Well, he mixed up "selbstständig" (self employed) and "Freiberuf" (a specific tax setup for specific kinds of occupations). Unlike in many other professions he _can_ be "selbstständig" in the CS field without a degree, and he can create a GmbH w/o any special qualification. Which is pretty unusual in Germany :-)

It is very different in many other professions. So yes, you actually have to be an electrician with extra qualifications to be able (allowed) to setup an electrician shop (called a "Meister" ("master") but it is entirely different to the university master degree). This is even true for seemingly low profile stuff like haircutters, or painting shops!

And the rational should be obvious: You don't want to allow people to run a business which don't know how to write a basic invoice and you don't want an electrician who doesn't know how to properly install electric lines.

Thanks for catching my mistake - I did indeed mean Freiberuflich.

> Unlike in many other professions he _can_ be "selbstständig" in the CS field without a degree

I'm not an expert here, I can only tell you that the Finanzamt Köln disagrees with this sentence.

IIRC they lumped "web development" in under "engineering", and therefore required qualification. The only way around it that I've heard of, is some front-ender friends of mine invoicing as "Web Designer", which counts as an artistic profession.

Just the super weird "degrees are everything" culture. The foundation is, as helge5 mentions, that there are certain qualified professions where the guild should ~~get paid~~ certify everyone who practices. The stupidity is that "programmer" was counted as an "engineer," at least in my case. I see helge5 thinks you are allowed to practice CS without a qualification - I can only tell you that the Finanzamt Köln/Bonn disagreed.

And as the other commenters noted, I _did_ say "selbständig" when I meant "freiberuflich". Can I get away with blaming autocorrect? :)

Anyone can be selbstständig. Anyone can have a GmbH. Question is if you need to pay Gewerbesteuer. If you have a so called Katalogberuf you might be allowed to call yourself Freiberufler. They are exempt from Gewerbesteuer.

In my case, the Finanzamt demand that I show them a degree in CS for my "Freiberuf" as software dev, but I only had a math degree, which was then accepted, too.