how to register company / freelancer in Finland

[cors187]

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[cors187]

Hi All ,


3. can i apply as a freelancer as i heard it also an option in finland


please help me on urgent bases

Basically if your happy with 10euro netto in your pocket , just add the taxcard(vero%) for the 10euro + 32.5% and thats just under what the employer would be paying an employee.

[Pursuivant]

Well, yeah. But as they deduct the taxes, pay the contributions etc and give you the payslip, they are the "employer" if the tax office is asked. Works more or less the same as the Umbrella companies I've worked through in the UK... Reading the FAQ.. Yup, liability insurance and all (except for north america)... Looks more or less what I'd go with.

[knight_travis]

I'm so glad I found this thread

For the past 3 weeks, I've been in contact with a so-called IT recruitment company

The saw my resume online, and offered me a seemingly good salary, working as a contractor for a Helsinki-based company

Nothing wrong so far; this was not the first time I'd been contacted in this way, and offered the chance to work as a contractor/freelancer.

The interview was conducted first by phone.........then via skype.

All went well. And I was selected for the job.

However, this time, something was different :

(a) they immediately demanded that I put in my notice at my current job, because the client would require that I start work immediately. I told them that : (1) my current job is a full-time, permanent job, and I've been here for 7 years. Hence, I need a notice period of at least 4 weeks (2) Nobody in their right mind would QUIT their current job without first signing and closing a job-contract with a new employer !

(b) after we got that out of the way, the next surprise came as such : can you set up your own company? Or, would you like to work under an "umbrella" company, which would handle all your paperwork, including taxes?


From what I gathered from other forums, an umbrella company would deduct at least a 50% tax from your wages.

Hence, the viable option would be to set-up one's own company

And this is where I became skeptical. As I mentioned earlier, I have been offered jobs as a contractor before. But, those companies always made it clear that : they would be invoiced by the client/employer, and from there I get my wages. None of them have ever required me to set up my own company to work as a contractor.

This thread certainly explains a lot. For some reason, they are pushing me to set up my own company, so I can work for................WHO? Them? Myself? The client?

Me no get.

[knight_travis]

The saw my resume online, and offered me a seemingly good salary
...
the next surprise came as such : can you set up your own company?
...
Me no get.

If it were me, and if I wanted to go through all the CRAP involved, I would counter offer to take the job on a salary that's higher.

The salary no longer looks correct once you realise how much work and money will be on your end before you even do your first five minutes of work for them.

I already thought of that, actually. Seems the best way to go.

If they refuse, then something is definitely fishy

[harryc]

From what I gathered from other forums, an umbrella company would deduct at least a 50% tax from your wages.

This is only a 'cash-in-hand' question - the FINAL amount of tax will be the SAME regardless of withholding tax amount.

[cors187]

how to register company

The employer can cut costs a little by using a sub contractor.

Tax doesnt have to be the same , i think some smarty already mentioned about replacing some of your in pocket costs with genuine tax deductibles if your a contractor.
Some people here spend years never getting the chance to break out on their own, while others do but dont look at the perspective and how its a chance to move up the food chain.

[harryc]

Tax doesnt have to be the same , i think some smarty already mentioned about replacing some of your in pocket costs with genuine tax deductibles if your a contractor.

Sorry I didn't mean to say that tax would be the same depending on whether you were a company or salaried.

I only meant that if you are salaried - and additional salary is subject to 50% - that the FINAL amount of tax will be the same. So one shouldn't be necessarily scared off by the 50%.

[GermanInHelsinki]

Harry is of course wrong, 50% is of course a realistic deduction.

The deduction is of course similar when using an own company, everyone who has ever employed a person does of course know that the cost of an employee is approximately twice the money the employee gets on his bank account.

If you know FInnish bookkeeping well enough for doing it yourself you can of course save some money.

A recruiter who wants you to first quit your job and tells you later that the new job is only a freelance opportunity is of course so fishy that no intelligent person would continue talking with him.

[harryc]

C'mon - I just said it doesn't necessarily mean you pay 50%!! It can be - but is totally dependent on total tax return where there are deductions, etc. It is also of course VERY much dependent on one's own tax bracket. For ordinary slobs, it's very likely that extra income will not FINALLY be at 50% rate. The same 50% covers 1 percenters and the rest of us.

[cors187]

The saw my resume online, and offered me a seemingly good salary
...
the next surprise came as such : can you set up your own company?
...
Me no get.

If it were me, and if I wanted to go through all the CRAP involved, I would counter offer to take the job on a salary that's higher.

The salary no longer looks correct once you realise how much work and money will be on your end before you even do your first five minutes of work for them.

I already thought of that, actually. Seems the best way to go.

If they refuse, then something is definitely fishy

Quitting your job first????
I dont actually see the reason why they would care what you are doing, you could be theoretically 1) working in your current job under employment contract , 2)Have a TMI and be operating that using yourself and other contractors , 3) own shares in an Oy company and option in to work for that company however you want.
You could be doing all 3 at the same time.

Your online persona was enough for them to offer you project discussions.
It could be that client contracts are ending and they are behind which means employment is a bad option .
Or they have some financial pressure s , or they have laid off other IT employees on the same project and cant employ anyone as anew employee.

[knight_travis]

Quitting your job first????
I dont actually see the reason why they would care what you are doing, you could be theoretically 1) working in your current job under employment contract , 2)Have a TMI and be operating that using yourself and other contractors , 3) own shares in an Oy company and option in to work for that company however you want.
You could be doing all 3 at the same time.

Your online persona was enough for them to offer you project discussions.
It could be that client contracts are ending and they are behind which means employment is a bad option .
Or they have some financial pressure s , or they have laid off other IT employees on the same project and cant employ anyone as anew employee.

Yes, Cors !! That was my point exactly.

Why should they care what I am doing right now, as long as I can do the job that they offer me?

The whole seemed too good to be true from the beginning............which is why I made it clear to them that I was NOT going to rush into this.

They seem desperate to get me on board. Which means, there's something they aren't telling me

Anyway, I sent them an email 2 days ago, in which I said

(a) I will NOT set up any company of any sort.

(b) they have two options, if they still want to hire me :

(1) I will keep my current job, and can work for them remotely;
(2) they can hire me as a full-time employee, but the salary would have to be WORTH it, for me to leave my current job.

(c) I will NOT put in my notice at my current job, until I have signed and sealed a contract with them, for the new job.


Needless to say, they have not replied yet

Can hardly wait to hear what they say when they do reply....................IF they reply

[Pursuivant]

The problem with that kind of a job - even if you get a contract is that the company buying the resource can then turn around and say "sorry we dont need any more the specialist for that job" and you pissed 7 years of a job into the wind for a couple weeks stint in some yes-man project.

Then again... You can get into a "small project ready before christmas", get hired by the vendor and thus have a " job" once the project actually ends a year later just no clue what the next project will be - but not my problem to pimp myself

[GermanInHelsinki]

Harry is of course wrong.

WIth an own company, of course you also have to deduct the employer social security contributions.

[cors187]

Quitting your job first????
I dont actually see the reason why they would care what you are doing, you could be theoretically 1) working in your current job under employment contract , 2)Have a TMI and be operating that using yourself and other contractors , 3) own shares in an Oy company and option in to work for that company however you want.
You could be doing all 3 at the same time.

Your online persona was enough for them to offer you project discussions.
It could be that client contracts are ending and they are behind which means employment is a bad option .
Or they have some financial pressure s , or they have laid off other IT employees on the same project and cant employ anyone as anew employee.

Yes, Cors !! That was my point exactly.

Why should they care what I am doing right now, as long as I can do the job that they offer me?

The whole seemed too good to be true from the beginning............which is why I made it clear to them that I was NOT going to rush into this.

They seem desperate to get me on board. Which means, there's something they aren't telling me

Anyway, I sent them an email 2 days ago, in which I said

(a) I will NOT set up any company of any sort.

(b) they have two options, if they still want to hire me :

(1) I will keep my current job, and can work for them remotely;
(2) they can hire me as a full-time employee, but the salary would have to be WORTH it, for me to leave my current job.

(c) I will NOT put in my notice at my current job, until I have signed and sealed a contract with them, for the new job.


Needless to say, they have not replied yet

Can hardly wait to hear what they say when they do reply....................IF they reply

Dont trust contracts, i think being employed by them is the wrong way.
You should go with eezy as another smarty suggested.
It covers their "own company option", it also allows you to still work for the old company.
After a few months or weeks of visual/monetary/predictable essentials , you can drop eesy on the head and pick up with your own company or opt out of the new business situation

These new employers might be suss the way they are going about things but you have the tools to protect yourself and the work you procure.