This must be a non-EU thing. Sometimes I'm amazed how much western democracies and esp. the EU have achieved in protecting the employee from their employer. It all seems so natural that I tend to forget how much the social democrats and worker unions struggled to get to this point.

I'm not sure I understand how your point relates to getting paid for side work as somebody who doesn't do that regularly.

For example, here in France, there's no such thing as "freelance". As an individual, you can't just invoice somebody. You need to set up some form of "enterprise". Sure, there are some forms which are supposed to be easier to set up, but you still have to go out of your way and do it. You can't just declare the income on your tax return. And now that you've created a company, you need to file tax returns every year, even if you don't do anything. It's also not free, an actual accountant has to sign them off (this may not be the case for the smallest forms of companies). Sending your taxes to the fiscal administration is also not free (fun fact: VAT is levied on that fee).

IANAL but that's not entirely true. As long as it's exceptional, it's legal to earn money without having a company in France. It's the "revenu commerciaux non professionnels" box on your tax form.

As for being an "auto entrepreneur" (equivalent of a sole trader), you don't need an accountant at all and the paperwork is rather small. Definitely worth it as it means you have some recurring revenue already.

According to the taxman's website [0] you need to be a "liberal enterprise". Not sure what exactly that means, but I'd be surprised there's no form of bureaucracy involved. I think you need to have at least a "micro enterprise".

> As for being an "auto entrepreneur" (equivalent of a sole trader), you don't need an accountant at all and the paperwork is rather small. Definitely worth it as it means you have some recurring revenue already.

Good to know, especially since, IIRC, they've removed the special social security you had to have for that kind of company.

[0] https://www.economie.gouv.fr/entreprises/impot-sur-revenu-bi...

> According to the taxman's website [0] you need to be a "liberal enterprise". Not sure what exactly that means, but I'd be surprised there's no form of bureaucracy involved. I think you need to have at least a "micro enterprise".

We are not referring to the same thing, I think. You're looking at the tax for corporates when I'm looking at individuals [0]. The key seems to be that it's has to be exceptional and not regular. I'd still double-check on a case by case basis with the tax bureau before going ahead, but I've found them to be helpful in the past.

It does make sense for niches like these to exist, otherwise you'd end up having to setup a legal entity before being on the receiving end of a transaction as an individual.

[0] https://www.impots.gouv.fr/sites/default/files/media/1_metie...

EU is very large. If I were to believe your posts, Germany has achieved good protection of employees from their employers. Simply not true in ... many non-Germany EU countries.