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Why (or why not) to move your company to Amsterdam

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Re: Why (or why not) to move your company to Amsterdam

#21

Post by jonascopenhagen »

mtrimpe wrote: post #18
sgt wrote: post #15

Also factor in the time you're going to be spending learning Dutch. You'll probably get by with English alone since everyone will speak it with you, but it's certainly less than optimal.

Apart from London Amsterdam is probably the city where you can get by most easily speaking only English. It will be hard to fully integrate into Dutch social life without learning proper Dutch of course, but professionally it will not be much of a problem and the expat community is so large that it is fairly easy to build a decent social life within it.

> Amsterdam is probably the only city, apart from London, where you can get by perfectly speaking only English.

You can get by perfectly speaking only English in most of Northern Europe.

Southern Europe is a different story.

Re: Why (or why not) to move your company to Amsterdam

#22

Post by nirvana »

netrus wrote: post #3
nirvana wrote: post #2

If you run a successful business in holland, and pay yourself a salary out of it, your tax rate is over %70! And on top of that, you have %20 VAT. And this isn't even going into the manifold fees and other types of taxes you are subjected to. ------------------------------- This comment is not spam. It had a nice positive score until the socialists arrived. Of course, socialists being unable to deal with reality (or…

20% of your net income, so it's half as bad :) Plus, if your cool startup should not succeed and you get ill: Don't worry, everything will be fine :)

Milton Friedman did a study of healthcare in the USA, and found that the government "help" had driven up the cost 26fold and driven down availability. Or put another way, the reason people could get bankrupted by an illness is socialized medicine, and it's also the reason they might not be able to find care when they need it. Contrary to what Obama says, socialism doesn't work, and if you think you'll get better healthcare in the NL than in the USA, you'll have a very rude awakening... but of course you won't be alive to post your mea culpas here on HN. Frankly, even assuming this shows a profound ignorance of both history and economics.

Re: Why (or why not) to move your company to Amsterdam

#24

Post by nirvana »

subsystem wrote: post #12

The real question is of course "Is it better than Berlin?". I personally wouldn't bother with any European city with housing market problem, excluding London.

No. And contrary to what others have said, more Germans know english than Dutch know english, on a day to day basis. Though you can get by without knowing dutch in amsterdam with a little creativity.

Re: Why (or why not) to move your company to Amsterdam

#25

Post by nirvana »

walshemj wrote: post #7
nirvana wrote: post #2

If you run a successful business in holland, and pay yourself a salary out of it, your tax rate is over %70! And on top of that, you have %20 VAT. And this isn't even going into the manifold fees and other types of taxes you are subjected to. ------------------------------- This comment is not spam. It had a nice positive score until the socialists arrived. Of course, socialists being unable to deal with reality (or…

Why would you include corp taxes in that. I looked at Amsterdam as a move and it was about the same as the UK and other European states, and as I have the max years in for the uk pension scheme I was temped to move to Holland to buildup a second pension there. The lack of a VCT's, CGT exemption and taper relief is an issue for smaller investors - Seems to me that the ducth have a lot of german style Mittelstand compa…

Ok, so you don't pay %50 on 1/3rd of your salary for 10 years. I wouldn't exactly call that "an amazing tax break". You're still paying way too much in taxes.

Re: Why (or why not) to move your company to Amsterdam

#26

Post by patrickk »

mtrimpe wrote: post #18
sgt wrote: post #15

Also factor in the time you're going to be spending learning Dutch. You'll probably get by with English alone since everyone will speak it with you, but it's certainly less than optimal.

Apart from London Amsterdam is probably the city where you can get by most easily speaking only English. It will be hard to fully integrate into Dutch social life without learning proper Dutch of course, but professionally it will not be much of a problem and the expat community is so large that it is fairly easy to build a decent social life within it.

Dublin? Everyone in Ireland (well 99.99%) speaks English as their first language. Some people even speak Irish ;)

Re: Why (or why not) to move your company to Amsterdam

#27

Post by nirvana »

ddbryant wrote: post #9
nirvana wrote: post #2

If you run a successful business in holland, and pay yourself a salary out of it, your tax rate is over %70! And on top of that, you have %20 VAT. And this isn't even going into the manifold fees and other types of taxes you are subjected to. ------------------------------- This comment is not spam. It had a nice positive score until the socialists arrived. Of course, socialists being unable to deal with reality (or…

Let's not make up numbers... Income tax is high here (not 70%) but you know, you get what you pay for. If you're American the 30% rule kicks in as long as you are here on a dutch american treaty visa or sponsored by a company. Any American can start a company here and get a 1 year visa. That's a pretty low barrier or entry compared to most countries. Corporate tax is also incredibly low, with a ton of benefits for th…

Those aren't made up numbers. I actually did the math based on my income. How about you stop being a dishonest coward who characterizes your opponent, rather than making an argument, hmm?

You don't get what you pay for, of course, if you bothered to actually add up what you really do pay, and what you really do get, but then that is the essential swindle isn't it? You and all the rest of the thieves like to pretend like it's better to pay government $20,000 a year for services the free market would happily deliver for $20. And then you act as if those of us who point out we're getting ripped off are "greedy", or in your case-- dishonest.

Well, if you have to lie to make an argument, that tells me even you know your argument is the suck.

Re: Why (or why not) to move your company to Amsterdam

#28

Post by anton-107 »

nirvana wrote: post #24
subsystem wrote: post #12

The real question is of course "Is it better than Berlin?". I personally wouldn't bother with any European city with housing market problem, excluding London.

No. And contrary to what others have said, more Germans know english than Dutch know english, on a day to day basis. Though you can get by without knowing dutch in amsterdam with a little creativity.

Every educated Dutch person knows English. Even more than that - they willingly switch from Dutch to English when an international person joins the conversation. I can't say that I got the same impression about German people. They have very monolithic culture and it's not very open to foreigners.

So if you do not want to learn neither Dutch nor German you better move to Amsterdam than Berlin.

Re: Why (or why not) to move your company to Amsterdam

#29

Post by digitalengineer »

josscrowcroft wrote: post #8

So, although I found the article a little bit light, I'm fascinated to hear anybody's experience of Amsterdam for solo entrepreneurs and creatives. I've been considering it as a place to live, work and play for a while. E.g. what are the pros/cons of moving there for 3–6 months, assuming there are no plans to raise funding, hire staff or rent an office?

Dutchman here. Depends on where your from. Trying to find an affordable place to live can be difficult. (Depending on what you feel is affordable). On the other hand, distance is nothing in Holland. You drive through the entire country in 3 hours. An affordable place to live just 30 min outside Amsterdam is a lot easier. Public transport is good, most of the time. Driving and parking in A'dam is expensive as well... Most people just drive a bike (not a motorbike). There's a ton of info over at http://appsterdam.rs/

Re: Why (or why not) to move your company to Amsterdam

#30

Post by digitalengineer »

sgt wrote: post #15

Also factor in the time you're going to be spending learning Dutch. You'll probably get by with English alone since everyone will speak it with you, but it's certainly less than optimal.

Actually quite difficult to learn Dutch. Just about everybody will start to talk English to you when they notice you're from UK/US.
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