Will I have problems if I accept two job offers in two different EU countries? I am non-European and I have never lived in France. I recently got a job offer from a company in France and I signed it. A few weeks later, I received another job offer from a company in Germany. Being non-European, there is a risk of not obtaining the necessary papers in France since it has to be proved that I am the best candidate on the market (ie. no other EU citizen is fit for the job). So I thought about signing the German offer as well in order to have a plan B if things do not work out with France. My question is: by signing these two offers, will the two countries know that I have two ongoing visa/work-permit procedures at any given time? If yes, could this cause me problems? Thank you
As far as your visa is concerned, both, France and Germany are in the Schengen area, so a visa in one of those countries will give you access to both. As for as your work permit is concerned, at least in Germany you will need some participation of your new employer. They will have to prove that they can find nobody else in the EU. So they'll probably want you to sign the employment contract. As far as getting out of such a contract in Germany, you have to differentiate between a fixed-term contract (e.g. for 2 years) and an indefinite contract. Once you sign a fixed-term contract, it is difficult to get out of it before its normal end. Unlimited contracts in Germany usually come with a 6 month probation period, where both, the employer and employee can end the contract immediately. In this specific case you might be able to get out of the German contract. I don't know though if the employer would go through the trouble of obtaining a work permit for you without binding you for a fixed amount of time to them.
I was told that when you sign something in the UK, then it is your signature, no matter what name you are using. So if you sign a contract with my name, then it's your signature and you are bound by the contract. Things might be invalid because you signed and not me. For example, if you sign a contract selling my car in my name, then that contract is not valid. If some document needs signatures of two witnesses, and you sign with your name, then with my name, then there are no two signatures. As far as I know, signing under a false name is not in itself criminal, but might very well be supporting fraud, for example, and might therefore be illegal. The contract for the sale of my car, signed by you using my name, would very likely be part of fraud and therefore criminal.
The law of each country where you offer the app for download applies, and you have to consider: Privacy Policy (GDPR in EU, CCPA in California, APPI in Japan, LGPD in Brasil, and more - check each country to be on the safe side) Disclaimer versus AGB/Terms and Conditions (e.g. Germany), not required but recommended Impressum (Germany, Switzerland, Austria) Value Added Tax (VAT) which is taken care of e.g. by Google Play for most countries but not all (e.g. not for Japan) in case the app is not free Consumer Protection Law - applicable (and different) everywhere There might be more, but these are the important ones I am aware of.
Yes this is possible, no this is not simple. You are eligible to work as a Freelancer in Germany if you're from an EU/EEA member state. Your nationality is not relevant beyond that. When you start your freelancing, you must inform your employer/university. This is important for two reasons: you may not compete with your employer, and your effective tax rate depends on your predicted total income for the year, which they need in order to withhold the correct amount. (Don't worry, any discrepancies will be resolved with the tax declaration.) In Germany, self-employed work is either gewerblich or freiberuflich which has numerous consequences. This depends on the type of activity. Consulting and activities that require a completed 5-year diploma are generally freiberuflich. But e.g. software development has unclear status. This is ultimately the decision of the tax authority. You might have activities of both kind, but this complicates your accounting. When you start a gewerbliche activity you must register with the Gewerbeamt, and list your fields of activity. Make sure to register as a part-time freelancer, not full-time. In any case you must notify the tax authority through the Fragebogen zur steuerlichen Erfassung, which you should fill through the online Elster system. This will include your income projections and offers some important choices. If your income from freelancing is below a certain threshold, or if you are purely freiberuflich, your (now mandatory) tax declaration is simplified (EÜR). You will not have to do professional accounting. If your activities are gewerblich and your income is below a certain threshold, you do not have to pay business tax. Kleinunternehmer-Regelung: If your income is below a certain threshold, you can opt-out from collecting VAT within Germany. You can always give up Kleinunternehmer-status, but you can't easily return to it. Otherwise, you may request a VAT-ID (UstId). You will then have to regularly pay advance VAT, typically monthly. You can offset any VAT from business expenses that you paid. Tax rules are complex, and depend on the country where the service is rendered – generally, the location of your client. For your services in other countries, you may have to register in that country, or you may fall below their thresholds. The following cases can be discussed more specifically: You can only list VAT on your invoices if you have a VAT-ID. If you have a VAT-ID, you must collect VAT within Germany and for B2C sales within EU. For sales of digital items to consumers in other member states, you may have to use the MOSS system. For sales within the EU where both parties have a VAT-ID, the reverse-charge mechanism is used and the recipient is responsible for paying VAT. For sales in non-EU countries no VAT applies, but you have to follow the local rules. For sales in the US, the tax agreement between the US and Germany exempts professional services from US income tax as long as you perform the services remotely. You will have to send your client's accountants IRS form W8-BEN to document this. However, state-level taxes can still apply. For any income that you get, you should have issued an invoice. The exact details are documented elsewhere, but important aspects are: Your and your client's identity Your VAT number if you have one, your tax number otherwise (but not your personal tax-ID!) A sequential invoice number that will stay unique during your business, e.g. just count from 1 or restart yearly like 2019-1 A date VAT payment if you have a VAT ID, otherwise a notice why no VAT is due. In your tax declaration, you will list income from self-employed work separately from income from employed work, even though it is taxed together. You will have to prove your freelance income, generally through form EÜR. The tax authority may request your invoices and your bank statements and receipts for any expenses. It is therefore recommended but not necessary to open a separate account for your business activities. If you are freiberuflich then most banks welcome you, for gewerbliche activities only one or two banks offer free accounts. Besides tax issues, you must also consider health insurance and retirement plans. As long as your freelancing is only a side job (Nebenerwerb) this is fairly simple. You will have to inform your health insurance about your freelancing. They will need an income projection to calculate your premiums. If your total income fluctuates a lot, you should try to get your premiums calculated individually for each month. This generally doesn't matter if you have private health insurance as they use a flat rate. At this point it should be clear that freelancing is not necessarily trivial, mostly because VAT is a concern. You should therefore look for help: a tax advisor can help you navigate the German tax system, at least for your first tax declaration. dealing with tax issues might require professional help from an accountant, e.g. how to manage VAT and how to correctly apply a tax treaty. most universities have things like founder-workshops. While geared towards first-time full-time self-employed people or startups, there's still a lot of valuable information there.
Unfortunately, you are probably not entitled to the redundancy / severance money since you weren't technically ever made redundant / laid off - there was no point in time where you were willing and able to work where they refused you, and I presume you were paid for all time worked. If you're concerned that they only changed their tune because they knew you had a better job already lined up - well, you can call their bluff or just use it as a learning experience. In what jurisdiction do you work? If the US, you could call their bluff, say you'd rather stay and see what they do. You would then keep the option of simply walking away with your stuff in a box any time you felt like it (assuming at-will employment and no contracts that state otherwise).
There is no legislation in Germany that explicitly states how long you have to wait in such a situation. First let's look what happened: According to your work contract, you are obligated to be available for work and follow the directions of your employer. Let's not go into nuances of the latter duty, because they depend on what type of work you are doing. Your employer is obligated to pay you if you fulfill your duties. What happened is called Annahmeverzug (default of acceptance) in German civil law (§ 615 BGB): Kommt der Dienstberechtigte mit der Annahme der Dienste in Verzug, so kann der Verpflichtete für die infolge des Verzugs nicht geleisteten Dienste die vereinbarte Vergütung verlangen, ohne zur Nachleistung verpflichtet zu sein. Er muss sich jedoch den Wert desjenigen anrechnen lassen, was er infolge des Unterbleibens der Dienstleistung erspart oder durch anderweitige Verwendung seiner Dienste erwirbt oder zu erwerben böswillig unterlässt. … English translation: If the person entitled to services is in default in accepting the services, then the party owing the services may demand the agreed remuneration for the services not rendered as the result of the default without being obliged to provide cure. However, he must allow to be credited against him what he saves as a result of not performing the services or acquires or wilfully fails to acquire through use of his employment elsewhere. … If your employer doesn't enable you to work, they have to pay you for your time. You don't have to make up that time. If you save money by not working or had the opportunity to earn money by other means1 during that time, this can be deducted from your pay. Now, the question is how you fulfill your duty of being available for work. This depends on the specifics and really can only be answered by a lawyer or court (and IANAL). You do not need to endure hardships but have to accept reasonable inconveniences. Thus, you can leave if waiting becomes more than an inconvenience (usually that will be caused by weather or by bodily functions). If you leave, you should still be available for work unless that becomes unreasonable, e.g., because you could use that time to earn money by other means. 1 Usually, it can be safely assumed that you don't have that opportunity. However, a daytaler might easily have that opportunity.
People can take their personal cars through the Channel Tunnel from Great Britain to France. They don't actually drive their cars through the tunnel, but going by car is a perfectly normal way to travel between those two countries. That's probably the most well-known place where drivers will switch from driving on one side of the road to the other, but there are many more . If driving with a car with the wheel on the "wrong" side were forbidden, these options would not exist, because at least one direction of travel would not work. Now, of course, that doesn't mean a country like Belgium, which does not have to direct way to Britain, couldn't forbid cars with the steering wheel on the right. But at least for EU states, that seems to be forbidden, as Poland and Lithuania learned when they tried to require cars that were to be registered there to have the steering wheel repositioned to the left Consequently, the Court holds that the position of the driver’s seat, an integral part of the steering equipment of a vehicle, comes within the harmonisation established by Directives 2007/46 and 70/311, so that, in the context of the registration of a new vehicle in their territory, the Member States may not require, for reasons of safety, that the driver’s seat of that vehicle be moved to the side opposite the direction of the traffic. It notes in that regard that the legislation at issue provides for exceptions with regard to the use of vehicles equipped with a steering-wheel on the right by people who reside in other Member States, and travel to Poland and Lithuania for a limited period (for example, tourists). That fact shows, according to the Court, that the contested legislation tolerates the risk involved in such use. So even those countries that tried to ensure that registered cars had the steering wheel on the "right" side made provisions for cars that were just traveling through. And the EU does not consider it a valid law to require wheels to be repositioned.
I'm not aware of any cases on point, but as a rule legal fig-leaves don't play well in court. If the webmaster simply puts up a banner saying that EU residents are not permitted but takes no other action to exclude them, then that is going to be considered irrelevant. The webmaster is still very likely required to comply with the GDPR. On the other hand if the webmaster takes other steps to exclude EU residents, such as using a geolocation service to block connections known to be in the EU, validating email addresses and blocking those from EU domains, and ejecting anyone who mentions that their residence is in the EU, then that is more likely to be seen as a good-faith attempt to avoid being subject to the GDPR. It will also have the practical effect of greatly reducing the number of actual EU residents. All these controls can be evaded, but it would be much harder for any data subjects to claim that they acted in good faith or that the webmaster acted in bad faith. Note that validating an email address or logging an IP is itself processing of personal data, so anyone implementing such a system still can't ignore the GDPR completely, but it would greatly limit the scope and make it easy to delete any such data after a short time. (Note: the term &quot;EU resident&quot; above is an approximation of the territorial scope).