Netherlands

[Elevator_Music]

Coffee shops indeed. A bit of personality dis-order & paranoia the next day is just the ticket to get through boring meetings...

Jokes aside, when I was there they had just passed the smoking ban legislation, so all those smoking had to be outside. Coffee shop owners were mightily hacked off - reckoned they would all be out of business by the end of the year.

[bradleylloyd]

LTD In the Netherlands

I am currently working in the Netherlands for an english LTD subcontracting to a dutch company and being payed through an umberella company.

On a new contract the dutch company has offered me a direct rate with them, however for this I would have to work through my own VAT registered LTD (which I have)

My hourly rate would effectively double, however I am unsure how I would need to operate in order to be compliant with the dutch tax system.

If anybody has any advice, or indeed an accountant with this area of expertise, i would be much obliged.

[herman_g]

Amsterdam coffee shops!

Did a year there back in '96 - at the stock exchange.

My colleagues were all too busy drinking those little glasses of Heinekin with the investment banking crowd to even notice my coffee breaks. My boss ( we were sharing a houseboat on Brauersgracht - some days I wondered if he was still alive when I left for work ) missed far more billable days than me.

Coffee in the morning on the way to work. Coffee at about 10:00 a.m., lunchtime, afternoon coffee and several coffee breaks for the late night bug-fixing.

Definitely some of my best quality coding ever ( I know it doesn't work that way for everyone )!