evildudette

I signed the biggest contract in my company’s history, and made 4 job offers to grow the team. Onwards and upwards!

My cat’s heart is ok! This is a very pleasant surprise and means he is well enough to have the operation he needs, at which point he should be a properly healthy kitty for the first time in what I expect to be several years.

I have to cancel a very much needed trip this weekend because my cat is sick. I’m at the point of burnout and desperately in need of a break, but I adopted a sick cat a few months ago and they just found a surprise heart issue that’s going to be expensive. Sigh.   As all the prices have now shot up i won’t be able to rebook either.

Alternatively ask them to hire you through a PEO until the German entity is set up. It isn’t the cheapest option but works well.

I’m ten years in to a 6 week trip. I’m at the point where I would probably leave if I had anywhere else to go. Berlin is so transient that almost all the friends I made here are no longer here; I have to essentially ‘start over’ for the 4th time and I’m sick of it. My relationship did not survive lockdown and don’t get me started on dating in Berlin, especially in your 30s. I miss the food and friendliness of the UK, but I never wanted to live in London (which is one major reason I stayed) but realistically I would have to live there for my industry. Plus if I left and wanted to return, I literally couldn’t afford it given the massive hike in rent since I moved here. So I’m pretty stuck.

I went to a restaurant on opening night on Friday. It started raining and I got drenched, but I can tell you that I haven’t been that happy in months.

My favourite one was when I was waiting for important legal documents that I had to sign for. They didn’t come and I got notice that it had been delivered to a packstation, but not which one. I then went to 5 or 6 trying to find out where the damn thing was.

My appointment was booked for mid June but I just saw that they have availability for Moderna this week so I called up and changed it. Am quite excited!

Alex is not being treated as a Kleinunternehmer in terms of VAT. You do not make quarterly VAT filings as a Kleinunternehmer. Alex’s claim that they are a Kleinunternehmer is presumably based on predicted revenue but they have opted to register for VAT. When filling out the Steuerliche Erfassung you have to specifically opt in to get a VAT number if you have low revenue and then have to do your accounting accordingly.   edit: I’m relatively sure that once you opt to do VAT as a Kleinunternehmer you cannot change it for 5 years, but I may be misremembering that part. I think you should contact the Finanzamt to clarify your status.

When you are a Kleinunternehmer you can choose whether or not to register for VAT. From your post, it is clear that you did register. That means that you do charge VAT. While making over the revenue threshold obliges you to declare VAT, It isn’t the case that making under that certain revenue means you can’t charge VAT, but rather that you can declare that you aren’t going to under the legislation. So to answer your questions:   1. You charge VAT.  Whether or not you pay VAT depends on where you are buying from. If they do a ‘VAT free option’ such as Metro, you can use that. It’s just slightly different accounting. In the end you will pat the same. 2. Yes you can claim back VAT on expenses. 3. You do charge VAT. As you don’t understand the mechanism, I recommend you either pay someone to do the return for you, or invest a couple of hours paid time for someone to go through the Elster returns with you.

This should probably be moved to the legal sub forum.   Out of interest, were you working for them onsite before the pandemic or have you always been remote? 

I’m in my 30s and in Berlin and got my letter a couple of weeks ago (first available slot was mid-June). People in this age group are invited under certain medical conditions. The other way which is common for this age group is if you are nominated by a pregnant woman. They can nominate two people to be vaccinated as they are not permitted to have it in Germany.

I have received my code, but the earliest non-AZ date is in June. So even if you receive an invitation, it will be a while before you can get it.    

1. A Musterprotokoll simply means using a standard template agreement to keep lawyer fees down. Directors and people running a company are not automatically the same as the owners. 2. If you are working for your UG then yes you should have a work contract. It is not assumed that you as an owner will be working there. If you want to be paid for working there, yes you need a work contract. You can’t just take earnings out of the company to pay for your living expenses (that goes for the directors too, you have a specific Geschäftsführervertrag to regulate that).   However, I would recommend that if you’re both going to be working on it, you would both be registered as directors. Otherwise one of you will simply be a normal employee which you may want to avoid. Either way, it sounds like you should speak to a lawyer about the regulations of business ownership in Germany, because I don’t think you understand the implications.

That’s correct.