As of: January 30, 2024, 3:42 p.m
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If you become self-employed alongside your main job, you will have opportunities - but also stumbling blocks.
We clarify the most important points.
Want to earn something extra in addition to your normal job, in which you ideally receive an inflation bonus?
Sounds great, but it's not as easy as you might imagine.
Various rules and laws must be followed if you are employed and also want to work independently.
This applies to freelancers as well as to business owners.
But that's where the confusion often begins: What do these terms mean and which category do they fall into?
Tradesmen, freelancers and freelancers: what's the difference?
When it comes to self-employed people, German law primarily distinguishes between two large groups: traders and freelancers.
The difference lies in the type of work carried out on a self-employed basis.
If the self-employed person trades in goods, for example by selling handicrafts on Etsy or Ebay, then this is a business for which a trade license is required.
In addition, traders have to pay trade tax.
The path to self-employment needs to be carefully considered - even if it is only a part-time activity.
© Imago
According to the financial website
Mlp.de,
the main difference to freelancers is that they work in the so-called freelance professions in which there is no exchange of goods.
This means that no business has to be registered and often no trade tax has to be paid.
These professional groups include, for example, journalists, consultants, architects, therapists, authors and doctors.
A third term that is used when it comes to self-employment is that of freelancer.
In the German-speaking world, the word is often used as a synonym for or as an English version of freelancer.
But it actually means people who work as freelancers for fewer companies or projects over a longer period of time and do not have many different short-term clients like freelancers.
Self-employed alongside the main job: Do I have to inform the employer?
By law, employees are initially not obliged to inform the employer about part-time self-employment.
Article 12 of the Basic Law regulates that every professional in Germany has a free choice of career.
According to
Gruenderlexikon.de
, it is still common practice for many employers to regulate any secondary activities in the employment contract.
In most cases, such a project may require the consent of the employer, who can also say no to it - but only for very specific reasons.
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If it is completely forbidden in the employment contract to carry out a part-time job, then this is an illegality.
Employers cannot prohibit employees from being self-employed alongside their main job.
However, according to Ihk-muenchen.de,
you can
set the rules so that your main job must not suffer or compete with it.
For example, if you work as a permanent editor at a newspaper, you cannot write for a competing newspaper as a freelancer.
Registering for self-employment: The first steps into business or additional income
If you want to become self-employed alongside your main job, where you can, under certain circumstances, fight for better pay with a strike, you can't just start like that.
First of all, a few visits to the authorities or online registrations are necessary before you can get started.
This also includes informing the responsible tax office that you will be carrying out a secondary activity in the future.
The easiest way to do this is via the online portal
“Mein Elster”
, where you can report your self-employment using a questionnaire.
Insurance companies and authorities: Who else needs to know
If in doubt, the insurance companies must also know about part-time self-employment.
Health and nursing care insurance is mandatory in Germany if you are employed.
However, as soon as self-employment becomes financially predominant, i.e. becomes your main job, you have to take out health insurance yourself because your employer no longer covers it.
Then, as a self-employed person, you have to voluntarily register with a health insurance company.
If you don't do this, you will end up accumulating premium debts and will have difficulties later if you want to be accepted into insurance again.
According to Informationsportal.de,
it is also
important for pension and unemployment insurance to know when the secondary employment is no longer minor.
Then you are officially considered self-employed full-time and have to submit an application here in order to be able to pay in voluntarily.
Depending on your professional field, you may also need additional permits or have to register with a chamber such as the Chamber of Crafts or the Bar Association if you carry out such an activity alongside your main job.