| Few comments on this, I live and work in Germany as Freiberufler for last couple of years or so. > * the most difficult tax system in the world. even freelancers have to use accountant services, because most people will not be able to pay taxes properly without it. Nothing strange about it. When I was self-emoloyed in the UK, I also had to use services of an accountant. > * high taxes - 42% income tax + Solidaritätszuschlag 5.5% = 47.5%; for corporations it's ~30%. Taxes are high but, for example, Belgium has higher taxes. In the UK I was also hitting 38%. Corporate tax in the UK was back then 20% with 10% tax on dividends, Germany is expensive but not the most expensive. > * A LOT of buerocracy. I can't even send an email to tax authorities in my area, because they only accept paper letters but nothing else. Where do you live. No problem with Finanzamt in NRW and RLP communicating over email. Germans do almost everything on paper but things can snd are done over phone and email. > * highly qualified foreigners have to learn German and it's quite difficult language. No, they don‘t. It depends who your clients are. I live in NRW and barely speak German. Not proud of it, learning. Just an observation. For sure it‘s easier with the language knowledge. > * the market in Germany is much smaller comparing to USA. If you want to target EU, then you have to support a lot of different languages, date/time formats, regulations and laws etc. I am not sure what you mean by that. I just invoice people in different countries. Nothing to do with dates, languages, formats. > * recently the EU introduced a lot of additional regulations for internet companies (GDPR, new copyright directives that require checking uploaded files, etc...). Personal preference. I prefer this over another facebook or google. > * weather is not that appealing as in the valley.
> * the difference in salaries between regular developers and rockstars is very low. So there is zero motivation to become one. Fun fact, a graduate in Atlanta gets ~90k/year. Zero experience, barely left university. > * low salaries for software engineers. The most of senior software developers will earn 50.000 - 60.000 EURO anually and after paying taxes it's only ~2.600 EURO per month (3.000 USD) This number seems to be common everywhere in the EU. Different currencies but overall the same value. > * poor internet connection in a lot of places / poor connection speed - almost any country is better in this regard Oh yes. This is so common in Germany. When I read how easy it is to get fibre in India, I cringe. |
During the late 80ies, Germany was on track to have 1G fibre connections everywhere by the end of the century.