Entrepreneurship
Signs of entrepreneurship include:
- you acquire your tools and a place of work yourself
- you define your working hours
- compensation for your work is paid according to the work result or invoicing
- you pay for your pension and insurance cover.
In addition, self-employed and light entrepreneurs are entrepreneurs.
If you sell your work as an independent entrepreneur, the company or other customer ordering your work will not lead and supervise your work.
As an entrepreneur, you may have a trade name or you act as a trader. You may also be a freelancer or act through a company/enterprise. If you are an entrepreneur, you must pay a self-employed person’s pension premium (YEL) and your other insurance policies.
If your work has all the characteristics of an employment relationship, you are an employee, even if you have agreed on something else. For more information, read the
Platform work section.
Freelancers
If you are a freelancer, you can work for one or more companies or other customers providing work at the same time. As a freelancer, you can either be an entrepreneur or an employee, or you can receive so-called work compensations.
When you work as a freelancer, you will enter into a commission agreement with the client. It must be written in the agreement whether a fixed-term employment relationship or a commission to the entrepreneur is agreed upon.
Compensation for work
The work compensation does not include a salary. It is a compensation. This means that the work provider pays a tax on your work compensation, determined by your tax deduction card, like on a salary, but it is not necessary to pay employment pension insurance or other social security contributions on the work compensation.
If your estimated work compensation income per year exceeds a certain amount (EUR 8,261.71 in 2022), you must acquire an enterpriser’s pension insurance or YEL insurance.
If you receive compensation for work, you will not be governed by labour laws. As the recipient of work compensation, you have the same legal status as an entrepreneur.