@cpruijsen

While his type of question has been asked before, please bear with me as the existing threads don’t match/answer my questions.

tl;dr

German citizen working as a consultant for a US startup and moving perpetually every < 3months.

• (Where) Do I pay taxes when I technically don’t have a residence?
• Is it allowed by European/German law to not have a residence?
• Are there countries where you can get a residence w/o staying 6 month/year or large investments, that do not tax non-remitted foreign-sourced income?
• Can you recommend a good European/German tax advisor who could give a professional opinion?
• Do I need to start a company to invoice an US company for consultancy work?

less short version:

Inspired by this community & @levelsio, I’m in the process of becoming a digital nomad myself. The one issue that is currently blocking me is sorting out what the best way to handle taxes is. I’ve been offered a job by a US startup, they want to hire me as a remote consultant (contractor). I’m not limited to a location and free to move where/as often as I want.

As the German tax authorities are known for not joking around, I want to make sure I handle the tax issue correctly. My research so far leads me to believe that as long as I don’t own any property in Germany or do any business there, I should be fine with not paying taxes there. Switching countries at least once every three months also should be sufficient to not create any tax obligations in the respecitive countries.

While in theory this sounds like you don’t have to have a residence anywhere and are not obliged to pay taxes, I have a hard time believing that this is not covered by International/European/German law. Did anyone (ideally European/German citizen) consult a tax advisor / lawyer on this and can give an educated answer to this? I’d also be thankful for recommendations for good tax advisors specialized on this topic.

Last but not least, as I haven’t freelanced before: Do I need to start a company to be able to invoice the US company for my consultancy work or could I just do this as an individual?

Sorry for this rather long post, thanks to everyone who’ll take the time to answer <3