[layer8]

Yes and no. If the US company is not registered as an employer in Germany (basically, has a subsidiary in Germany), then you’re not an employee under the German law, which means that you have to work as a freelancer (self-employed, pay health insurance yourself, and so on), and the US company must thus be willing for you to work as a contractor instead of as an employee. At least that’s my understanding.

[littlecranky67]

Yes, and given that you will work as a freelancer for just a single company long-term, you will have to pay into mandatory social insurances as you are "arbeitnehmerähnlich Beschäftigt" (Arbeitslosenversicherung, Rentenversicherung, Krankenversicherung). Also note that you will have to pay both parts of the social insurance contributions (employer- and eyployee part). Assuming you are above the "Beitragsbemessungsgrenze" (~85.000€/year income), this amounts easily to 2.000€/month in social contributions (some of those are partly tax-deductable and I advice to get a tax accountant).

If you want to avoid paying into the mandatory social insurance, you must meet certain criteria to be considered truly self-employed. One way to achieve this is to not make more than 5/6 of your yearly income through one customer.

[rurban]

Contracting for the US gets you about 100-200k per year, so you certainly can afford the max. rates for healthcare and social insurance. I think I paid about 700/month healthcare which was max. and I certainly didn't pay any tax accountant. what I forgot was to pay into some kind of pension fund.

[matriguy]

Thank you, i am okay to pay the social security contribution( both employee and employer part) and yes it is more that 2000 Euros per month. However for this, do i need to inform the Finanzamt? or informing my insurance partner(TK) is sufficient? any other formalities i should do before picking up the job?

[rurban]

you have to register yourself at the finanzamt and ensure that you qualify as free, which is doing system IT Services, certainly not application iT services. because then you have to register as Gewerbe, and then you have to pay them the russian rates, about 30% or so. for this rate they will protect you. something like that.

TK is fine, I used them.

[matriguy]

what do you mean to "pay them the russian rates, about 30% or so". And why do i need to register as Finanzamt. My plan is to call TK and have direct debot from my account every month for Health insurance, Arbeitlos insurance, care insurance and pension insurance. This all comes more that 2000 Euros per month. And on top to file tax every quarter, for this my tax consultant will help. Also my wife is working with tax class 5, hence we will file the tax together. Any thing i am missing here in this plan?

[rurban]

yes, your initial taxid, classification and hence gewerbesteuer. that's the hard part.

the online tax filing via Elster can be done by yourself, yearly.

TK is trivial.

[matriguy]

My tax consultant said, as you are going it get a fixed income from US company, this will not be a "Freelancer" job. Hence no need to do any special registration with Finanzamt. All this is new for my tax consultant as well, may be he is wrong. Do you have any reference for tax consultant. happy to take help. or any content which explains the process, happy to read/watch?

[matriguy]

Hi littlecranky67, I will be paying Arbeitslosenversicherung, Rentenversicherung, Krankenversicherung both employee and employer part. Do i need to do any formality with Finanzamt? Currently i am already working with regular Germany company as an employee.