Work Permit confusion - €400 internship

Hello everyone!!
I have been in munich since end of february and in april got my permit to stay which they said is good for a year. now i have the questions of work coming up. i am also aware of other posts here on this topic but unfortunately they weren't exactly clear. so i thought i'd post again. any help would be great!!

i have an american passport, and i am starting a job/ineternship. it is somewhat unofficial since i got it through a friend. for four days a week i go and help out with office duties and also PR at an art foundation/gallery. i am getting a small pay monthly but for now the work is inetersting and the experience is very useful. so, the owner wants it to be "official" (i assume it works great for his taxes later) and says i must give him an "invoice" every month to get paid. which is what most germans do. he also mentioned that under 400 euro monthly qualifies as an internship and i do not get taxed. i could technically get an internship permit, BUT, sometimes i may do additional projects for his aquaintances, galleries etc., so my pay MAY on some months go over 400. but there's no way of telling ahead of time.
so my concerns i guess, are:
what kind of permit to get?
how do i recieve pay for other projects since they will NOT be from my actual employer? (as i am sure they will want it official for their records)
should i and can i qualify all this as freelance work?
IT IS A BIT LENGTHY, BUT AN ADVICE IS VERY APRECIATED!!

DANKE!

Well, I am not sure. I am sure other TTers will help you. However, just wanted to refer you to this website.

Xargy

In order for you to issue an invoice you need to be incorporated, you need to have your own company here in Germany or in the States.

You will also have to get a work permit for an internship ... this is done through KVR (where you applied for a residence permit).

You may have problems in getting a freelance permit, given the area of work your in. Seems these days with the unemployment rate so high, the Arbeitsamt isn't so generous in handing out permits.

Best bet, talk with someone at the KVR or have your employer consult with a lawyer.

Good luck though ...

interesting how companies are making use of "internship" to make you work loads and receive peanuts as pay here! internship should really be for students. i know that as a student, you can get internship that pays around 1200 Euro even, AND you do NOT get taxed!


interesting link there!

I am still on my working papers but only as a freelance worker, however, pretty soon you will have to show proof of medical insurance. If you stay within the 400 euros, which is called a mini job, you will be able to obtain the medical insurance through the state. However, if you earn more than the 400 euros, this will disqualify you from this plan and you will be forced to obtain your own medical insurance. Yes, you can produce an invoice as I do myself for my job as freelance, however, if you do fill out an invoice you then will be required to have a tax number. So there please be careful because your job won`t require you to pay taxes if you stay below a certain figure. Now you will have to go to the Arbeitsamt to apply for this medical insurace within this mini job. But the Arbeitsamt will give you a real hassel if your working papers do not clearly specify that you are not taking a job away from a German. Have your employer put somewhere on your working papers that you were needed to fill this job that you are going to do because you are a native speaker of English and this was one of the requirements to perform this job. Otherwise the Arbeitsamt will tell you that you took a job away from a German person and with the unemployment rate so high now you are not allowed to do this, but by being a native speaker for this job this would not be a requirement to one of them, and this will clear you for the insurance to go through.

Thank you for all the suggestions!!
@ Marilyn, I already get medical insuarance through my boyfriend's job in the IT industry. as far as i know, my own "little job" will not affect my standing with this insuarance. TAHNX though!

@peach

just curious: How can you get medical insurance through your boy-friend's job?
I thought this only works for married couples, not for couples that are "only" cohabitating.

I pay my summer intern, an Electrical Engineering student at Stanford, Raghu, $3000 a month. When goes to Starbucks to get my morning coffee I let him order something for himself and I pay for it. How do you eat on 400EUR a month?

I couldn't find work for SIX MONTHS in the winter (and I have a degree and will do about anything), so how do you eat on 400 Euros a month? easy, live off of the 1,000 Eur a month you made for the other 6 months of the year...just a thought.

By not going to Starbucks to eat. I live of far less than that per month...you live to your income.

Can I be your intern when you come to Munich? I work for 2900 $ a month, so your company saves 100 $. And I pay for my coffee myself. I will also clean your shoes if you want, and I say that I am an Electrical Engineering student at Stanford. Please!!!

@tom a
sorry for posting misleading informataion! you are right, i can NOT get insuarance through my boyfriend's work since we aren't married. we pay for private, i have no idea why the hell i wrote that
and as far as living off 400 euros a month, i don't...i mean i would never have taken this internship if i was totally on my own having only 400 euros monthly. the boyfriend is my little savior for now.
but also on the other hand, if i stick it out, with this internship, it can grow into something more substantial in the next few months. i am just confused what permit to get, if i might not only intern for him, but also do other little projects on the side for extra money? i mean i guess i should really explore this freelance deal as someone already mentioned...

Hi persik,

What sort of residence permit you have then now? Is there any restriction for job?

In order to issue an invoice to your employer, or to be more precise, to your client you should register at Finanzamt as a Freiberufler, i.e. freelancer. You'll get your tax number, Steuernummer, which you have to state on your invoices. The whole procedure takes no more than twenty minutes, and they should be able to tell you the Steuernummer straight away. At least how it was in my case, in Berlin, and I don't think this is much different here.

All these again is possible if you don't have any restrictions. At least you could try to ask, it doesn't cost anything. Finanzamt Service Center in Munich

As to the insurance I find it the most unpleasant thing here in Germany, but I'm afraid if you start out freelancing you have to have insurance by your own. I find it annoying as I'm not very often sick (so far .

hi, i have the regular aufenhaltserlaubnis, sorry i don't know really what's regular, what's not, i just know i have it for a year.
i know this may perhaps sound silly, but do they have any sort of service in english, or anyone speaking it? what's your experience? my (german) boyfriend who i came here with is never around and my german is quite poor...just wondering.
THANX!!

You mean my experience with Finanzamt in English? Well I took a friend of mine with me there, becuase it was in East Berlin and they didn't speak any English for sure.

I think that they might speak some English here, because after being in Munich 5 weeks my general impression is that here people are more friendly and do speak other languages. I might be wrong of course.

My German is also very far from perfect, but I can try to help, if you want. The main thing to find out now is whether you can work as a self-employed. I've seen here somewere that people were saying this being clearly written in their residence permits.

I suspect that people at the Finanzamt are not usually very proficient in English, because their work-force is rather "domestically oriented" (apart from dealing with foreigners residing in Bavaria, most of which speak Turkish, Croat, Polish, Russian, etc., i.e. in most cases not English). But then, that's only my guess, and I might well be underestimating them. It's probably safer if you bring somebody along who speaks reasonable German, though.