I freelance for clients in three countries and live in a fourth. Tax feels like a minefield and I'm terrified of being taxed twice. How did other freelancers get a handle on where you actually owe what?
Got a one-off consultation with an accountant familiar with cross-border freelance situations. Worth the cost purely for the peace of mind, regardless of what I actually owed.
Following, this is the thing I keep avoiding dealing with properly.
Tax is the area I'd most strongly say: don't take numbers or "you'll owe X" from a forum, mine included. Thresholds, treaties and residency rules are country-specific and change. The Taxes section of your guide is a primer, but for a multi-country freelance setup a cross-border accountant is genuinely worth it — this is where DIY bites hardest.
Building on that — checked the guide’s tax section for my specific residency situation and it clarified more than I expected going in.
Really important thread, and one where I'd urge caution with any specific advice online (mine included). Cross-border tax residency, double-taxation treaties and how they treat self-employment income are complex, country-pair-specific, and get updated. Please treat forum answers as pointers only and get advice from a qualified cross-border accountant for your exact situation — the cost of good advice is tiny next to the cost of getting your tax residency wrong.
Adding an accountant consultation to my to-do list after reading this whole thread.