How to get invoices from un-registered freelancers?

Never pay anyone without an invoice. Never. If these freelancers don't know how to setup an invoice, it is honestly their problem. Having said that, I always tell them to go use a free tool like invoiceninja.com or you can send them a template they can use.

Even if they are not registered in their country as a business, you can ask them to invoice you as an individual and then pay them.

"your invoice has zero legal value" sounds like a great way to avoid paying people.. It probably works up until someone brings you to court.

If you're required to business only with entities registered with some 3rd party (who? some government? your government?) then you should be able to refer to them for whatever documentation rules there are.

Maybe your accountant has not sufficiently explained the details you you, or is just outright mistaken themselves?

As a "freelancer" living in/working from a country where there is no legal concept of being a sole-trader/freelancer/self employed without a registered business entity, I would say this:

It's not your problem. There is exactly one thing your company can do (which defeats the whole purpose): open a branch office in their country and employ them as a regular role.

If you're not doing that, how they issue you an invoice is irrelevant to you.

Seek advice from a different accountant. It sounds like he is structuring things a certain way that may require that but a different setup might benefit you more.

In my country there is something called "self-invoicing", basically the company issues the invoice on-behalf of a freelancer, withholds the maximum tax at source (eg 50%) and then pays the rest to the freelancer. Not much different from a payroll.

It is then the responsibility of the unregistered freelancer to go and reclaim their share of taxes from the tax authority (since they usually don't have to pay taxes, not even VAT, until they reach a certain annual income limit). IMO, it is much less of a hassle to simply register as a sole proprietor correctly than to go through this process.

Also, working with such people (who didn't even bothered to register as self-employed) can create accounting and legal/HR headaches for a properly run company.

The first time I encountered this was when the startup company, I worked for, hired an 18 y.o. freelancer for a one-time job.

Nex time at another company, we wanted to purchase a software, and turned out it was just a single guy without any business license or a company, so our CFO had to spend days to draw a purchase contract, so he could've been paid.

> But our company needs legal invoices Needs or wants?

VAT taxes and such are the responsibility of the seller, not the buyer. Your freelancers can make their invoices in Excel or Pages, send them to you and you pay. There is no reason that there would be an issue. Sometimes a company has accountants who are lacking and only know how to do one thing, unwilling to learn. I highly doubt his/her claims that all invoices have to come from a registered business entity. But for these kind of questions you need to tell which country you're to get the most precise answers.

I'm confused - an invoice is just a statement of what is owed. It isn't a formal legal document. So I'm not sure what their setup has to do with it, or what you mean by "has zero legal value"?