Work Moving me to Europe - Any Advice?

[PricklyPete]

Colleagues are one thing, but I'm talking about the population at large.

Other than that, it sounds like you are pretty much packed. Have fun... post pictures.

You are absolutely right...and that is who my wife would mostly be exposed to.

Unless some glaring issue comes up that can't be solved, we are likely to do this. Life is too short not to take opportunities like this and I feel this is the best move career wise for me (long term vs. short term).

 

[rh71]

We just bought & built up the house less than a year ago and my wife makes more than I do at her place so I don't know what I'd do if my company makes me move... actually... yeah they pay me shit so I'd simply quit. I wish I got an opportunity like that, but I'd also miss the US. Everytime I go somewhere beyond the borders for vacation I'm itching to come back in 2 weeks.

 

[Leymenaide]

Facts of life:
1. You will be renting and may need to buy everything this encludes ceiling light fixtures.
2. Prices are not that scary if you learn to live like a European. except for meat. You will buy just what you need and have your last oversized steak before you leave.
3. I cleared Zurich Customs with a dog and two cats. Did all the paper work myself. You can do it.
4. U.S. taxes will kill you. If you get and you will get mandated state benifits you will be taxed in the U.S. on them. You will pay 35% tax on them. On top of Eruopean taxes I had to pay about 20% more back to the states. It took all of the Joy out of Life. You must check with a Austrian -U.S. tax person before you go. Some companies agree to pay these taxes. They can only say no. I had my german lessons and daughters school added to my taxes which added 40k to my income.

I love living in Europe but U.S. taxes are Hell.

Do it for yourself but do not plan on coming back rich.

 

[PricklyPete]

Facts of life:
1. You will be renting and may need to buy everything this encludes ceiling light fixtures.
2. Prices are not that scary if you learn to live like a European. except for meat. You will buy just what you need and have your last oversized steak before you leave.
3. I cleared Zurich Customs with a dog and two cats. Did all the paper work myself. You can do it.
4. U.S. taxes will kill you. If you get and you will get mandated state benifits you will be taxed in the U.S. on them. You will pay 35% tax on them. On top of Eruopean taxes I had to pay about 20% more back to the states. It took all of the Joy out of Life. You must check with a Austrian -U.S. tax person before you go. Some companies agree to pay these taxes. They can only say no. I had my german lessons and daughters school added to my taxes which added 40k to my income.

I love living in Europe but U.S. taxes are Hell.

Do it for yourself but do not plan on coming back rich.

Thanks, will definitely have to start looking into the tax situation immediately. This experience will not be for getting rich, but on the flip side I do not want to lose my shirt because I did not properly plan/negotiate.

 

[soulcougher73]

You suck . Would love to go to Austria.

 

[amish]

hi, i specialize in expatriate taxation. if you have any specific questions feel free to PM me. it can be quite complicated and there are a few things that you should ask your employer. the first i would ask is whether or not tax assistance will be provided. your return is going to get messy and your employer will most likely put your relocation expenses in your W-2. you need to make sure you aren't being harmed by this.

 

[PricklyPete]

hi, i specialize in expatriate taxation. if you have any specific questions feel free to PM me. it can be quite complicated and there are a few things that you should ask your employer. the first i would ask is whether or not tax assistance will be provided. your return is going to get messy and your employer will most likely put your relocation expenses in your W-2. you need to make sure you aren't being harmed by this.

Thanks amish...will probably send you some PM's after I start looking into things.

 

[amish]

Thanks amish...will probably send you some PM's after I start looking into things.

no problem. i just looked up the Austrian tax rates and the highest rate is 50% once you hit 60K euros. overall their tax rates are higher. because of this you should effectively pay no US taxes due to the foreign tax credit that you are allowed to take. However, you still need to file your return to take the credit and will need to file as long as you are a US citizen.

so the big problem is that tax rates are higher and is your company going to cover that additional cost?

i would personally ask for a tax equalization plan. this plan has your accountant prepare two returns. one return that includes everything that needs to be reported to the IRS. it would include all of your assignment related expenses and credits (tax withholdings made by the company, the foreign earned income exclusion, and the foreign tax credit). this would be the return that actually gets filed with the IRS.

the second return would be your "hypothetical" return. it would treat you as if you had never left the US. it would compute what tax you would have owed had you not started this assignment. it would remove all assignment related income and benefits within its calculation.

at the end there would be a true up. you and your employer actually paid X. you hypothetically should have paid Y. and you would either receive payment from your company for excess taxes paid or you would pay your company if they paid too much in. it is a little more complex but that is the gist of it.

 

[PricklyPete]

no problem. i just looked up the Austrian tax rates and the highest rate is 50% once you hit 60K euros. overall their tax rates are higher. because of this you should effectively pay no US taxes due to the foreign tax credit that you are allowed to take. However, you still need to file your return to take the credit and will need to file as long as you are a US citizen.

so the big problem is that tax rates are higher and is your company going to cover that additional cost?

i would personally ask for a tax equalization plan. this plan has your accountant prepare two returns. one return that includes everything that needs to be reported to the IRS. it would include all of your assignment related expenses and credits (tax withholdings made by the company, the foreign earned income exclusion, and the foreign tax credit). this would be the return that actually gets filed with the IRS.

the second return would be your "hypothetical" return. it would treat you as if you had never left the US. it would compute what tax you would have owed had you not started this assignment. it would remove all assignment related income and benefits within its calculation.

at the end there would be a true up. you and your employer actually paid X. you hypothetically should have paid Y. and you would either receive payment from your company for excess taxes paid or you would pay your company if they paid too much in. it is a little more complex but that is the gist of it.

Thanks again amish! I will definitely talk to you some more shortly.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Never been involved with a move like that, sounds like it would be a blast

 

[Born2bwire]

Thanks amish...will probably send you some PM's after I start looking into things.

The simple answer is that you get a tax exemption on the first $90K that you make. I only had to worry about those simple situations myself but that credit can make a difference. I'm going to submit a revised 1040 for my 2008 return claiming my exemption and that gets me back $1K in US taxes for only a small change in my taxable income (~$6K).

Anyway, I would say do it if you feel that you are in a position to do so. The longer you wait, the harder it will be in the future as you become entrenched in a community with assets and possessions. You can ship stuff but I think you just need to be judicious about what you send and what you choose to buy while you are over there. High value small items like electronics are your best bet to mail and alot of items now have universal transformers. My laptop, toothbrush, razor, cellphone and Kindle all worked overseas and back home. Also, keep in mind the added costs of import and taxes of buying things in Austria. It may be cheaper to ship electronics that you own in the US over. Even when I lived overseas, I found it cheaper to order a lot of my stuff from the US as opposed to buying locally (and I lived in a free port).

But if you are going to go back to the States in a few years, think about storing some items if you can get a relative to store them for you. I just came back stateside this year and although I stored a lot of my stuff, I still spent a lot of money rebuying stupid little things that I did not think were worthwhile. I probably spent $1K over what I budgeted when I came back for things like kitchen items, dishes, vacuum cleaner, household cleaners, linen, etc. The same can be said on how you should budget when you move out there. You're going to have to buy a lot of little things and groceries when you get over there.

Also, be sure to line up international banking ahead of time. My biggest headache was banking when I left because I had to apply for new bank account. So I could only draw what little cash I could from the ATM from my old bank until I got my first paycheck deposited. Ended up just having to loan a grand from my colleague to pay my apartment down until I could get my first paycheck cashed. Then there was the problem that my bank wouldn't touch foreign checks for the first 6 months. So all the refunds from my utilities and whatnot went to waste. Exchange rates for me were not a problem because my currency was effectively pegged to the US Dollar.

 

[amyklai]

I wouldn't think too much about the money, that's not the main concern.
Mainly, i's a big opportunity to experience living in different culture, learn / master a language, meet lots of people and see lots of stuff. That experience alone is wort a lot.
But at the same time, lots of things are going to be more difficult, simply because of the language barrier and because lots of little cultural differences.

So, basically the question you (and your wife) should be asking yourselves is whether you're really interested in all that new stuff and whether you're up to the challenge of dealing with learning the language and the culture or if you prefer having it comfy and staying at home.

 

[PricklyPete]

The simple answer is that you get a tax exemption on the first $90K that you make. I only had to worry about those simple situations myself but that credit can make a difference. I'm going to submit a revised 1040 for my 2008 return claiming my exemption and that gets me back $1K in US taxes for only a small change in my taxable income (~$6K).

Anyway, I would say do it if you feel that you are in a position to do so. The longer you wait, the harder it will be in the future as you become entrenched in a community with assets and possessions. You can ship stuff but I think you just need to be judicious about what you send and what you choose to buy while you are over there. High value small items like electronics are your best bet to mail and alot of items now have universal transformers. My laptop, toothbrush, razor, cellphone and Kindle all worked overseas and back home. Also, keep in mind the added costs of import and taxes of buying things in Austria. It may be cheaper to ship electronics that you own in the US over. Even when I lived overseas, I found it cheaper to order a lot of my stuff from the US as opposed to buying locally (and I lived in a free port).

But if you are going to go back to the States in a few years, think about storing some items if you can get a relative to store them for you. I just came back stateside this year and although I stored a lot of my stuff, I still spent a lot of money rebuying stupid little things that I did not think were worthwhile. I probably spent $1K over what I budgeted when I came back for things like kitchen items, dishes, vacuum cleaner, household cleaners, linen, etc. The same can be said on how you should budget when you move out there. You're going to have to buy a lot of little things and groceries when you get over there.

Also, be sure to line up international banking ahead of time. My biggest headache was banking when I left because I had to apply for new bank account. So I could only draw what little cash I could from the ATM from my old bank until I got my first paycheck deposited. Ended up just having to loan a grand from my colleague to pay my apartment down until I could get my first paycheck cashed. Then there was the problem that my bank wouldn't touch foreign checks for the first 6 months. So all the refunds from my utilities and whatnot went to waste. Exchange rates for me were not a problem because my currency was effectively pegged to the US Dollar.

Thanks, I'll certainly keep all of this in mind.

 

[PricklyPete]

I wouldn't think too much about the money, that's not the main concern.
Mainly, i's a big opportunity to experience living in different culture, learn / master a language, meet lots of people and see lots of stuff. That experience alone is wort a lot.
But at the same time, lots of things are going to be more difficult, simply because of the language barrier and because lots of little cultural differences.

So, basically the question you (and your wife) should be asking yourselves is whether you're really interested in all that new stuff and whether you're up to the challenge of dealing with learning the language and the culture or if you prefer having it comfy and staying at home.

Of course the temptation to not go through the hassle is always there, but I enjoy new challenges and I feel like taking advantage of these types of opportunities usually snowballs into more opportunities in the future. I like to keep my life interesting even if it makes things a bit more difficult at times.

 

[manimal]

I absolutely loved our time in vienna. Congrats of the move. If you plan on having kids I would seriously consider it when you move. When I worked at the Wien Staatsoper I absolutely loved my daily ritual. Viennese culture really fascinated us. Great people!

Ah the good ol days before kids made everything complicated lol

 

[Born2bwire]

Thanks, I'll certainly keep all of this in mind.

One other thing though, for the most part you don't need to worry about customs and duties when you move back to the US. As always, you will want to look at the rules for shipping and bringing stuff back into the country. However, most objects are not going to be valid for collecting duties upon if you have owned them for over a year. So household goods that you buy in Austria that you have owned for at least a year will not have duties exacted upon them.

When I came back, I listed the goods that I bought in Hong Kong but also noted that they were over a year old. I had a camera and a watch down amongst other high ticket items but they just waved me through customs. There are a lot of little exceptions to this but this was another thing that I came across when I was planning on moving back to the States.

So for me, the biggest things that stick out in my mind was planning the move to and back again. Storing what I could in the US and bringing what I could overseas (don't forget to look into the costs of surface shipping some of your things. It will take a month or two to ship but it will be much cheaper). Getting things ready for me before I got over there (had a flat arranged from a colleague already there but I still had the runaround getting a bank and credit cards).

The other thing was visas and having to stay on top of that. The biggest problem I had was that I was on a contract basis and it got renewed every year. So I could not get my visa renewed until my contract was renewed. This caused problems because my employer was so slow about getting the contract renewed. The last time they didn't renew my contract until two days before the old one expired and I had a lot of explaining to do at the immigration office since I couldn't apply for a new work visa until two days before my old one expired. But the actual visa process for me was a breeze, part of which is probably because I was American. My Chinese colleagues had to go through so many hoops for their visas, even for just Hong Kong visas.

 

[KeithTalent]

You lucky son of a bitch. Vienna is amazing! Hell of an expensive place, but damn I loved it there.

KT

 

[Koing]

Update?

Koing

 

[Stifko]

Congrats, I am jealous too. Vienna's sister city is Zagreb. Their theaters are identical and beautiful.

 

[debian0001]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6NgB7Vy_9c hahahaha.