 Hello everyone today, I'm going to talk about taxes and that's always fun. So Get ready for some fun. No, I actually get ready to be I guess somewhat disappointed because with taxes and I I'm going to talk about taxes because I was asked about it in one of the comments In fact, I was asked about it more than once and so I thought I should Say something about taxes and how to deal with them when you're a freelance translator when you're a freelancer in general Unfortunately, the problem is No matter what country you're in every country has a different form of taxes and they're changing every year as Probably wherever you live, you know, because it's usually in the news They have something about taxes here or there or whatever is happening So it can be very complicated Also, it gets more complicated for people like us whose clients tend to be in different countries Because taxes can be different in that sense, too I know if you live in Italy and you if you have an Italian client that you need to worry about Eva stuff like that but if your client is abroad you don't need to worry about it in many circumstances and So you have a whole lot of stuff Eva by the way is VAT a value-added tax Anyway, so it can really get as complicated as you want to make it And that's why I can't really give any one-size-fits-all advice I can't say go to this website do this download that make sure you have this and blub and then you're done But I can't give some general advice at least what I try to do as many of you know I've I've lived and worked in various different places here in the US where I am now in Switzerland and Italy and Taiwan and so I've And being in all these places. I've had to kind of navigate the different worlds and different, you know taxation systems now I Should mention how I need to mention a bunch of things first of all Let's start with the preliminary stuff if you are a citizen of where you live so if you are Like say if you have a US passport and you're living in the US right now If you have an EU passport and you're living in the EU if you have, you know, whatever so if you are a citizen and there are no restrictions on work and everything then you're fine But a lot of you might be like me where you live somewhere else where you're not a citizen right now And in that case the first thing you need to do is look up those laws You need to look up if you're allowed to be working where you are and I mean There is a way to be working but you need to figure out what it is Because if you're somewhere and a lot of people do this if you're somewhere on a tourist visa Where you just leave the country once every two months every three months and then you pop right back in so you're perpetually a tourist then you should not be working and You're going to I mean actually you're going to get caught actually chances are you won't get caught at all And I've known plenty of people who do that and keep doing that and never get caught But I do know people who have been caught and they've been deported from a country This happened when I was in Korea. I had a friend who was teaching English at another friend who was teaching a basketball actually and They both got kicked out of the country When it happens, it's usually It's it's usually for a certain reason like apparently the guy who got kicked out for teaching English The next-door neighbor noticed that he kept going to the same place to teach English and complain to the local authorities Local authorities there kind of have no choice because the neighbor was right So, you know, that can be an issue and I remember when I was in Korea So a lot of the English teachers would say oh always change where you meet your students like different coffee shops different houses Whatever because otherwise someone might complain and they know where to find you the friend of mine who was teaching basketball his name was just on a board and Saying from like 530 to 630 so in sales name has a court. That was enough for them to deport him I don't know what exactly went on there, but I these things aren't random obviously Someone needs to have it in for you. What happens also like it's been happening in China and all that is they try to do a general crackdown on like Illegal English teachers or stuff like that So again, these usually target teachers or people, you know along those lines if you're working by yourself in front of the computer You're usually fine What can happen is if there are any complications like especially if they're complications with payment and stuff like that that can sometimes get iffy or You know if they're complications somewhere else in your life and they figure out that that's what you're doing And you're working for a living online while you should be a tourist then they can crack down on you It is rare But I always recommend to make sure that you're on the right side of the law in this sense now This for all of you who live someplace Where you're not the citizen and so you're kind of finagling that way But a lot of you and actually most of you are probably a citizen of where you are or you have the right type of permit And so all that settles. So that's fine if that is the case then what you need to do is look up the local taxes and I really I really Go either way on this because Actually, sorry, I'm kind of regretting doing starting with the whole section about living abroad because most of you don't live abroad I assume and so okay, I'll give a link where you can skip to here to this point Which I think is like five minutes in where you can start just Discussing what you need to do if you live someplace and you have the permit or you are a citizen of that place But you're a freelancer and you need to worry about taxes as I said, there's not any one-size-fits-all Solution here. So what I would usually do whenever I will go to these new countries is I would first of all try to go to meetups or any type of Meeting or anything going on Or co-working spaces or whatever where I could find other people like me other freelancers other entrepreneurs I want to talk to other people who are in my shoes and Try to get an idea from them the idea when you're going to one of these is to find a lawyer And you usually find lawyers who specialize in entrepreneurs because it's it's a whole industry In fact, it's growing a lot and if you can find one of these then you're golden What you do is you have a session with them say look, I I I really need to I'm setting up I'm being a freelancer. I'm starting out as a freelancer. I really like to figure this out can you help me out and usually Honestly, usually they'll tell you the information. I don't want to say what they'll do Maybe they won't but in my experience they'll either have the information on their website or they'll just send it to you for free or you know Anyway, don't I I think it's worth it to pay for one session You know one hour or whatever it might be or offer them a coffee or lunch Just so you can make sure that everything is done correctly and so you can sleep soundly at night because the fact is You need things to be done correctly now The reason I hesitate for all this is I really hate for anyone to delay starting out based on taxation issues If you want to start as a freelancer, you should start off now and you shouldn't let taxation issues stop you So usually what I tell people is make sure you have taxation issues settled by the time you issue your first invoice Because that's when money starts coming in it's once you start getting paid that you need to worry about this stuff So in the meantime start off because in that sense if when you need to worry about how to get paid and how to do that That's a good problem to have and the worst case scenario You need to delay issuing your invoice by a week or two while you figure it out So start in the meantime set everything up try to find clients do all that stuff and then you can worry about Taxation when you're ready to issue that first invoice So once again if you can find people in your shoes and ask them what they do and they'll usually direct you to either a Website or you know a lawyer someone who can help you another thing you can do is look for your local government Most local governments are and in fact many more so are trying to help freelancers and entrepreneurs. They're finally understanding that You know more of the economy is based on freelancers small businesses small medium enterprises entrepreneurs then the big blue chip companies and So they're really trying to help them out And so many local governments or even national governments will have the information online They're as well and so you can and in fact many times they have people you can call and talk to about in Switzerland They have this as well You can just call them up and ask them whatever you need and they'll help you out with it So check with your local government chances are they have the information somewhere and they can guide you through it and which is a lot better because then you have it directly from from the source and Those are the main two sources that I use I try to find other entrepreneurs and freelancers and have them direct me to The right place ideally a lawyer something like that or if I can find the local government Resources, then that's where I find the information. I can't give you that information Unfortunately, because like I said, it's different everywhere, but I can kind of help you try to find that information and You're going to have to do it yourself. Unfortunately the Once again, the only advice I would say is don't let it slow you down I would hate to see you delay starting off For you know by weeks or even months just because you can't figure out your taxation issues start now You have to start now. That's the biggest issue and mistake I've seen with freelancers that they don't start they don't do it because they're scared about something and taxation is very scary I understand you but that's why as long as you have it settled by your first invoice And trust me, it'll take a while to get to your first invoice You just you know set things up contact people start cold calling them trying to get them to get back to you and make sure You know and try to get hired have them finally hire you go through the job and get it done And then invoice them and you can invoice them at the end that you can invoice them whenever you want You know, I've waited months to invoice people for various reasons. They're never sad about it because you know They they owe you the money, right? So you have you're the one has to be on top of that So I would rather you start off and then delay invoicing by a couple weeks then to delay starting off at all Because unfortunately, yeah, and I understand it taxation issues can be daunting. They can be scary. It's ominous, but You need to figure it out and you will figure it out There's always a way and they they're trying to make it easier now and so it shouldn't be too hard But unfortunately, you're gonna have to figure it out and look it up ideally once again from a lawyer or from the local government or if you can't find find local freelancers and entrepreneurs and ask them what they do because That usually they'll steer you in the right direction help you out. So hopefully find that helpful I'm sorry. Once again, I can't give more precise information, but it's just impossible with taxation. Unfortunately. So Yeah, that's it. I'll see you in the next video where hopefully I can give you more precise information. Okay. Thanks. Bye