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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

#61

Post by mtrimpe »

digitalengineer wrote: post #36
pogosian wrote: post #6

Do they have some sort of startup visa in Netherlands? Something like UK's Tier 1 Entrepreneur perhaps?

Even better, according to the guys at Appsterdam there's this piece of law created after WW2 where anyone from the US can start their own company in Holland. USA citizens can apply for a Dutch residence permit to be self-employed or operate their business in the Netherlands. They can also sponsor their married partners and minor children for residence. http://www.expatlaw.nl/dutch_american_friendship_treaty.htm

And we also have a classic entrepreneurs visa, for which you'll be evaluated on education, experience and the innovativity & financial position of the company.

If you're a solid startup that should be fairly easy to pass, but it's not a done deal. Only about 300 people per year pass the criteria in practice.

You can find the criteria in Dutch here: https://zoek.officielebekendmakingen.nl/stcrt-2010-16617.htm... That URL breaks Google translate oddly enough though, so you'll have to copy and paste the content.

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

#62

Post by mtrimpe »

nirvana wrote: post #22
netrus wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 heal…

You, my friend, seem to be having mental health issues.

We have an excellent support system for that in the Netherlands if you're interested...

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

#63

Post by patrickk »

mtrimpe wrote: post #53
ay wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just for the record: No, it's not part of England ;-) The Northern Ireland (its capital Belfast) is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland, alongside with England, Scotland, and Wales. Dublin is a capital of the Republic of Ireland, which is on the south, and is a separate country (TLD .ie :) which uses euro as the currency, contrary to the UK's pound. I am being a bit pedantic with since the…

Just for the record, I was being facetious. My apologies if I misjudged the freshness of the wound.

It's a bit like making a joke about Israel/Palestine.

In Northern Ireland at least, you had state-sponsored terrorism by the police, IRA blowing up civilians, thousands killed - the very worst sectarianism imaginable. Some of this continued into the 90s so yes, the wounds are still fresh.

That doesn't even delve into the long, brutal history between Ireland and England spanning centuries, a relationship that's only healing today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Troubles

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

#64

Post by nephronim »

raverbashing wrote: post #52
digitalengineer wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's an overview with pictures and prices. Remember it's cheaper 30 min outslide of the city. http://www.funda.nl/huur/amsterdam/sorteer-huurprijs-op/p8/ Edit: What kind of jobs exactly?

Thanks for the link This prices are not expensive Ok, let me be more specific - Sw developer makes how much, and that's how much after taxes? - Senior Sw/Tech lead makes how much, takes how much home? For reference, here's Dublin: - Sw dev jobs pay around 3k to 5k per month, taking home btw 2k and 3k for that interval - A small flat, city center, 1 bedroom can go between 600 to 900, if you go a little further you can…

moving from dublin to amsterdam the housing is a nightmare in general. But once you get the ring of it, you will be okay. There is more freelance opportunities but you need dutch working with the tax system.

It a relaxed transient culture in amsterdam and it takes time to break into circles.

And in general the weather is better than ireland.

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

#66

Post by joonix »

digitalengineer wrote: post #36
pogosian wrote: post #6

Do they have some sort of startup visa in Netherlands? Something like UK's Tier 1 Entrepreneur perhaps?

Even better, according to the guys at Appsterdam there's this piece of law created after WW2 where anyone from the US can start their own company in Holland. USA citizens can apply for a Dutch residence permit to be self-employed or operate their business in the Netherlands. They can also sponsor their married partners and minor children for residence. http://www.expatlaw.nl/dutch_american_friendship_treaty.htm

I'm guessing residents under this visa don't get any government benefits such as free healthcare, correct?

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

#67

Post by digitalengineer »

nephronim wrote: post #64
raverbashing wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the link This prices are not expensive Ok, let me be more specific - Sw developer makes how much, and that's how much after taxes? - Senior Sw/Tech lead makes how much, takes how much home? For reference, here's Dublin: - Sw dev jobs pay around 3k to 5k per month, taking home btw 2k and 3k for that interval - A small flat, city center, 1 bedroom can go between 600 to 900, if you go a little further you can…

moving from dublin to amsterdam the housing is a nightmare in general. But once you get the ring of it, you will be okay. There is more freelance opportunities but you need dutch working with the tax system. It a relaxed transient culture in amsterdam and it takes time to break into circles. And in general the weather is better than ireland.

Very true: "but you need dutch working with the tax system." Hell, even I have help with the tax-system. A small tip regarding housing: Visit the neighbourhood of choice after/around eight o'clock to get a feel of the streets.

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

#68

Post by digitalengineer »

mtrimpe wrote: post #62
nirvana wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 heal…

You, my friend, seem to be having mental health issues. We have an excellent support system for that in the Netherlands if you're interested...

Let's add a little balance: Health care in the us can be excellent and yes, better than in the Netherlands. (I'm Dutch by the way and have friends who have flown to the us specifically for healt-related issues. There are stories in the media here about communities saving for sick kids so they can get help in the US. The US is at the forefront of health).

However this excellent care is only available for people who can afford it. In the Netherlands they'll help anyone and they won't ask you for your credit card. No one goes bankrupt because they got ill and needed an operation. Downside of this is they can't help everyone right away and you need to wait some time before it's your turn. I had a nice talk about this with a surgeon for about two hours as he and his team were inserting four big metal tubes in my eye,draind all the fluid before puming it back up again with air and freezing the tissue back together again from the inside. At the end of the year I paid about $350 bucks and got my eysight back. The 350 bucks included all my ckeckup visits.

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

#69

Post by digitalengineer »

joonix wrote: post #66
digitalengineer wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even better, according to the guys at Appsterdam there's this piece of law created after WW2 where anyone from the US can start their own company in Holland. USA citizens can apply for a Dutch residence permit to be self-employed or operate their business in the Netherlands. They can also sponsor their married partners and minor children for residence. http://www.expatlaw.nl/dutch_american_friendship_treaty.htm

I'm guessing residents under this visa don't get any government benefits such as free healthcare, correct?

I think you just buy regular basic insurance like the rest. It costs about €99,-

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

#70

Post by sgt »

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.

Exactly my point. It's going to be possible to get by, but hard to integrate into dutch society and social life. That's just how it is in every country. Let's be realistic here.

Take Norway for instance, everybody loves to speak English but you'd really need to learn Norwegian to fully enjoy living there for years on end.

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