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This is a very Dutch thing, where as a contractor you lose a lot of benefits like 25 holidays, paid sick days, pension, unemployment insurance. But overall you
by whazor 3y ago
This is a very Dutch thing, where as a contractor you lose a lot of benefits like 25 holidays, paid sick days, pension, unemployment insurance. But overall you normally get more money, though also more stress.
Compared to USA, Dutch freelancing is more like normal employment. If you get hired by an USA startup, you normally get a much bigger compensation and they often prefer you to be contractor as it fits better with overall HR/contract structure. Though there are in-between firms that would hire you like a normal employee with Dutch benefits, but you lose some money.
- FirmwareBurner 3y agoYou loose the same benefits in Austria as well if you go contracting, and on top of that you need to have more than one customer per year, otherwise the tax authorities will consider you're contracting just to avoid full time employment and committing tax fraud.
- valzam 3y agoWhich is very strange since in Austria as a freelancer you are still required to pay into all the same social systems as a FTE right? Public pension, health insurance etc. In Germany you have the same "Scheinselbstaendigkeit" issue but it's a bit more understandable why the authorities care, considering that as a freelancer you aren't paying into the public pension system.
- vjerancrnjak 3y agoAustria in general is very unfriendly to small businesses. The salaries are also heavily taxed so employees are extra expensive. All of the hiring attempts are just companies trying to pay you as little as possible and then contract your work to rich companies or government. But to me it sounds most Europe is like this. They do offer a 12% discount if you do not have any expenses (which you can barely have as a programmer) so eventually you can earn a bit more than being employed.
- bjornsing 3y agoIt used to be like this in Sweden too 20 years ago, but it’s been relaxed over the years. Now it’s pretty much unheard of that the tax authorities complain about “hidden employment” / “fake freelancing”.
- bartvk 3y ago> Dutch freelancing is more like normal employment More like normal employment in what country?
- Shaanie 3y agoIt says compared to the US in the same sentence?
- Huppie 3y agoImho if you compensate for those benefits the 'more money' part isn't really that much more money. Most freelancers just end up with 'more money in hand' because they (sometimes unknowingly) simply take on a lot more risk (e.g. way less or no insurance for certain risks) and/or they don't consider that a nice chunk of pension savings are part of a regular job's benefits. I'm going this route at the moment and while it's true my gross profit will probably end up close to 2x my previous gross salary... after properly compensating for all the other benefits I'd probably end up with 1.2x instead (but to be fair, I'm willing to accept certain risks so I won't insure against them and I'll probably end up with ~1.5x my previous salary.) Imho in The Netherlands the biggest advantage is the flexibility it offers compared to being an employee.