I have a YouTube channel and use Patreon, as well as a website/blog with ads and a “buy-me-a-coffee” donation system. I have an income of around 400 USD per month from these sources, with wide fluctuations of course. I plan to move from the USA to Baden-Württemburg soon for university. I know I’ll need a student residence permit, and from what I’ve read my existing work will count as freelancing.
I have various questions about this situation:
What do I have to do (ex. forms to fill out) upon arrival to declare that I am freelancing? Are there deadlines to do this? Is the process different because I will be an international student? Will having this extra income affect my access to student prices for public health insurance?
I also know that my income will be double-taxed between Germany and the USA, which is fine since it seems unavoidable.
I also saw that freelancing income shouldn’t exceed your primary income. At my last university I tutored students for extra income as well, something that I enjoyed and would like to do in some form again. So if I got a minijob in addition, then what would be the tax consequences of earning less from the minijob than what I earn from freelancing? And how is this determined, given that the freelance income might fluctuate substantially from month to month?
If I decided to sell merch (related to the content I create) on my website, would that be classified differently tax-wise? From my research so far it sounds like this counts as starting a small business, which would be a whole other beast and probably not worth the complexity as a student (especially a non-EU citizenship student).
I did a lot of searching online before posting this, but found a lot of confusing information about freelancing as an international student. Like this [DAAD website](https://www.daad.de/en/study-and-research-in-germany/first-steps-germany/side-jobs/) that says flat-out that international students from non-EU countries are not allowed to freelance, but then makes a confusing statement that “students” (but do they mean non-EU students?) can request permission to work more. I then found various other websites that say that students can obtain freelance permits in addition to student permits. Is this correct, and is it what I need to do? If so, can I start on this process now? If this is not correct, then am I required to shut down all monetization of my online activities while in Germany?
I did also read the FAQ + the Wiki sections on study and freelancing, but my questions here are specific to the scenario of having a freelance income source as a non-EU international student.
A sincere thank you to anyone who answers, and sorry if these (numerous!) questions are confusing or poorly stated. Let me know if there’s anything I can clarify.
2 comments
Then you’d need the permission to freelance on your student visa. It’s hard if not impossible to get, but you might have a chance in these circumstances. Otherwise you can’t have that income at all and will need to pause your Kofi and patreon during your studies.
>I also know that my income will be double-taxed between Germany and the USA, which is fine since it seems unavoidable.
Any income under 9,888 € per year is tax-free (“Grundfreibetrag”), so at least that part shouldn’t worry you too much.