Two important questions come up for British citizens moving abroad as freelancers, and they lead to completely different answers.
The first is where you'd like to live. This includes rent, weather, whether the city has a decent airport, and anything else that sparks the idea of moving in the first place.
The second is where a freelance career works better than it does now. Contributions, pension accrual, what a bank makes of your income when you apply for a mortgage, and whether you can legally be there at all.
Every European country has its own rules for freelancers. Belgium bases your contributions on income from three years ago, the Netherlands scrutinizes freelancers who look a little too much like employees, while the UAE skips income tax entirely, and the pension that comes with it.
So before moving from the UK, the obvious first step is figuring out what kind of setup suits your freelancing needs.
In this article, we'll go over each country's rules and the factors that change the outcome for UK citizens more than the country you choose. If leaving the UK to freelance abroad has crossed your mind, by the end you'll know which of these six could be the place you call home next.
Key takeaways
- France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, and the UAE differ far more in administration, contributions, and social protection than in income tax.
- Your legal status in the country you choose, employed versus self-employed, affects your net income and entitlements more than the country itself does.
France's legal framework made for this exact situation
Portage salarial is written into the Code du travail. It exists for independent professionals who find their own clients but work under an employment contract instead of registering a business, and it was formalized by ordinance in 2015 with a sector collective agreement governing conditions, including minimum remuneration and a requirement that the work involves real expertise.
Very few countries have codified anything similar. In most of Europe, the equivalent is an informal arrangement between an agency and a client, with no legal framework to support it if either side refuses to comply.
Registering as indépendant in France instead is a different experience. Social contributions are substantial, the declaration calendar punishes lateness, and you're expected to handle it all in fluent French.
So depending on which route you take, freelancing in France leaves you with two options: good protection and an employment contract on one side, or full independence and a demanding administrative load on the other.
Belgium's three-year retroactive billing
In Belgium, going self-employed means signing up with a social insurance fund tied to INASTI, RSVZ in Dutch. What's unique about it is that your quarterly contributions are based on your income from three years earlier. Harmless-sounding, until you see what that means in practice.
The problem is that those payments are based on estimates. When your real income for the year is finally known, the fund regularizes the difference. Sometimes that's a refund, but other times it's an expense you haven't planned for, arriving two years after the money was earned and spent.
Contributions are set as a percentage of net professional income within defined bands, with a reduced rate above an upper limit and a minimum for new registrations. Those percentages often get revised, so make sure to confirm current figures with a fund directly.
This applies anywhere in Belgium, but Brussels is one of the major cities that adds access on top of everything: EU institutions, international organizations, and both French- and Dutch-speaking business communities, all in one city. It's the reason people put up with the contribution system in the first place. The tradeoff is Belgian income tax, which is genuinely high.
The Dutch self-employment problem
Dutch tech companies hire constantly, English gets you through most business dealings, and clients are generally willing to sign you directly without layers of process.
The complication is schijnzelfstandigheid: false self-employment, where a zzp'er is registered as independent but actually works like an employee in every way that matters. The Dutch tax authority paused enforcement against this for years, then brought it back, and a number of larger Dutch firms responded by dropping solo freelancers altogether, unwilling to carry the risk themselves.
The expat tax facility known as the 30% ruling has been cut back more than once, and it only ever applied to employees, never the self-employed. That single detail sums up something we'll get to at the end of the article: the same person doing the same work gets taxed differently based on status alone. Always make sure to check the current rules directly on the Belastingdienst site, since they change often enough that any summary could be outdated.
Spain's low costs, evolving system
Spain overhauled its self-employed contribution system in 2023. Autónomos moved from choosing a contribution base to contributions tracking split into income brackets, with the change phased in over several years. New registrations get a reduced flat monthly contribution for an initial period, which makes the first year cheap by European standards.
The special expat regime, widely called the Beckham Law, taxes qualifying new arrivals at a flat rate on Spanish employment income up to a high threshold for a limited number of years. It was broadened in 2023, but like the Dutch ruling above, it's designed for employment income, not self-employment.
Spain also introduced a digital nomad visa under the 2023 Startups Law, one of the few routes designed explicitly around remote work for foreign clients.
However, keep in mind that Spanish administration is regional and inconsistent. Identical paperwork filed in two different provinces can move at wildly different speeds, and there's no reliable way to predict which one you'll get.
Switzerland: high income, low support
Swiss day rates for senior technical work lead Europe by a clear margin. Federal income tax is modest, though the total burden depends a lot on canton and commune, which makes Zug and Geneva effectively separate tax jurisdictions.
Two costs get underestimated:
- Health insurance is mandatory, privately purchased, paid entirely by you rather than deducted as a payroll contribution, and premiums are more expensive each year.
- Social contributions for the self-employed are also structured differently from employee contributions, including how the state pension pillar accrues.
Switzerland isn't in the EU either, which is more important than it might seem, and we'll get to why in a later section.
Switzerland mostly pays off at the senior end of the market, but it costs you if you're arriving with variable income and no employment contract to put in front of a landlord or a lender.
The tax-free UAE with a catch
Dubai and Abu Dhabi break from the European pattern completely: there's no personal income tax on employment or freelance income, full stop. Corporate tax took effect in June 2023, a flat nine percent on taxable profits above a set threshold, which affects how you'd structure a company but leaves personal earnings unchanged.
Freelance permits come through several free zones, and the Green Visa was designed specifically for skilled self-employed professionals, breaking the link between permanent residency and a single sponsoring employer.
What you don't get is everything the European systems supply by default. No state pension for expats, no unemployment entitlement like in Belgium or France, and no free healthcare, so your coverage is only as generous as the premium you choose to pay.
If those tax savings go into your own pension and insurance, you come out ahead over the long run. Spent as everyday income instead, they come with a tradeoff: better lifestyle now, less security later, whether or not anyone frames it that way at the time.
Permits, before any of the above applies
Since the end of the Brexit transition period, UK nationals are third-country nationals for EU, EEA and Swiss immigration purposes. Free movement is gone, so every country above comes down to which permit you qualify for.
That reorders the list in ways the tax comparison won't predict:
- France has the Passeport Talent for qualifying skilled remote workers and company founders.
- Spain has the digital nomad visa, among the more accessible routes for remote work with foreign clients.
- The UAE has the Green Visa and free zone freelance permits, with the shortest processing time of the six.
- Switzerland applies annual quotas to third-country nationals, making it the hardest to enter on a self-employed basis.
Immigration rules change constantly, so make sure to verify current requirements with the relevant national authority before committing to anything.
How status comes before the country you choose
Let's say we've got two freelancers, same Belgian city, same client, both billing €650 a day. One is registered as an indépendant and handles invoicing, VAT, contributions, and compliance, and the other one holds an employment contract and handles none of it.
The second usually ends up better off for multiple reasons:
- Business expenses are treated more favorably under employment than under many self-employed regimes.
- Pension accrual, paid leave, and unemployment entitlement come with the contract instead of needing to be self-funded.
- Lenders read a permanent contract and payslips very differently from two years of variable self-employed accounts.
- The employer takes on that risk instead of you, which counts for a lot in the Netherlands specifically, where enforcement has gotten stricter.
This doesn't depend on which EU country you're in. An employment contract absorbs the cost and risk that a self-employed setup leaves on you, every time, in the same three places: your take-home pay, your pension, and your mortgage application.
Where an employment model can simplify the move
Choosing the country is only half the decision. The harder part is working out how you will operate once you get there.
A freelancer moving from the UK may need to deal with a new employment status, local payroll, social contributions, invoicing rules, and different requirements around worker classification. In some markets, setting up as self-employed is straightforward. In others, the administrative burden or misclassification risk can be much higher.
This is where an employment model can make a practical difference. With Hightekers, you continue working with the clients you already have, while Hightekers handles the local employment structure, payroll, invoicing, social contributions, and compliance requirements that apply in that country.
That does not make every market equally easy to enter, and immigration rules still apply. But it can remove much of the operational work that comes after the move, so you can compare countries based on the work, lifestyle, and financial setup that suits you rather than on how difficult the administration will be.
Conclusion
France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, and the UAE all offer very different versions of freelance life. Some come with stronger social protections, some with lighter administration, and others with higher earning potential but more responsibility for your own pension, insurance, and financial security.
That is why the best country to move to is not necessarily the one with the lowest tax rate or the highest day rates. Look at what you will actually need to manage once you arrive, what protections come with your chosen status, and whether that setup still makes sense between client projects as well as during them.
FAQ
Which country is easiest for a UK freelancer to move to?
The UAE processes freelance permits and the Green Visa fastest of the six, both built specifically for self-employed professionals. In Europe, Spain's digital nomad visa is among the more accessible options for anyone working with clients based elsewhere.
Is moving to Switzerland realistic if I'm self-employed?
It's the hardest of the six to enter independently, because third-country nationals face annual permit quotas. Moving there with an employment contract already in place is much easier than applying as a self-employed person.
Do I really pay less tax in the UAE?
There's no personal income tax on employment or freelance income, so the savings can be substantial. No state pension accrues for expatriate residents and there's no unemployment entitlement, so it only holds if you fund those yourself.
Can I keep my existing clients if I move?
Yes. Under an employment model like Hightekers, the client relationship stays as it is, and your client signs a service agreement and receives invoices from Hightekers instead of from you.
