New Zealand resident working freelance in Germany

Hi,

I'm over here for 10-11 months having a bit of a working holiday. I'm a freelancer and a tax resident of New Zealand. I'm currently doing work for some german companies and was planning that I'd pay tax in New Zealand. NZ has some kind of taxation-agreement with Germany.

I'll arrange to speak to an accountant here and I'll ask my accountant in NZ - but should I expect to be able to pay my tax only in New Zealand ?

Or - because I am resident in Germany and staying for more than 6 months do I need to register as a freelancer here?

I didn't realise it was so complex.

Ben

Hey there,

I'm a kiwi and did some freelancing here at one point. The company I worked for agreed to simply wire the money direct back to my NZ bank account and we didn't deal with any tax obligations here. This could have been a special case, and I'm not entirely sure it was legit.. so yeah.. sorry.. I'm not much help am I ?!
I do remember seeing somewhere that if you work here for under 3months (just like UK consultants do sometimes), your not bound by German tax laws.. but you'll have to check that.
Sorry I couldn't be more help,

Howard

If you are working in Germany for longer than six months, your residency for tax purposes becomes Germany. This means that you are obligated to pay German taxes, whether you receive the money in Germany or they wire it to a bank account in NZ. If NZ has a double-tax agreement with Germany, any taxes you might have owed in NZ will be offset by what you paid in Germany.

Of course, you can always try to fly under the radar, but most people that are going to be paying you will want your German tax ID number for their accounting and tax purposes.

Couple of relevant threads here:

Freelancing in Germany - taxes / law / insurance

Taxes and the freelancer in Germany