martedì, novembre 11, 2014

Throwing shit out

Things are ticking along amazingly fast towards departure. I really like this practice I've got going of only putting a few things on my to-do list - things I can reasonably accomplish within a few days - and then scratching them off. And making them bite-size. For example, "Throw Shit Out." That I can do. If I throw out one box of shit once a week between here and February, I'll hardly have to pack a bag at all.

Talking with a good accountant there has also helped. German tax law. Hah! The three words together look so funny on the page. It's like writing "God is good" or "Life is hard". Three words with whole fucking universes of meaning behind them to the degree that even saying them is at best meditative or mantric and at worst totally fucking incoherent. Anyways, he seems to be a good accountant and was able to quantify for me what I do before we leave and what I have to do right after. The Byzantine nature of German tax law looks to be working out for me at the moment too, since they have a special, obscure statute for self-employed journalists that seems to promise to make life rather easier for me.

And maybe I'm counting my chickens, but I think that this move might be a relatively easy one based on the fact that we know it's going to be fucking devastatingly hard and we started - okay, realistically, I started intensive preparations for it back in September. We've both done the trans-global moves a few times before, together or singly, and I think have both tended to leave stupid, stressful amounts of time to ourselves to get everything done. But now that we have Godzilla, we're not quite so dumb. A little better, I hope, at managing our time.

We'll see. I'm curious myself to see how much of my own hair I've pulled out by the time we leave. 

5 commenti:

Erik Bartlam ha detto...

When I was in Germany...not only did we have a good exchange rate...we didn't have to pay VAT.

I do not envy that aspect of your life in Europe.

Mistress La Spliffe ha detto...

That's another pleasant wrinkle. Since my clients are overseas, I don't have to pay VAT on my earnings, but I can claim it back on all my expenses. Wheeee!

Anyways, my understanding is that taxation in 'Murrca stacks up really high once state and federal demands are combined . . . not to mention the bite of health insurance . . . without a whole shitload to show for it . . . no?

Erik Bartlam ha detto...

Hell yeah...once you start making any money at all.

Health insurance isn't that bad...normally it's provided through your employer. They act like a buying group and you get a decent deal...and complete control (BLB's doctor is the wife of my mentor in college...Martha, has MS, and has the best Neurologist in the state...who she can fire if she wants...that sorta thing). God only knows what's about to happen with all that though!

The state taxes depend on where you live. I don't like paying anything other than a usage tax but, in Mississippi state taxes are more a nuisance than a burden(in a sane world this is where our tax dollars would be going first).

It's the Federal Income tax and then the witholdings for entitlements that kill you. Social Security...you take my money and maybe give it back at 1 or 2% and tell me it's for my own good. Thieves.

For a while now we've had to turn over 25% on Federal Income tax alone. B***

Without the VAT it's probably not such a bad deal.

Mistress La Spliffe ha detto...

I've never lived anywhere without VAT or something like it. I guess it not being there helped make cross-border shopping in 'Murrca so awesome even when the Canadian dollar was trading so low for so many years.

Anyways, I guess I'm used to it, although I think it's a dreadful and nasty sort of idea.

My buddies who have moved down your way did so from Europe where they were on public health care. The paterfamilias reckons things with his health insurance now are cheaper than they were in Europe under the public health system, but once you count in the extra coverage for his kids and stay-at-home wife the expense goes crazy . . . does that make any sense?

Erik Bartlam ha detto...

Yeah it can be tough on one income. When my insurance started going wacky because of the recent changes we had to move the Boy to an individual plan to avoid the increase on dependents (that was one of the cheery new developments of ocare).

There are options though...that's one thing that people can have a hard time getting used to...even people that have always been here. You can shop anything.

This is part of what Martha does.