufler

If you want to know if you can get the 'Freiberufler' status as a software engineer, you should ask your tax consultant.

Viele Grüße aus Berlin
Detlef :-)

Hello, thank you for your patience in answing me. So there is only a subtle difference between the two. Mostly the tax consultant will argue with the finance amt if they think one is applying under the wrong category. For the visa point of view, are these two just the same? I mean with EG can I be either a Freiberufler or Selbständiger?

yes, that's right. EG = Erwerbstätigkeit gestattet is good for both.