Chance encounters and tough decisions

This week I had to make an unpleasant decision. I may have mentioned earlier that we had little problems with our tax advisor. Maybe I didn't. Anyway, I better tell the whole story.

Our enterprise counselor recommended her tax advisor to us. This tax advisor, let's call her Frau S., has her office in Dortmund and it takes about 20 minutes from our door to her office. We met and found that she's a very nice lady and gave her the task of making the necessary tax returns for year 2005. This was in May 2006 and soon after we left for a business trip in Paris. The value added tax inside European Union ws unclear to us at the time. We had our suspicions but wanted to get confirmation from a professional. The email we sent to Frau S., received a somewhat icy reply. We were supposed to find out ourselves. Some gruelling hours spent on German law pages in the internet and I was pretty certain of the right way to invoice our customer.

Later it turned out that the invoice was correctly done when it came to VAT.

A former colleague of mine, let's call him Mr.H., started his free-lancing career a few months later than I and got some tips for tax advisor. He shared his tips with me and recommended Herr H., who turned out to be an extremely helpful and resourceful tax advisor. He would answer our questions quickly, professionally and per email. We agreed to meet him and asked a ton of questions. He responded and never billed us for the two-hour discussion. There were no strings attached, Herr H. knew that we had another tax advisor at the time. Knowing Herr H. made us look more carefully at how Frau S. and her office operated.

In September we received the intended tax return forms from Frau S., which promised a handsome tax return in cash. As it happened, we had another meeting with Herr H., who happened to glance at the papers. He immediately noticed a way to make the tax return considerably bigger. With LEGAL means, which he emphasized. He explained the concept and we agreed to ask Frau S. to correct the so far made forms in this new way. We were anyway going to ask for a correction, because we had noticed that a sum in the tax forms didn't match with our receipts.

Frau S. told us that she knew about the concept but didn't think it would come into question in our case for year 2005, when we had no income from the new business yet. The concept was about planned investments, which normally happen during the next two years, but in this special case of just founding a company, the time frame is five years. With the new concept we could plan five years of investments and reduce 40% of their value from the taxable income, which made a big difference in the tax return.

Frau S. told us that an assistant of hers, Fräulein S., would do the necessary corrections. She did change the forms and go for a holiday. Unfortunately she made the corrections based on the two-year period, which is the normal case, although she had been instructed to use the five-year period. Frau S. had to step in and make the corrections herself.

Two weeks later we received the very favorable tax decision. That was last Friday. On Monday I had to call Frau S. and discontinue our co-operation. She was slightly taken aback and asked if it was because of the original error. Unfortunately I had to say, that the error wasn't the only reason. The helpfulness in things outside of Germany, the chaos in the office and the distant location were factors too. On the whole I was satisfied with the way things ended, but the way there was a bit too bumpy for my taste. When I hire an advisor for good money, I expect him or her to be of help to me. When I have to know much more and find out about things I am not interested in, I find the advisor less useful.

On Monday I signed the contract with Herr H. whose office is about five minutes from our door, on foot. That should simplify things. I feel sad for Fräulein S., who must have not had it good in the office in the last days. She managed to misplace our receipts for year 2005, a whole folder of them! Luckily they were found and we await a package to arrive anyday now. Then the matter is finished. Hopefully.

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Funny coincidence today, we had been shopping in the city for a few hours and I had been carrying the book I borrowed from Laurent a few weeks ago. Anonymous Lawyer it's called, a very nice book. We come out of a shop and I decide to call Laurent and see if he is at home, so I can bring the book to him. We weren't really standing close to his home, I had planned to take a walk to his place, leave the book and meet Virpi again in the Bermuda Dreieck. I call Laurent, he says he's not at home, but walking towards Bermuda Dreieck, I turn my head, see a man in a black shirt talking on his mobile and say "I see you!" He saw me almost instantly and we shake hands. He had been on his way to a Citibank ATM and grocery shopping in the Bermuda Dreieck.

This chance meeting must make Bochum look extremely small, and the city centre isn't very large, to tell the truth. Not to mention the fact that there seems to be only one Citibank ATM, because Laurent is always using that one and it is more than a kilometer from his home.

Anyway I managed to return the book without having to walk too long and we ended up eating dinner in San Diego. The restaurant, not the city.

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Suomennos: veroasiat selkiytyvät tulevaisuudessa, kun rouva S.:n toimiston sähläyksestä päästään eroon. Uusi veroneuvoja onkin paljon lähempänä, kävelymatkan päässä. Lisäksi hän on asiantunteva, auttavainen ja sähköpostitsekin tavoitettavissa.

Tapasin Laurentin tänään sattumalta kadulla juuri kun soitin hänelle. Melkoinen yhteensattuma.