How to legally work with foreign customers if you are a freelancer

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The difficulty of a freelancer's work is that you yourself have to understand all the nuances of the activity. A freelancer is not only his own boss, but also his own accountant and his own lawyer. It becomes especially difficult when you have grown to a foreign customer. For such cases, the tips from this post come in handy.

Knowledge of foreign languages, which today you will not surprise any freelancer, allows you to start working with foreign customers almost from the first days of a free flight. What to say about those who work and travel. But, drawing up papers and documents, you can forget that you are, in fact, a developer. Dealing with banks and not losing either money or time is quite realistic if two conditions are met: legalize the business and find a bank that works according to modern standards.

We register an individual entrepreneur

Working as an individual is probably more familiar. Opening an individual entrepreneur implies fiddling with documents, annual tax reporting and the payment of compulsory social contributions. But, if you work with foreign partners, an account opened for an individual can bring much more difficulties than an account of an individual entrepreneur.

Firstly, the bank always sees funds that have come to your account from abroad. Regular donations from organizations can attract attention and you could be suspected of illegal business.

Secondly, if you spend a lot of time abroad, your income tax can grow from 13% of income to 35% - if you are recognized as a non-resident of the Russian Federation. An individual entrepreneur does not have such a question, and according to the simplified taxation system, only 6% of income will have to be paid.

Thirdly, legalization will also help in working with customers within the country. Contractual relations with individual entrepreneurs may be simpler, since the customer will not act as a tax agent. And the reputation of a freelancer working officially will be more reliable.

Opening an account with a Russian bank

For operations with currency, you need to open two accounts for an individual entrepreneur in a Russian bank. Why not in a foreign language? Because foreign exchange transactions with foreign accounts of individual entrepreneurs can only be carried out in a limited amount. By the way, individuals too. And any transactions with foreign companies are foreign exchange transactions (yes, in rubles too). And even what you received to an account in a foreign bank can only be used if, for example, you have opened your representative office abroad.

When choosing a bank, pay attention to the cost of service, the convenience of the Internet bank and the ability to submit documents in electronic form. After all, you didn’t decide to become a freelancer in order to stand in line to a teller.

What else to consider when choosing a bank? His working time. Many processes associated with the transfer of money depend on the exact dates of receipt of funds to the account. And it is important to make sure that the time of your work coincides with the time of the bank. If you like to move, look for organizations that provide transfers around the clock.

When you open a foreign currency account, current and transit accounts are automatically created. A transit account is needed so that the bank can determine the source of the receipt of funds. Everything that a foreign customer pays for your work will go there. At the same time, to use the earned, you need a current account.

Attention: cash and individual entrepreneurs are incompatible in accordance with modern legislation. That is, if you have an individual entrepreneur, then you cannot have a bundle of dollars. All payments in foreign currency will be non-cash, and for operations on crediting existing cash, it is better to use your account of an individual, and then transfer the currency to your IP account.

We transfer money to the current account

To transfer money from a transit account to a current one, you need to know a few subtleties. You must keep track of the replenishment of your account yourself (or receive a notification about it with the help of an adequate notification service in the Internet bank). And then your task is to justify the money and its conclusion. Despite the fact that the money is yours, for the delay in the provision of papers, you can, again, get a fine. In order not to lose your hard earned money, you need to submit the following documents to the bank:

• Contract or agreement. This also includes the offer (if you are developing for the App Store, for example).
• Check.
• Certificate of completion (although in many states there is no practice of signing acts and the customers do not know what kind of document it is).
• Order to write off currency from a transit account.
• Information about currency transactions.
• Passport of the transaction (if the transfer amount is more than 50 thousand dollars). This responsibility falls entirely on your shoulders, and although for the sake of such an amount you can sort out the papers, it is better to immediately look after the bank that will make you a passport.

Difficulty number 1:all of the above must be translated into Russian, regardless of the number of pages in the papers.

Difficulty number 2:documents are provided within 15 days from the moment the money is credited to the transit account. What will happen if this is not done? Fine, of course.

Difficulty number 3:the bank really reads all these documents. And if, according to the terms of the contract, you were supposed to receive the money within a certain period of time after the signing of the act, but did not receive it, then you are waiting for … how did you guess that the fine is?

When the documents are submitted, the money is transferred, the exchange rate is provided, you can use your salary.

Choosing a convenient bank

If, after reading this article, you have a strong desire to hire an accountant and a lawyer, just not to see these bank notes, do not rush. Another specialist is an additional link in the chain "you - the bank - the customer", which increases the chances of failure and error.

Banks have already appeared that have restructured their work and abandoned the approach of "collect 20 pieces of paper and get a fine for 21". The analytical agency Markswebb Rank & Report has compiled a rating of the quality of service for small businesses Business Internet Banking Rank 2015. Taking the example of the leader of the list, the banking service for entrepreneurs Tochka (a branch of Business Online of the Khanty-Mansiysk Bank Otkritie), one can see that entrepreneurs and freelancers understand high-quality bank work.

In "Tochka" they realized that sometimes it is easier to do everything ourselves than to explain to the client where he forgot the comma. This does not mean that you will not be told if you ask. But they will definitely help if you do not have time to figure out the intricacies of the law on your own.

For example, bank employees themselves know foreign languages and do not require translations of documents. In particular, they have long been familiar with multi-page offers - many freelancers work through Tochka.

Tochka accepts electronic documents, works around the clock and does not delegate to clients the obligation to do all technical documents on their own. That is, certificates of a currency transaction, an order to transfer funds, a transaction passport are the responsibility of the bank, you will only need to certify the documents.

You can also agree that the bank draws up an invoice and prepares an act of completion in a form that will be understandable to a foreign customer.

Since "Tochka" does not like to fiddle with fines, you will always receive timely notifications and reminders of what needs to be done here and now.

As a result, you legally do your business without thinking about the disadvantages of legalization and without turning into a banking specialist. Compare and work calmly.