First of all, let's check the basic information before becoming freelance, such as the definition of how freelance works and the difference from sole proprietors.

Definition of freelance
Freelance refers to people and work styles who do not belong to a company or organization and work by freely concluding a contract. Freelance is a work style in which individuals undertake work. Typical freelance jobs include writers, cameramen, and translators. In addition, with the development of IT technology, the number of programmers and engineers working as freelancers is increasing.

Also, as a trivia story, I will introduce the origin of the word "free lance". Translated literally, free means free and lance means spear. You may be wondering why a spear is attached. There is a theory that this is derived from the fact that when mercenaries were active in medieval Europe, mercenaries who did not belong to enemy forces were called "free spears (from loyalty and master-slave relationships)".

Difference between freelance and sole proprietorship
There is a word "sole proprietor" similar to "freelance". These two words seem to be similar, but have different meanings. Let me briefly explain this difference.

A sole proprietor is a person who runs a business individually without establishing a corporation. This is a tax income category. In the case of a corporation, sales are declared as corporate business income, whereas in the case of sole proprietorship, they are declared as individual business income.

Freelancers are often sole proprietors because they undertake work individually, but they may also have a legal entity. Therefore, some freelancers work under the name of a corporation rather than a sole proprietor. In addition, sole proprietors may employ employees to run stores. Sole proprietors who operate as an organization even if they are not such corporations are not called freelancers.

In other words, freelance and sole proprietorship are strictly different categories. Let's use it properly according to the situation.

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