Quelle: https://migri.fi/en/faq-employment
Wenn alle über „arbeitsbezogene Einwanderung“ reden, könnte man meinen, sie wären Priorisierung ausländische, ferngesteuerte Arbeit. Ich habe einen Arbeitgeber – keinen finnischen – der die Last trägt, mich zu entschädigen, und dennoch gehen alle meine Steuern nach Finnland, also warum sollten sie es mir so schwer machen? Ein Grund, warum ich meine Familienbindungserlaubnis aufheben möchte, ist, mehr Kontrolle über meine eigene Zukunft zu haben – daher ein Unternehmen zu gründen – aber ich habe das Gefühl, dass es Schwerer für mich so, als einfach durch meine Ehe mit einem Finnen zu schweben. Ehepartner von finnischen Staatsbürgern gehören zu den privilegiertesten Inhabern von Aufenthaltsgenehmigungen (was nicht unbedingt falsch ist), aber wenn ich vom Land nichts für meinen eigenen Lebensunterhalt verlange und dennoch Tausende von Euro pro Monat beitrage, andere, man sollte meinen, dass die Regierung alles daran setzen würde, dies zu erleichtern.
Hintergrundgeschichte:
Ich bin in der Endphase meiner Beantragung einer dauerhaften Aufenthaltserlaubnis oder Staatsbürgerschaft, nachdem ich nun seit 4 Jahren in Finnland lebe, die YKI-Prüfung (auf Schwedisch) bestanden und mein eigenes Unternehmen (toiminimi) eröffnet habe. Ich möchte mich jedoch aus neuen Gründen bewerben, da meine familiären Bindungen nicht mehr dieselben sind wie damals, als ich hierher zog.
Ich habe alle 4 Jahre als Berater für ein US-Unternehmen gearbeitet und in Finnland Steuern gezahlt. Stellen Sie sich also meine Überraschung vor, als ich sah, dass Migri die Arbeit von einem ausländischen Unternehmen aus der Ferne nicht als Teil der Einkommensvoraussetzung anrechnet. Obwohl ich mein Toiminimi habe, ist mein Vertrag immer noch in den USA angesiedelt und alle meine Zahlungen werden dort geleistet. Wenn ich also selbst im Einkommensregister suche, wird nichts angezeigt.
Mein Steuersatz war auch aufgrund des Problems bei der Meldung von Einkünften falsch, und ich muss nun 70 % meines Einkommens bis Ende 2024 für die Rückzahlung aufwenden. 23.000 € zu Steuern**, was ich akzeptieren könnte und womit ich kein direktes Problem habe**, aber ich bin äußerst besorgt über dieses Bulletin von Migri. Die Anerkennung meines Einkommens für Steuerzwecke und nicht für Einwanderungszwecke ist meiner Meinung nach unerhört unfair und ich suche derzeit nach Steuerberatern, die mir hier helfen können.
Ich habe Kontakt zu einem leitenden Steuerspezialisten bei Vero aufgenommen, der mir geholfen hat erheben meine Steuern, behauptet aber, dass sie mir mit keinerlei Informationen zum Einkommensregister, zur Übermittlung gezahlter Einkünfte durch Vero oder sonst irgendetwas, das auch nur annähernd hilfreich ist, weiterhelfen könne.
Hat jemand diesbezüglich Einblicke oder Empfehlungen für Experten (nicht aus dem öffentlichen Sektor), die helfen können? Ich bin völlig frustriert, weil ich versuche, mich hier aus eigener Kraft zu etablieren und das Gefühl habe, dass mehr Barrieren aufgebaut als abgebaut werden.
ETA: Der Grund, warum ich in Finnland bin, ist, dass ich vor 4 Jahren aus Liebe mein ganzes Leben hierher verlegt habe und meine Situation sich geändert hat. Ich habe mir durch meinen Job Möglichkeiten geschaffen und mein eigenes Geschäft in Finnland eröffnet, ich habe Schwedisch auf B2-C1-Niveau gelernt und zahle meinen gerechten Anteil an Steuern. Ich Ich besitze seit November seit 4 Jahren eine Aufenthaltserlaubnis Typ A und habe daher bereits eine Erlaubnis, muss für die nächste jedoch neue Gründe beantragen. Ich nehme Kommentare übel, in denen es heißt: "Sie haben keinen Grund, hier zu sein" obwohl ich ganz klar Verbindungen zu Finnland habe und die Hälfte meiner 20er hier verbracht habe. Wenn das Ihr Feedback ist, brauchen Sie es nicht zu hinterlassen …
Migri says income from remote (foreign) work doesn’t count towards income requirement?
byu/FineFile inFinland
Von FineFile
16 Kommentare
If someone is in Finland working remotely for a company in another country, they don’t have a reason to be in Finland for work which would grant them a residence permit.
But in your case, if you have a company registered, that should be self employment as a reason. But again, what would be the reason for residency if the services are done abroad? Although I’d more easily accept this. At least economically it makes sense to Finland, but as a reason for the person to be here, it doesn’t.
Because there’s no need for you to come here if you’re employed remotely by a company from another country.
There is no job here for the work visa.
The company has to set up a Office in Finland and provide workers healthcare etc. for all Finnish employees.
Shouldnt you be entrepreneuer and thus apply for self employed visa?
ETA: My reason for being in Finland is because I moved my whole life here 4 years ago for love, and my situation changed, so I made opportunities for myself through my job and opened my own business in Finland, I learned Swedish to a B2-C1 level, and am paying my fair share in taxes. I do take offense to comments that say „you have no reason to be here“ when I very clearly have ties to Finland, and have spent the greater half of my 20s here. If that is the feedback you have, no need to leave it…
The income register shows nothing for you because your US-based employer is not registered as an employer in Finland (or that’s what I understood from your post). They are not liable for any employer-related stuff here.
In addition, if you are a toiminimi entrepreneur, you need to take care of your taxes yourself by paying advance tax (ennakkovero). It sounds like you have yet to pay any taxes. The income register works only for the salary of regular employees.
To get the work permit ( TTOL), you must have an employer based out in Finland & you are paid wages for your work. In this case, since you have TMI based company, the right category would be applying under entrepreneur residence permit.
I would say chances of getting approved by the ELY centre is pretty rare, since you don’t have contracts within Finland nor there are any ties here, nor are you importing any products to sell to Finnish customers.
Edit; I’m an entrepreneur myself who has the entrepreneur residence permit.
From a legal (basis for resident permit) point of view, you probably don’t have a reason to be in Finland to be employed because you can work for the same company remotely from anywhere
Your residence here is based on your life circumstances and preferences and convenience, but definitely not based on employment
I have to presume if you have set up your own company and works as a freelance and the company receives income from abroad, then there is a separate ground for that kind of residence. Of course the tax and incoming reporting for a company (you as a freelancer) is different from a person receiving salary from a company, but I hope you get the point
It’s not that you have no reason to be here; but you have no reason to be here to be employed and continue making money the way you are doing it now. You need to apply for residence based on a difference ground, I think
You need to hire a private consultant that has specialization on this. Taxation without legal benefits is just theft but it could be that the actual legislation for your case is very infantile and gives goverment agencies a wide amount of leeway.
I don’t understand your problem. If you make a company in Finland and you send bills to the company in the US as a subcontractor, the money comes to your Finnish company’s bank account, out of which taxes are deducted. From your Finnish company you then pay salary to yourself, out of which again, taxes are paid. Both your Finnish company and you personally will pay taxes in this case. And if you do all this, the migration authorities will have no problem. If you don’t do all this, then it is your fault, not theirs.
Clarification: Your Finnish company needs to send bills to the company in the US. Not the US company paying you directly as their worker. There is no law which says that a company in Finland cannot do work for companies abroad. A company in Finland can sell their services to any other company in the world.
As it was mentioned in the comments, your new RP would be based on your company. Potentially, an issue they might find is if your former employer/current contractor is the only one you do work for (tax office in particular isn’t fond of this, since in that case you have to be employed by the company, if they are the only ones you work for). But since you’ve been operating for a while, pay taxes, have your insurances – you should not encounter bigger issues. Good luck.
The page you’ve linked is about a residence permit based on employment, which you don’t seem to meet. I think you should look at
https://migri.fi/en/entrepreneur
instead. You’d apply on that ground, then you need to present your local ELY-center with details about your business to convince them that it’s likely to provide you enough income to support yourself for the duration of the residence permit, they’ll say yay or nay to Migri, who then decides on the residence permit on the basis of entrepeneurship. I’d think that past earnings (and taxes paid here) and whatever ongoing contracts you can present them should be enough to convince them, but I have no personal experience with this.
A quick Google gave me this link for a consulting company for cases like this:
https://fintegra.fi/en/residence_permit_of_individual_entrepreneurship/
I’m sure you can find other alternatives using that title as search terms. Good luck in your battle with bureaucracy!
**Just a thought:**
There is actually difference between you applying for a new permit based on the „remote job“ or you living here and „extending residence permit based on the remote job“.
First case is clearly – no permit, as you don’t have to live here if you are working remotely.
Second case is harder, as you can always claim that your live already tightly linked to Finland and living here.
Might be or might not be any help:
My bf continued working remotely for his dutch employer by them setting up a contract thru a 3rd party (Deel)
This way he had no problem using the work basis moving.
(This was from the Netherlands to Finland though)
Your whole „toiminimi“ and contractor work case is wrong. Migri would has no problem for remote workers as long as you are working through some kind of Finnish company (your own or services like Deel etc.) because that way you will pay income tax in Finland and everything would be clear.
You failed the to change your contract with your US „employer“ to a consultant contract. No idea what did you manage to fail with taxes so far, but all of this is your mistake. Nothing to do with Migri or naturally income requirement „specially wanting“ taxed income in Finland.
PS: And trust me these are super simple and obvious matters. I have a consulting company for 6 years and for last 2+ years I have been solely working for a Canadian company which is INVOICE based money relation. Canadians don’t pay a single tax in Finland. I do that.
The problem seems to be how you do the tax paperwork.
First, the foreign customer should not pay you a salary (palkka) or fees (palkkio) for work. Instead, your company (toiminimi) should send them an invoice for services, which the customer then pays to your US bank account. You need to send invoices to the customer with the heading INVOICE on the top and your company as the payee. Include your VAT number (y-tunnus) on the invoices. Maybe you have already invoiced the customer, in which case the change is simple to make. If the customer does not want your invoices, you can produce them anyway for bookkeeping purposes.
Next, you must do careful bookkeeping for the company (toiminimi), recording all income and business expenses. Keep copies of the sent invoices and write down when you received the payment for each invoice. Save receipts for everything. This way, you can later prove that the payments received in the US bank account were payments for the work done in Finland invoiced through your company.
At the end of each year, you make a tax filing for toiminimi, reporting the total business income and expenses. Vero with calculate the profit for toiminimi (income minus expenses) and copy it as income to your personal income form. Later in the spring, you make a separate personal income tax filing. This way, toiminimi makes a provable profit in Finland. In the tax filings, it shows both as company profit and as your personal income.
Bookkeeping is necessary also to track expenses, such as computer, telephone, and internet in your home office. You only pay personal income tax for the company profit (income minus expenses). Also, there is no minimum deduction for the company expenses. Thus, you will end up paying less tax when you report the customer payments as company income and not as salary.
It helps to have separate bank accounts for the company and your personal use, but that is not a legal requirement. It is ok to receive a payment for the invoice in your US account and then transfer the money to Finland. For tax purposes, you could even keep the money in the US, but for Migri, you may need to prove the transfers to Finland. Your company bookkeeping should show all transfers between different accounts. Unlike some have suggested here, you do not pay a salary to yourself. Instead, the profit from toiminimi is automatically your personal income, and you can use it as you wish. It is nevertheless cleaner for bookkeeping and easier for Migri to understand if you transfer the profits explicitly from a company account to a personal account.
It might be possible to fix the mistake retroactively for the previous years, moving the income from personal income to toiminimi, but that would be a really complex and painful process. Avoid doing it if you can. It is simpler if you can make the change from the current year (January 1, 2024). Start preparing the the invoices, matching them with received payments, and learn about company bookkeeping. At the end of the year, learn to make a tax filing for the company.
There is no VAT due for exports to the US. Thus, you may not need to change the way your handle VAT at the moment. Just make use you get back the VAT on business expenses incurred in Finland.