Best Continental Country to Work In?

[portseven]

Fancy trying a gig on the Continent/Scandinavia my requirements are...

• Least hassle from a tax point of view
• Decent flights (price and connections from Manchester)
• Good amount of English spoken
• Comparable rates to UK

[northernladuk]

Some guides on the different countries here that might help....

Overseas Guides - IT Contracting in Australia, USA, South Africa and Europe :: Contractor UK

[SueEllen]

If you like the country then you won't need the return flights.

[Mister Clark]

Fancy trying a gig on the Continent/Scandinavia my requirements are...

• Least hassle from a tax point of view
• Decent flights (price and connections from Manchester)
• Good amount of English spoken
• Comparable rates to UK

Holland on all points except perhaps tax. I could go door to door flying from City in 2.5 hours. Expensive mind you (not that I was paying the air fair).

Jersey is fun as well (does that count as continental?!).

[IR35FanClub]

Fancy trying a gig on the Continent/Scandinavia my requirements are...

• Least hassle from a tax point of view
• Decent flights (price and connections from Manchester)
• Good amount of English spoken
• Comparable rates to UK

not France. guy i used to work with married a French girl and moved there. Ager 5 years they back to the UK as he was paying over 50% in taxes as a contractor. something to do with having to pay business taxes and then employee taxes iirc.

[sirja]

I think the Netherlands wins on 2 your criteria ie Lots of English speakers, and low hassle with Tax. in the Netherlands you go on the payroll of an umberlla companny and they handle everything. As an IT Contractor you would qualify for trhe 30% rule which menas the first 30% of your income is not taxed. Rates tend to be high there as well(although not as high in the current climate) and of course it's got Amsterdam!

I would avoid scadinavia. Quite expenseive to live in!

[chef]

Fancy trying a gig on the Continent/Scandinavia my requirements are...

• Least hassle from a tax point of view
• Decent flights (price and connections from Manchester)
• Good amount of English spoken
• Comparable rates to UK

German perspective
- tax is fairly striaghtforward if you have multiple clients or can show that your business income is not greater than 60% from 1 source in a 2 year period, that way you can be a freelancer, tax benefits (i.e tax deductable expenses) are similar to have a ltd in the uk with a sliding scale tax rate. It gets even better if you are married as you can then split income between partners with the lower earner paying the higher rate of tax and the large earner paying the lower rate. if you breach the 60% / 2 year rule then you should really looking into setting up a gmbh (uk ltd equivalent), that then gets expensive as you are required to put up 10k guarantee.
- cologne/duesseldorf both have excellent flights to manchester as does berlin. munich has connections but no cheap flights as far as i know.
- everyone speaks english and I knwo people who get by with little to no german but as in most countries if you speak the local language life becomes a lot easier
- costs are roughly equivalent to uk but imo quality of life is far better

[norrahe]

I put my vote up for the Netherlands, but if you are going to contract there make sure you have a good accountant who understands tax law, you can use your UK ltd there despite what all the agencies tell you. If you do use an umbrella, do your research as many of them haven't a clue how to deal with expats especially in regards to taxes, so make sure you have someone who knows what they are doing.
Good connections with most of UK flightwise, most people speak English, rates are higher than the UK ( going by London rates).

The contract market there is pants if you don't speak the lingo atm, they are taking the recession a tad more seriously than the UK and contracts are at all all time low if you're not a fluent speaker. On the technical side there's still a few English speaking roles out there.

Hopefully things will pick up now there's been an election and hopefully a decent coalition government but that won't happen for another six months.

Apart from that its a great place to live and good quality of life, they have a good work/life balance ( staying late doesn't happen).

It is quite expensive cost of living wise ( rent, food etc..) and very bureaucratic, especially if you live outside of hamsterjam and if you're a foodie then don't expect haute cuisine, the dutch aren't known for their love of food.

[northernladuk]

It is quite expensive cost of living wise ( rent, food etc..) and very bureaucratic, especially if you live outside of hamsterjam and if you're a foodie then don't expect haute cuisine, the dutch aren't known for their love of food.

Oh I don't know. They make the best cakes I have ever had

[norrahe]

Oh I don't know. They make the best cakes I have ever had

Which you won't be able to sample any more as the dutch passed a law saying only locals can use the coffee shops