How to become a freelancer?

How do you become a freelancer in Portugal?

• What are the steps? What is important to know? How high are the taxes, health insurance and other costs? Are there any fix-costs (if no revenues are generated for example)? Background: EU-citizen, Student

• Answer:

  Hello, If you are a foreign, you must have an "Autorização de Residencia" or "Autorização de Permanencia" that allows you to work legally. After that you must register yourself with "Finanças" to get your VAT Number. And be prepared to pay a lot of taxes every month... 1) You will have to pay to "Segurança Social" (retirement and public health insurance) around 180 Euros minimum. (it is mandatory) 2) You will pay 23% of everything directly to "IVA" (VAT tax). If you make less than 10.000 Euros per year you can ask to not have this tax... 3) At the end of the year, you will make your IRS and pay more.... If you are a student and want to do some freelancer, but not a lot, many times it is not worth... It is better not to work.... I have a friend who wanted to do little freelancer jobs, but he was receiving only 250 Euros and paying 180 Euros and keeping only 70 Euros.... So, he quit... The IRS can be from 0 to 45%. It depends on your incoming. You can check the oficial page here: http://dre.pt/pdf2sdip/2014/01/010000001/0000200004.pdf Portugal is a beautiful and wonderful country with great people, one of the best in the world to live. However, we have the worse politicians in the world. They make laws that make no sense...