Working as a tmi in Finland with a US client

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jperickson
Posts: 51
Joined: Mon Dec 07, 2020 4:58 pm
Location: Finland

Working as a tmi in Finland with a US client

Post by jperickson » Sun Feb 28, 2021 10:42 pm

Hello,

I will soon be setting up a tmi in Finland. My only client (initially) with be an American company. Two questions come to mind:

1. Do I have to charge VAT when invoicing in this client? I have been told on this forum previously that I do not, but if anyone has a link to documentation explaining this, I would appreciate it.

2. My US client insists that they need to pay me in USD and to an American bank account. As I have a personal bank account in the US, I'm wondering if it is legal and advisable to allow them to pay my personal account in the US and then transfer the funds to my tmi bank account in Finland. I understand that the currency and location of the payments has no effect on the source of the income (it is Finnish-sourced income as I am working in Finland), but I'm wondering if there might be any other problems with this setup, especially as the American account is personal and not "owned" by my tmi.

Any answers or advice is appreciated. Thank you!



Working as a tmi in Finland with a US client

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betelgeuse
Posts: 4353
Joined: Thu Aug 29, 2013 1:24 am

Re: Working as a tmi in Finland with a US client

Post by betelgeuse » Sun Feb 28, 2021 11:20 pm

jperickson wrote:
Sun Feb 28, 2021 10:42 pm
Hello,

I will soon be setting up a tmi in Finland. My only client (initially) with be an American company. Two questions come to mind:

1. Do I have to charge VAT when invoicing in this client? I have been told on this forum previously that I do not, but if anyone has a link to documentation explaining this, I would appreciate it.
https://www.vero.fi/en/detailed-guidanc ... -operators
jperickson wrote:
Sun Feb 28, 2021 10:42 pm
2. My US client insists that they need to pay me in USD and to an American bank account. As I have a personal bank account in the US, I'm wondering if it is legal and advisable to allow them to pay my personal account in the US and then transfer the funds to my tmi bank account in Finland. I understand that the currency and location of the payments has no effect on the source of the income (it is Finnish-sourced income as I am working in Finland), but I'm wondering if there might be any other problems with this setup, especially as the American account is personal and not "owned" by my tmi.
You could open a personal US account just for this purpose. If there's other activity in the account the noise will complicate accounting.

jperickson
Posts: 51
Joined: Mon Dec 07, 2020 4:58 pm
Location: Finland

Re: Working as a tmi in Finland with a US client

Post by jperickson » Wed Mar 03, 2021 10:35 pm

Thank you for the link. After reading these guidelines, my understanding is that because I am selling a service to a business operator in the US, under the General Provision, the country of supply is actually the US and therefore subjected to American regulation in this regard. And as the US does not have VAT, I therefore do not need to charge it. Is that also your reading?


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