Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

visa.lafrenchtech.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

671–680 of 751 posts

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#671

Post by ekianjo »

tostaki wrote: post #560
ekianjo wrote: post #547

Earlier quoted context omitted.

tokyo has way better access to public transport than Paris. And better quality transport too. Again chauvinism coming out whenever anything is mentioned about France. Paris n est pas le nombril du monde.

I don't claim it's the best of the world but calling it expensive and dreadful if just not the reality. Compared to what I have experienced mostly in Europe I found it good and inexpensive.

You should mention the numerous strikes of the RER to give a full picture of the reality then. Because that's a real issue for people who want to rely ONLY on public transports in Paris.

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#672

Post by morgante »

benevol wrote: post #669
morgante wrote: post #663

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$200k is closer to 4-5%, not 1%. More importantly, I'm not making some grand proclamation on morality of French governance vs American governances. I'm just affirming that as a developer, you are much better off in the US (particularly NYC/SV) where such salaries are fairly achievable and common.

> I'm not making some grand proclamation on morality Me neither. The point I was making is: Due to content in our media/movies (and general culture), most of us tend to think that we will be millionaires in the future, which will lead us to sacrifice some important things and aspects. However, most of us do not end up being millionaires. More precisely: The $200k/yr only holds true for a certain lucky elite.

Sure, if by "most of us" you mean most Americans I agree.

If you mean most developers, I disagree. I think most developers can make $200k/yr if they want.

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#673

Post by ekianjo »

astrange wrote: post #655
josephcooney wrote: post #575

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone's public transport system looks shabby compared to Tokyo.

For a country about to have so many elderly people, I think the elevators are hard to reach and the floors shouldn't have been made of hard shiny/slippery marble. And it's actually quite expensive to get around if you start counting. There's nothing in the world to complain about aside from that.

> And it's actually quite expensive to get around if you start counting.

Because you are closer to paying the real price of the ticket than in Paris where transportation is heavily subsidized by the state. In Japan most train companies have now become fully private.

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#674

Post by ekianjo »

WildUtah wrote: post #619
ekianjo wrote: post #547

Earlier quoted context omitted.

tokyo has way better access to public transport than Paris. And better quality transport too. Again chauvinism coming out whenever anything is mentioned about France. Paris n est pas le nombril du monde.

tokyo has way better access to public transport than Paris. And at half the density. The median neighborhood of the Toyko metro area is 150 while central Paris is 300 and outlying neighborhoods—not as well served by transit as Tokyo's—are over 200. And better quality transport too. That's largely a matter of serving Japanese passengers. In my experience, no one else matches the consistent care and respect that even y…

> And at half the density

Density is a little bit bullshit, because density only takes in account the people living in a particular place, not the folks who actually commute every single day to work to go into offices where nobody lives.

Actually the rail network in Tokyo transports far more people than the RER/Metro in Paris, every single day.

Here: http://www.uitp.org/sites/default/files/cck-focus-papers-fil...

Tokyo is busiest rail network in the world. Paris is far, far behind.

> That's largely a matter of serving Japanese passengers

No, even the stations, the network, the trains themselves are of better quality that the ones in Paris, and have much higher passenger capacity too. Well, Paris' network is pretty old so you can't blame them for everything, but they have stopped investing heavily in transportation for a long time. The metro trains are still ancient in Paris.

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#675

Post by mahyarm »

morgante wrote: post #644
toomuchtodo wrote: post #643

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If its a tax advantaged account, its only a 401k at that income level; a traditional IRA is off limits, and while you might be able to do a backdoor Roth conversion, rumor is that loophole is going away. So what tax advantaged account are you using to stash away the other $77500/year?

I'm not doing all my savings in tax-advantaged accounts, but I get a fair bit through backdoor Roth, solo 401k, and HSA savings. Plus, as a small business owner I can deduct a lot of my expenses.

Well you do have several advantages since I'm guessing your probably in texas, nevada, flordia or washington:

1. Your not an immigrant, so you can structure things as a business.

2. You live in a place with a far lower cost of living than NYC or the bay area that would normally give you that kind of income.

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#676

Post by ekianjo »

astrange wrote: post #655
josephcooney wrote: post #575

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone's public transport system looks shabby compared to Tokyo.

For a country about to have so many elderly people, I think the elevators are hard to reach and the floors shouldn't have been made of hard shiny/slippery marble. And it's actually quite expensive to get around if you start counting. There's nothing in the world to complain about aside from that.

> I think the elevators are hard to reach

Well look at Paris' metro and its lack of elevators and escalators. Most stations have none! Good luck if you are in your seventies and your legs don't carry you anymore...

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#677

Post by kchoudhu »

Joky wrote: post #551
geoka9 wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, we do too. Was just making sure.

France has multiple level of "after-taxes" compared to the US though.

Can't be any worse than the Federal, State, City, property tax nightmare US residents in desirable locations (NYC, SF, LA) deal with.

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#678

Post by jpatte »

Something important to keep in mind for founders and investors I haven't seen mentioned yet: in France, capital gains are taxed at 33%. And there is an additional tax for wealthy people (ISF, impôt sur la fortune) to pay each year.

If you want to be a millionaire in France, get ready to pay hundreds of thousands of euros in taxes.

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#679

Post by sofia445993 »

erowtom wrote: post #510
renaudg wrote: post #425

Regarding French salaries again : yes they are lower than elsewhere but with some exceptions, French employers are not the problem : they do pay the same price for you as in other European countries, more or less ! The difference is that your average engineer in France costs them around 1.5-2.5 times the total take home pay, because of high, compulsory labor taxes. In exchange, employees get as standard : * a top not…

Update : Thanks for the feedbacks ! 1st update: Included mobile phone + Internet 2nd update: Huge update, completly forgot about one tax on the salary.. ----------------------- I'm French, I can give you some more details. I'm a full stack Ruby Developer, and I work at https://www.talent.io , the first recruitment platform for developers in Europe. (If you're looking to relocate in Paris, London or Berlin, you know w…

That’s interesting, thanks for the data points. Maybe I could chime in w/ comparison – living in Sofia, Bulgaria; doing consulting/contracting for Austrian company.

Brutto salary is €40k w/o bonuses; There’s flat 10% income tax and after maxing out fully the pension and health insurance payments the take-home pay roughly €35k.

I’m living w/ my girlfriend as well, so below numbers are to be divided. The expenses are as follow.

Rent

€250,00/mo for 70m2 / 1 bedroom apartment, fully equiped w/ new furniture in a nice and quiet neighbourhood.

Utilities

€30,00/mo electricity, €10,00/mo phone, €10,00/mo internet

Transportation

I’ve recently bought VW Golf 1.6TDI 2013’ in cash, so no car payments. Taxes and insurance are roughly €170,00/year. I’ve budgeted about €100,00/mo for fuel. Public transportation is fine, but we don’t use it.

Other

We don’t go to bars/restaurants and normally cook daily at home. About €250,00 are going for food, as this is mostly organic and local produced food w/ paleo-ish eating habits.

Total expenses are about ~€600/mo, which is 20% of my take-home pay; the rest is going to a generic savings account at the moment.

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#680

Post by [deleted] »

paulprins wrote: post #472

I'm a tech founder who is in Paris through a very similar program with Paris & Co, French Tech. If you have questions I'll loop back around to answer them based on my experience. Note: I didn't come with the French Tech Ticket (which was a different program that was more structured). I have an existing software company which I am expanding to France & Europe.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN