U.S. massage therapist new to Germany (Mannheim)

Hello, all!

My name is Stephen and I wanted to introduce myself to you guys.

I've been a Certified Massage Therapist for 8 years in the states serving clientele in the MD/DC Metro area. I moved Mannheim over a month ago to live with my GF and to take a job doing bodywork for The Villa Kennedy in Frankfurt as well as recreate my private practice here in Europe. Now that I have my Work Visa and there's no uncertainty about me remaining in this wonderful country, I feel secure enough to hop on these forums and really begin to make myself part of the crowd.

Just being here for a month has left me with many questions as to how to go about certain things. I was wondering if any of you could offer some advice for them. Forgive the randomness of these questions but I'm on limited time for posting this. LOL :

1) My Power Converter that I use to recharge some of my small US appliances like my Elec Razor, Toothbrush, etc. has stopped working and I heard that can be handled by replacing the fuses for it. Any places that I could get something like that?

2) I took my Massage Website in the states down and am planning on restarting it here in Germany. Anybody know of a good and cost-effective company that can handle putting up my site in both English and German as I plan to be working on both the natives and the soldiers and their families in the Mannheim Area?

3) Are there any local papers both for Americans living in Mannheim and Local Mannheim folk where I should be advertising my services?

4) I miss my Jeep back in the states like crazy and it only has 60k Miles on it. I hear that I have a year to have it shipped out here before Germany taxes me for it. Is this true? And, even if it is, would you recommend me doing something like that or just to sell it and buy a used car out here? Speaking of taxes...

5) I hear that registering as Kleinunternehmer (small business) is easy on the taxes for your first year. Any advice from people that started their own business after arriving here?

I think those are more than enough questions to bug you guys with for now. LOL It's great to meet you all and thanks for whatever advice you may have!

As the internet goes all over the world, I am trying to figure out why?

Spaboom (the company that ran my website in the states) said they didn't have the resources to handle business transactions in different languages or to add the German language capability to my site. Still great people though.

The transformers I have (big square Tramacs, most of them) use barrel fuses, which you should be able to get from any auto parts store (maybe the Real in Viernheim, or the BauHaus next to it). Obviously, make sure you get the same rating - bring the fuse with you. Apologies if I am insulting your intelligence, I forget to do little things like that myself


The military community has a couple of papers, Heidelberg Post and Stars & Stripes. You may want to check out the stripes website (stripes.com).


Not sure - your best bet would be to contact the Zollamt (customs). I dealt with the one in Heidelberg (http://tinyurl.com/3sx2f4) but it's a REALLY good idea to bring a translator with you ;-). As an aside, remember that all your POL (not just gas) is a lot more expensive out here - get your oil changes etc. done before you ship it ;-)

If you register as a Kleinunternehmer you wont need to include VAT on your bills. You will have to write something like "Mwst wird gem. §19 (1) UStG nicht erhoben." on every bill. So you can offer your services cheaper for your non-business clients (probably all of them). Another benefit: you dont need to do all the administrative work that is connected with the "Umsatzsteuervoranmeldung". On the other hand you cant subtract VAT from the things you have to buy for your business. Keep in mind that there is a threshold for your turnover. If you earn more you cant be a "Kleinunternehmer". But for the first year it might work fine.

Another thing that needs to be checked: maybe the services you are offering are VAT free according to §4 Nr.14 UStG ("heilberufliche Tätigkeiten"). But thats a topic to discuss with your tax advisor.
There are other threads on this forum on "Mwst", Kleinunternehmer" and "Existenzgründung" if you want to know more. But talking to a professional would probably be a good idea.

Thanks for the input, gang! I'll look into everything you guys said. Thanks again!