Self-employment (not entrepreneurship)

[delfinn]

Hei kaikki,

I am writing to get some information about self-employment in Finland:

I am a French citizen, who spent the last 2 years in Spain, and relocated to Finland 2 months ago for personal reasons. I used to have my permanent residence in Barcelona, and now have a temporary residence in Helsinki.

I am a PhD student at one of the universities of Barcelona, and would like to do some punctual works for various research groups in Barcelona, from my new home in Helsinki. They ask me to be registered as self-employed in order to be given a short-term contract and be paid (note that I have never been registered as a self-employed worker before, in any country).

As I now live in Finland, I would like to get registered as a self-employed worker here, and I would like to know if it is possible and how to proceed. It would be only to carry out short-term and punctual research works, and not to start a company and have an 'important' economic activity.

Thank you in advance for your answer,

Terveisin,
d.

[Pursuivant]

Well it *is* entrepeneurship, no matter how you wiggle around it. So look up all the threeads here of "starting a business", basically you need to establish a toiminimi which is a piece of cake. The thing that can come bite you in the ass is taxes, so thats why you should be aware of the taxation and such rules - if your income is under 8500 a year you don't have to worry much about insurances and such, only snag is if your work(services) is charging VAT it might be a bit tricky.

[rinso]

https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=f ... =off&cad=h

[Rosamunda]

If you invoice less than 8500e in any 12 month period you don't need to worry about VAT. However, insurance contributions aren't optional but there is a reduced rate for the first 3 years of a toiminimi.

It's all on here, plug toiminimi into the seacrch engine, or if you are in Helsinki sign up for one of the (free) courses run by
http://www.yrityssuomi.fi/default.aspx? ... l/page.lsp

If you have any really specific questions after reading through all that then feel free to post them on here. It is MUCH MUCH easier to set yourself up as a sole-trader here than in France!

[MovingToFinland]

Visit In To Finland servicepoint (www.intofinland.fi. They can help you with taxation question and also establishing a business in Finland.