Hi,
I live in Germany and want to sell something on the Marketplace.
Is it neccesary to found a company or can i do it as a freelancer.
In German:
Hallo,
ich lebe in Deutschland und möchte auf dem marketplace verkaufen.
Muss ich eine Firma gründen (Kleingewebe o.ä.) oder reicht es als Freiberufler zu arbeiten?
Was verlangt epic da ?
You don’t need a company, you can register as a person.
To give you a real answer: It depends - and not on Epic, but solely on the German tax law.
If you only make money from selling assets, then you need to register a company (a “Gewerbe”).
If you do mainly make money as a freelancer and the tax office has granted you the freelancer (Freiberufler) status, then you have two ways to do it:
A) Sell the assets and remain a freelancer entirely.
Or B) Remain a freelancer but also do a mixed-activity (Gemischte Tätigkeit), where you would need to set up a company (Gewerbe) on the side for the sale of the assets.
Which way it is, A or B, is entirely up to your cities tax office. They are the ones granting you the status of a freelancer and they will decide if you have to set up a Gewerbe or not.
.
When you apply for your status as a freelancer with the tax office, you have to let them know about your job activity (how you want to make money).
There you can tell them that the sale of the assets is entirely digital, the whole sale (Verkauf) is done by Epic Games, the customers can buy a license for usage and you get a percentage from the sale price.
This should in theory increase your chance of remaining a freelancer without having to set up a company … but once again, it is up to your local tax office and the person handling your case there, as they make the ultimate decision about it.
.
What you can do is to get a formal, binding answer to this question from your tax office - to know how they will handle it before you apply.
To do this you request a “Verbindliche Aussage”, which will you give a binding answer - but it costs some money to do this.
Oh and it also depends highly on what kind of assets you want to sell, what your educational experience is and how you write your application for the freelancer status. Just Google about Freiberufler and you will learn more about it.
And most important, do NOT just sell assets without registering at the tax office (you can do this a few weeks after you started selling though), as this is a crime and will land you a hefty fine or even a jail sentence.