“Me, Inc.” or “Going Corporate – Week 1″

I’ve always wanted to avoid to get involved with dealing hardcore with insurances, taxes and all that hassle one gets when not being employed. But, well, I don’t get any younger, my spending sprees on the web don’t get any cheaper and I realized that I just frickin’ can’t stand a nine-to-five job. So that’s why I decided to register a business here in Austria.

I’ve been limiting my work output way too long to only a certain annual income so I won’t have to pay (too much) taxes as a freelancer here in Austria. But that’s over now. Since there’s a new fiscal law in place in Germany since January (and I have German clients as well), I need a VAT-number — or pay taxes to Germany, which would hurt. A lot. And the only way to get a VAT is from the IRS when running a registered business.

So I started researching on how to pull it off and stumbled across a nice website that helps people just like me getting started here in Austria. There’s a big PDF of more than a hundred pages as a guideline which tells you only the most important stuff you need to know about taxes and insurances and what not. Result: I was confused and quit halfway though the taxes-section.

Yet I found out that I need an appointment for an information session that is hosted by the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber. I wrote an email asking about an appointment, they responded reassuringly fast that they do not have one within this week, still I should call.

That’s what I did. In half a minute I learned that there’s a weekly workshop for founders, every day for a different sector. Since I am not planning to sit amidst butchers and carpenters I asked about the next session for media designers. I ain’t one but have any of you ever tried to describe to a person not in the industry what a Digital Compositor is? I did. Response: “And what kind of music do you compose?”

The lady asked me about name, street address and email, whether I want to become a full-time or part-time businessman and how to spell “gmail.com”.

So this session will be next Monday, 1 p.m. and I am ready to freak out all the other prospective entrepreneurs with my look and attitude. I’ll keep you informed.

And in the view of recent occasions: No, you can not become intern at Phil Strahl, Inc. — at least for now.

I've always wanted to avoid to get involved with dealing hardcore with insurances, taxes and all that hassle one gets when not being employed. But, well, I don't get any younger, my spending sprees on the web don't get any cheaper and I realized that I just frickin' can't stand a nine-to-five job. So ...

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