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Ask HN: Leaving Germany – where to find quality of life as experienced engineer?

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Re: Ask HN: Leaving Germany – where to find quality of life as experienced engineer?

#231

Post by enviclash »

bartminton wrote: post #104
numlock86 wrote: post #57

Sounds like you should/want just move out of Berlin, not necessarily Germany. Sure, the tax situation and climate is basically the same everywhere, but if you want quality of live I'd recommend somewhere near or between Oldenburg and Emden in Lower Saxony. Once you settled in basically everything east of Bremen and south of Osnabrück will feel like a different country. I basically had the same situation for decades a…

We still consider a place outside Berlin / Brandenburg. Still that does not change the fact, that the current state of affairs here is hard to digest. We also and especially look for a "warmer" and "brighter" region. German winters tend to be hard, not because of the temperatures, but because of the hours of sunlight. However, thank you for the suggestion, we'll definitely check them.

Then you must try Freibug: more sun, more happy faces, relatively well connected, and other good subjective feelings.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving Germany – where to find quality of life as experienced engineer?

#232

Post by jaclaz »

lormayna wrote: post #130
jaclaz wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Moreover, the probable new government, will make immigration way more complex. Immigration from Germany? Both Italy and Germany are countries in the EU, hadn't you noticed.

Fratelli d'Italia (the party that is going to win the election and lead the next government) propose in his program to exit from EU, even if not explictly.

Ah, well, then they will propose it covertly?

Like - say - let's remain in the EU for the moment, but let's deprive non-italain EU citizens of their fundamental right to establish their residence in Italy (or in any other EU country).

https://ec.europa.eu/info/policies/justice-and-fundamental-r...

Re: Ask HN: Leaving Germany – where to find quality of life as experienced engineer?

#233

Post by codewithcheese »

thyselius wrote: post #146

I'd look into Bali. The new five year digital nomad visa means you pay no income tax. A beautiful villa is $300-600 per month. You could be working from a beach club with pool, gym, healthy restaurant and tennis court, like Titi Batu https://goo.gl/maps/KGfy6hqscZ2XKrzQ8 Price is very low, a 30 min taxi ride is $1.50, a main dish at a fancy restaurant is $5-7. The food is the best I've ever had, weather is wonderful,…

This is over hyping Bali.

Yes you can get a place for $300-$600 a month but it won't be so easy to find anything more than a single room at that price, you may get a kitchen but it takes a bit more looking depending on the area. The kitchen will be outdoors, not like a western kitchen.

If you want a real "villa" with a living room then you should at least double that price, and it will be an outdoor living room, with bugs and heat. A villa with an indoor living room is quite rare.

Taxi's are cheap, 30 min taxi ride is more like $3, using an app, but if you use a local taxi then $10, and it will take 30 min just to go a few kms because the traffic is so bad.

The roads in Bali were not planned and many were just paths between rice fields that have been turned into a narrow two lane road. In many cases a car will have to pull over just to let through passing car past.

The air quality is poor by western standards https://www.iqair.com/au/indonesia/bali

The beaches and not good, especially around Canggu, with black stand and trash and dog shit. The beaches down south are much better but that part of Bali is very over developed.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving Germany – where to find quality of life as experienced engineer?

#234

Post by jaclaz »

lormayna wrote: post #213
grumpitron wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe you need Italian ancestry to become an Italian citizen. It's a piece of immigration and not the whole pie, but could've been the intention.

If you are an EU citizen, you can live in Italy without any kind of visa. And also the requirements to get italian citizenship are shorter.

As a matter of fact there is no need whatever to get italian (or any other EU country) citizenship, if you are a citizen of any country in the EU you only need to register to the local authority as resident (after 3 months of staying).

If you really want the italian citizenship, you can ask for it after 4 years of (registered) residency in Italy.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving Germany – where to find quality of life as experienced engineer?

#235

Post by sneusse »

Well, if you don't mind (or like) living in a small village, Black Forest area. Housing is very affordable for good standard houses (just bought 170sqm house for 450k with renewable heating, decent energy efficiency). Nature here is awesome, QoL for us just perfect, having farms, forests, small lakes nearby. Kindergarden, Elementary School, Farmer-Stores in walking distance. Expect some cold winters every few years though :)

By choosing your village carefully you'll also get decent public transport to bigger cities (1h by train every hour to Stuttgart for us, 2h to Lake Constance).

For example we were considering this one: https://www.immobilienscout24.de/expose/133826271 But it was just too big for us. Add another 50-80k for upgrading the heating to a renewable one, some roof insulation and you're at 480k for 220sqm.

I'd expect that you'd find similar objects in like 1-2h around Berlin.

No idea how you cannot find a place in germany with 200k/y. I make about half of that and that's me providing a single income for our family and still saving up some money for the future. I'm not self-employed but with 200k income you should still have more left at the end of the month than we do, and we're doing fine (but we also don't need fancy cars or have fancy expensive hobbies)

Re: Ask HN: Leaving Germany – where to find quality of life as experienced engineer?

#236

Post by ultim8k »

atmosx wrote: post #126

Take a look at Chania, Crete Greece. You can setup a corporation in Greece and work as a contractor for local and foreign companies. That will get you 22% tax. Assuming you make more than 80k / year (after taxes) you'll be on the high-end. Housing is expensive for Greek standards but I'm pretty sure that you will be able to afford it. It is an island but pretty big. Has hospitals, universities, etc. Chania is a small…

I agree with you about food and quality of life.

Not so sure about the tax rates. Are you sure that 22% is all you pay? I'd be very surprised if this is with the Greek tax system.

Disclaimer: I'm from Chania and live in London the last 5 years and considering the possibility of working remotely.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving Germany – where to find quality of life as experienced engineer?

#237

Post by flakyfilibuster »

bartminton wrote: post #100
ThePhysicist wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does that work? I mean the tax rate is progressive and as a freelancer you only pay the normal income tax. If the tax authority insists you're a Gewerbe you'll have to pay Gewerbesteuer as well, but most of that can be deduced from your income tax already. Just wondering how you get at this number, calculating with 240 T€ and tax class 1 I only arrive around 40 % income tax.

You're right on progression and Gewerbesteuer deduction. Nevertheless I pay tax rate "Höchststeuersatz" at 45%. Add "Solidarzuschlag" and you end up very close to 50%.

sounds like you need a proper tax consultant

Re: Ask HN: Leaving Germany – where to find quality of life as experienced engineer?

#238

Post by aaaaaaaaata »

isubasinghe wrote: post #216
aaaaaaaaata wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Street arrests for imprisonment in quarantine will take a while for me to shake from my memories of AUS.

If you had to quarantine because you traveled overseas and you broke the law by not doing so, that should have been enforced.

Those were the only people being dragged to quarantine camps?

Are you sure about that?

Re: Ask HN: Leaving Germany – where to find quality of life as experienced engineer?

#239

Post by atmosx »

ultim8k wrote: post #236
atmosx wrote: post #126

Take a look at Chania, Crete Greece. You can setup a corporation in Greece and work as a contractor for local and foreign companies. That will get you 22% tax. Assuming you make more than 80k / year (after taxes) you'll be on the high-end. Housing is expensive for Greek standards but I'm pretty sure that you will be able to afford it. It is an island but pretty big. Has hospitals, universities, etc. Chania is a small…

I agree with you about food and quality of life. Not so sure about the tax rates. Are you sure that 22% is all you pay? I'd be very surprised if this is with the Greek tax system. Disclaimer: I'm from Chania and live in London the last 5 years and considering the possibility of working remotely.

Hello,

Disclaimer: IANAA, please consult a professional. I can hook you up if you want, with someone who knows these things much better than me (drop a PM via twitter, we're following each other apparently)

tl;dr: Business income generated by partnerships (OE and EE) that maintain single entry accounting books is taxed at a unified tax rate of 22%. In addition, any subsequent distribution of profits is not subject to dividend taxation.

To create an OE or EE you need to have a business partner. EE is better because your partner will have limited partnership liability. The partner can be family but there are some exceptions which I don't remember (e.g. if your wife is a public servant, etc.). The catch here is that you're fully liable in case the company goes bankrupt... But that should not be a problem for companies offering services, especially IT.

The alternative, if you are sole owner, is to create an IKE. Taxation then 24% tax rate + 5% on dividends.

link (in Greek): https://www.startyouup.gr/el/a/58-eythynes-omorrythmwn-etair...

In your case there's an additional benefit. In case you decide to transfer your tax residence back to Greece, you might be eligible for up to 7 years 50% tax reduction.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving Germany – where to find quality of life as experienced engineer?

#240

Post by przeor »

bartminton wrote: post #27
Matthias247 wrote: post #23

Having moved from germany to canada (Vancouver BC) in 2017, I can tell you that "quality of life" is highly subjective, and a lot of things in germany work far better than it seems - but you will only notice it if you have anything to compare against. E.g. [online] shopping and stock availability is so much better in germany, and you only notice what a privilege it is to get everything you need in 1 day once it's tak…

You touch a number of very important points here. Thanks for that. We're aware of the fact, that the overall situation in many countries in the world is much, much worse. So it's kind of a luxury problem. What is actually a challenge, is that I work as a freelancer for 20 years now and still have to go a long way to secure my private pension. I once calculated my personal "real" tax rate in Germany, and ended up at a…

I would pick Barbados for tax reasons
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