LeeHambley

Principal Engineer, Triathlete, Open Source Aficionado, Husband, Father, 70s Car Restorer. he/him

[LeeHambley @LeeHambley]

@BBCLondonNews People clearly not reading the article here. He was charged not for yelling that statement at the police for for participating in violent protests with the police and yelling anti Islamic remarks which has been illegal since the Public Order Act 1986 (Section 29).He deserves jail

[LeeHambley @LeeHambley]

@TweetsOfSumit @AndreyEreminDE Could not agree more, it feels like a mafia-alike protection racket.

[LeeHambley @LeeHambley]

@kenshirriff Those "bellows" I think are called Bourdon Tubes.

[LeeHambley @LeeHambley]

@mikejulian They're great tools if people use them anywhere close to "properly" and for power users they offer a lot more than Linear/Notion and the other fancy immature stuff.

[LeeHambley @LeeHambley]

@thorstenball I've appreciated the offer to be paid, but since I'm in Germany it's often more hassle than it's worth, so I encourage people to donate to a charity on my behalf. (source: two "paid" podcast appearances) I figure it's close to the similar time invest of what you're asking.

[LeeHambley @LeeHambley]

@chill_institute your service seems to be struggling, auth taking 30 seconds, and searches just hanging.

[LeeHambley @LeeHambley]

@halfbyte I do everything I can not to fly. It became a wholly unpleasant experience. (Although I like to _fly_) I'd be happy to see the end of €25 flights and to see more people using trains and their own cars for travel.

[LeeHambley @LeeHambley]

Setting up little control cabinets with high end German stuff (@Wagoelektrik ♥️) and solid core wire is so satisfying. I get to feel like @MohitBhoite for a moment!

[LeeHambley @LeeHambley]

Sad to hear about @VanMoof beginning effectively bankruptcy proceedings this week. Lovely, innovative bikes. Weird to read about them being a VC funded E-Bike company, I had no idea and would never think of them for ebikes. Good luck to all affected.

[LeeHambley @LeeHambley]

@ArmandGrillet Lovely to hear from you Armand ❤️ thanks for sharing! Nice write-up. I've run the same system (incl.) US funding and a C-Corp back in 2016 for an EU-seeded, US-ventured startup right before we met. Since then, I'd do exactly as the article recommends. 👏thanks!

[LeeHambley @LeeHambley]

In Germany it is effectively required to consult a tax consultant to do the annual filings. I spent a few days to "reverse engineer" all the previous filings the pros prepared for me, and to take a pass at the current years taxes to try and find out what I've been paying for.

[LeeHambley @LeeHambley]

@thorstenball Agreed, such as how in the US you don't even need to keep receipts for company costs. That seems caviler to me, but also the 300-field form for my profit/loss calculations for a company that turned over 100k for the IHK seems like overkill.

[LeeHambley @LeeHambley]

@thorstenball That said, I like the German system more than the US one, and less than the UK one. There's probably some bias in there, but the US system is the unregulated wild west, the German system is an ineffective bureaucracy, and the UK system, after the UK's investment into tech is good

[LeeHambley @LeeHambley]

@thorstenball It's a good point, I've sat through so many speed-readings at the Notary, and it's a bit of a circus. I especially like how our Notar complains about the €600 he spent for boat fuel on the weekend, whilst telling me about my bill.

[LeeHambley @LeeHambley]

@thorstenball My company is in the "Sperrjahr" now because I don't want to do this anymore. My UK company taxes were easy to file, and I didn't have dread to my bones about what happens if I get it wrong.

The German system isn't just intimidating because I am foreign, it's just .. difficult.

[LeeHambley @LeeHambley]

@thorstenball Absolutely, it's really depressing. The ebilanz software is, I have to say, pretty good. But I hate everything about the culture of this in Germany. I'd happily pay more tax than absolutely required, to have a transparent process I could understand. (and, I may.)

[LeeHambley @LeeHambley]

/thread -- this is a bit of a rant, and a bit of a sum-up of some general frustrations I still have with Germany after 13 years here. I'm well educated, smart, determined, and it still takes literal days of work to muddle through, what in the end are simple enough forms.

[LeeHambley @LeeHambley]

...and I wonder, how many cool indie things are not getting off the ground.

Also, nobody is incentivized to fix this; tax consultants make great money doing mundane work, and it's very difficult to get pro-bono community help or education because of the laws about tax advise.