Best tax residence for freelancers or self-employed pilots (EU, EASA)
I am sure some of you out here have this figured out and experience to share some advice - please feel free.
Currently I am residing in Germany, going the freelancer i.e the "self-employed" contracts route and it is going okay for me in terms of regular contracts and gross income. However the country I am living in is highly taxed, has high social deductions and does not recognize professional pilot occupation as freelance work but as commercial work and is commercially taxed (unlike other occupations like freelance artists, designers, photographers or acedemic freelancers like IT-specialists, scientists, tax consultants,web-designers etc). Commercial tax is credited towards income tax, but only to a certain threshold amount. VAT charges are no issue so far, as I do not conduct local flights within my country of residence - all of the renumeration stems from offshore sources outside the EU. So to spare with too much detail: after talking it through with my tax adviser I feel I am at a great disadvatage in terms of my current resedency and there are surely better options.to choose from.
From my own reseach, Malta seems to be a very interesting option on many levels - english language, fairly good proceeding connectivity.- As I am an EU citizen this would not pose an issue to aquire "ordinary residency", as I only have to deregister here and rent a place of residence in Malta and go through the fairly simple application process to fulfil the requirements. The 183 day per year rule may be a slight issue, as I do intend to be on contract slightly more than 6 months per annum.
What are the other options ? Cyprus comes to mind, but it seems not as interesting as Malta on first glance. South Africa or Namibia are options for me too, but they are just too far away for short contracts.
It is not my goal to pay zero taxes - I just want to have a fairer and better deal than to loose around 43% (or more through additional social taxes) of my income in this kind of lifestyle that forces one to save greater rescourses for future contingencies and backup plans for training and times of low demand.
Eager to read your replies!