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The Origins of the Wirecard Scandal

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Re: The Origins of the Wirecard Scandal

#111

Post by hiq »

lnsru wrote: post #92
hiq wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Swiss salaries for engineers weren’t that different from my German salary. Don't you (and your company) pay way more taxes in Germany than in Switzerland? I've never applied to Munich positions but everything I've read point to a significant gap between Zürich and Munich in software engineering, even before taxes. But maybe that's only valid for software engineering and not so relevant for other engineering fields?

I am an electrical engineer. My offers in Switzerland were ~120k CHF. I didn’t look at Zurich because of the crazy rental prices. My C# colleague got 160k CHF proposal in Zurich , that sounds okayish. But he wasn’t convinced seeing kindergarten cost of 3000 CHF monthly.

I admit I don't know how you end up when you factor in the price of kindergarten, it's significant indeed.

> I didn’t look at Zurich because of the crazy rental prices.

That's also where you have the highest salaries though... With the same reasoning nobody would work in the SV. And as soon as you start looking outside of the city center you quickly find cheaper accommodation.

But I think the main difference is really the taxes.

Re: The Origins of the Wirecard Scandal

#112

Post by NautilusWave »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #25
allendoerfer wrote: post #14

There are federal elections in September in Germany. CDU just fell behind the Green Party in recent polls and SPD (whose Olaf Scholz ultimatively was in charge of BaFin) is a shadow of it's former self anyway. I do not think the everything will turn for the better, but I am hopeful that some actions will be taken. The political style of Merkel - and Germany as a whole for that matter - of a steady hand and waiting fo…

>I take a socially relatively cohesive country, where an illness or going to university will not bankrupt you, where your kids can travel alone in public transportation, where police shootings per year are single digits, where the air is very breathable and the tap water is drinkable over world leadership any time You're obviously entitled to your oppinion, but can we please stop pushing this cherry picked cliché nar…

Your list of cliché European issues, are also Usonian issues...

Re: The Origins of the Wirecard Scandal

#113

Post by ivanche »

allendoerfer wrote: post #76
ivanche wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's true that the capital gains taxes are really high. But there are at least some exempts: 1) first 801€ for an individual or 1602€ for a couple are tax free (every year); 2) if you invest in ETFs that invest primarily in stocks first 30% of capital gains are tax free

> 2) if you invest in ETFs that invest primarily in stocks first 30% of capital gains are tax free Citation needed. I would argue the point is actuallly the opposite: Capital gains taxes are actually lower than income taxes on your salary. Properties do have an unfair advantage, though, because they can be sold tax free after 10 years. We do need something like a 401k. But if you read the election manifestos of diffe…

> Citation needed

Here are 2 links that explain in detail [0] [1]. I'm sorry I misinformed you about Steuerbescheinigung - it's not visible there, but it is when you do Steuererklärung with smartsteuer.de.

[0] https://www.lohnsteuer-kompakt.de/fag/2020/2895/was_ist_die_...

[1] https://www.fondsclever.de/ratgeber/lexikon-investmentfonds/...

Re: The Origins of the Wirecard Scandal

#114

Post by allendoerfer »

ivanche wrote: post #113
allendoerfer wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 2) if you invest in ETFs that invest primarily in stocks first 30% of capital gains are tax free Citation needed. I would argue the point is actuallly the opposite: Capital gains taxes are actually lower than income taxes on your salary. Properties do have an unfair advantage, though, because they can be sold tax free after 10 years. We do need something like a 401k. But if you read the election manifestos of diffe…

> Citation needed Here are 2 links that explain in detail [0] [1]. I'm sorry I misinformed you about Steuerbescheinigung - it's not visible there, but it is when you do Steuererklärung with smartsteuer.de. [0] https://www.lohnsteuer-kompakt.de/fag/2020/2895/was_ist_die_... [1] https://www.fondsclever.de/ratgeber/lexikon-investmentfonds/...

Interesting, I was only aware about "Vorabpauschale". I read that this one ("Teilfreistellung") evens out, because in turn taxes for fonds increased.

Re: The Origins of the Wirecard Scandal

#115

Post by dna_polymerase »

allendoerfer wrote: post #101
dna_polymerase wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> German universities are indeed world-class. It's not like uneducated people can export this much. We export modern versions of the same motors we did for decades. Took one south african immigrant to overthrow our car companies plans for years. > The university rankings do not take into account that research in Germany happens at Fraunhofer or Max Planck, which are door to door to their respective university and hav…

I think you are massively overestimating the rest of the world. The perfectionism shown in your comment is exactly why the world (correctly or incorrectly) trusts German products.

I did not make any claim about the rest of the world. And the fact that you try to dodge the substance of the argument and instead try to talk trash about other nations shows everything wrong in the western world, but especially Germany.

Re: The Origins of the Wirecard Scandal

#116

Post by volta83 »

dmayle wrote: post #95
volta83 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Fine, but can we please stop pushing this cherry picked cliche narrative of "US bad because healthcare, shootings and tap water."? Are you saying those aren't issues? Because I've lived in the US, and know many Europeans that have lived there or traveled there on holidays, and pretty much all of them agree that: - the first time in their lives they were afraid of getting ill was when they started living in the US -…

The GP is not saying they aren't issues, just that they don't add much value to the conversation. It's especially clear in how it triggered your response... and in how you've mostly overlooked those same problems in Europe (with the minor nod on violence). I'm an American and European (yes, two passports) who has lived in three different major cities in the US, two in Europe in separate countries, and I've traveled e…

I don't know who downvoted you, but I don't disagree with you. As mentioned, there are homeless, fat people, and violence in Europe.

This is not about whether these things exist or don't exit at some place, they exist everywhere in the world.

The difference is just the quantity, how often, how many, how much fatter.

Everybody I know that grew up in Europe and has traveled to or lived in the US found the difference in quantity "shocking".

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