Kontist in Times of Corona Crisis

First of all, we hope you’re all fine and healthy. The greatest wealth is health, as they say. But we have to admit: We are not doctors or even virologist giving you advices to stay healthy. But what we can do, is that you as a self-employed are not alone in this crisis. We show you how Kontist is still working – remote, of course –  and at the same time meeting our responsibilities to our colleagues and all other people. In the last few days we’ve all learned it’s very important to flatten the curve of the virus. That’s why everybody at Kontist is working now from home. This is how we minimize all contact to other people and prevent infecting.

Compensation for the Self-Employed

The German government offers compensation in case you’re not able to work on a project because of being in quarantine. This is regulated by the Infection Protection Act (IfSG) and you can read about it here. 

Finanztip summarized the different options of compensation here.

It’s very important to know: a voluntary quarantine is not a reason for compensation!

You need the public health office to attest the risk of contagion for you, and you will be forced to stay at home and cannot work. For this you need to file an application to the health office. The compensation is measured according to your former earnings.

The newspaper TAZ hyperlinked an application form for compensation according to IfSG – to the website of Lower Bavaria and the server for forms of Bavaria. It seems TAZ couldn’t find anything for Berlin or other federal states. Freelance.de says this is in the responsibility of the single federal states and can be different in each one. Saxony has already announced this and set a deadline of 3 month to send the form for compensation. For all other federal states you should ask IHK. We at Kontist trying our best to provide you with more information on this and will update this post.

Who gets Subsidies – a Petition

A lot of us remember the last financial crisis very well. And a lot of us remember how the government helped with double standards. David Erler from Leipzig remembers this, too, and initiate a petition to urge the government to support not only companies and their employees, but also to consider all the freelancers and artists. Their situation might be even worse and David calls for a non-bureaucratic way to help these people financially. We support this! On 14/3/2020, 10pm, his petition “Hilfen für Freiberufler und Künstler während des #Corona-Shutdowns” (Help for Freelancer and artists during #corona-shutdown) got already 137,000 supporters.

What’s next with Kontist and Corona?

If we only knew, a lot of uncertainty would be taken from us. Media is telling us daily: Don’t underrate this situation. There is no reason to panic, but we take this very seriously. We should be careful and avoid public transfers and crowds of people whenever possible. A reliable information source is the podcast of Prof. Dr. Christian Drosten, a circumspect virologist who explains the crisis very well and who is one of the top experts on corona.

In addition to it, government will determine what kind of limitation will come next.

We at Kontist will go on as usual in remote mode – without constraining our service or development. Small obstacles, like a lacking screen or an uncomfortable chair to work from home, will be solved in a quick and pragmatic way. And this solution-focused mindset will help us in the coming weeks to think about how to improve the situation of the self-employed in these times. If you want to share your thoughts and suggestions, get in touch with us and mail to support@kontist.com.

Stay healthy and keep washing your hands.