u/blueMarker2910

Hello

Have been freelance software engineer for 10+ years through my own BV/SRL.

One of my dreams for a very long time has been to own a porsche. More precisely, a porsche Taycan 4S Black Edition, which costs a bit more than 150.000 euro. I currently drive an extremely non-flashy car on a daily basis which for which I have a lease contract between my company and the car dealer.

Since I already have a car which I also use to work, apparently the government will not allow me to have a second car in my company (see this video). I also don't plan to drive the porsche everyday and go to work with it. So I would like to keep my primary car, if possible.

How would/do you deal with this? Do you pay yourself the dividends and purchase the car entirely privately or would you still someohow let it go through your company? Do you pay it in full or pay a part of it upfront and then lease it? Something else?

Thanks

Hello

DISCLAIMER: I am not posting this for promotional reasons or whatsoever. I am posting real data here so hopefully people could have a look and share their insights so I can learn and understand better what the matter might be.

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I am based in Belgium and have been working as a software engineer for nearly a decade, but as some of you know the job market is pretty brutal right now almost everywhere in the world. I am about to get laid off and have not found a job since multiple months. So I have decided to work as a roofer on the side so I -hopefully- don't end up without any revenue once I am officialy laid off. My father, who is very old now, taught me how to install roofing on flat roofs. I have helped him a lot when I was younger and have also entirely renovated the different roofs of my house as well as that of friends. I am confident I can take on almost any flat roof as a contractor. I know for a fact, that roofers are currently overbooked. You have multiple months of waiting period whenever you want them to come do something. So, the market is in need for more roofers where I live.

In order to land clients, I have now made the following website: https://www.dao-toiture.be/

However in the last 3-4 months I have not had a single call and would like to understand why. Based on the google-analytics information I receive, it seems like I get something like 30 visitors per month on my webpage. This IMO does not seem too bad, yet no clients.

If that matters, I also have a facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61584798562095

No, idea if having a facebook page helps. But it costs nothing to create one.

Could someone help me explain what the matter is? Why am I not getting significantly more calls considering the big demand there is? Is my website very bad? Is my SEO poor? Or is my google business profile somehow missing something?

I would be open to any input from you.

Thanks

Hello

I have been working in the private sector for a bit over 10 years as a freelance consultant and now applied for a job at the European Defence Agency (EDA) for the first time. It is a project officer role for a duration of 4 years. By reading through older posts on this subreddit I learned that studying in advance significantly increases one's chances of getting hired and many people seem to not do that. However most of the posts here seem to be about the European commission. On this basis I would like to know:

• which sources would you recommend to study for the EDA? Are the sources to study the same as for the European Comission? There also seem to be some sort of simulation of an exam ("EUtraining mock tests") which comes up every now and then.

• Based on the information I found online I am under the impression the degree of testing is significantly less strict than at the EU comission, as we only get a 45 minute interview and a written test (source). Is my impression correct?

• Based on your experience, what can I expect during such an interview and written test? The explanation on their website is very high level. Is it purely technical, some stuff about the EDA's history, the EDA's role in the current geopolitical environment, IQ, EQ, a mix of all of the previous stuff?

• I see at the European Commission that for some roles you have 170k applicants and there are a couple of 100 spots (source). I didn't find for my vacancy how many spots are available. Is it possible to monitor this? If not, are there some ballpark figures out there? I heard the EDA is much smaller than the European Comission, but I can see the pay there is very similar. So I assume there are a lot of applicants there as well.

• A totally different kind of question: It is stated the salary is 8k9 gross but Agency tax is being withheld. This tax can vary between 6% and 45%. Obviously, 5% is neglible whereas 45% is absolutely not. Are there some tools to simulate the net take home pay somehow?

If it matters, this is the job in question: https://vacancies.eda.europa.eu/vacanciesnotice/1104

Hello

I would like to have somewhat of an idea on how much other freelancers spend on their car. I feel like mine is really very expensive although it is one of the most basic cars you can have. I chose for a leasing when I started my company because I didn't know much about cars, didn't grow up with any and didn't know yet whether I would enjoy driving a car on a daily basis.

• model: Renault Clio
• price: 559,67/month without VAT
• additional info:
  • leasing at Renault garage
  • 50'000 km/year
  • contract excludes gazoline
  • 4 year contract
• around 130e/week for gazoline

What car do you have and how much do you spend on your car?

Hello

I am a native Dutch speaker and was in Brussels a week ago. While driving the police pulled me over and spoke to me in French. I don't speak French and told them I only speak Dutch. They didn't care at all and continued speaking to me in French before letting me go. So I still don't know why I got pulled over and maybe I will get a fine for a reason I don't even know. AFAIK I was driving perfectly fine.

I always thought the policemen were legally obliged to speak to me in Dutch under all circumstances in Brussels if I only speak Dutch. Is this not the case?

What can I do if I get fined, knowingly I didn't understand what was the matter? Could I for isntance (next time), tell them I don't give them my ID if they don't answer to me in Dutch, ie the only language I understand. I find this extremely unfair.

Hello

As you know, for our yearly tax return, we are expected to provide all sorts of documents to our accountant or agree with the simplified proposal.

I always add: price of my legal expense insurance (rechtsbijstandsverzekering/ assurance protection en justice) and my different loans for real estate.

What are some of the big wins you always include in your tax return to get a discount?

Hello

I have been following the open tenders on this website for a while now: https://www.publicprocurement.be/bda

My impressions:

• They seem to often exclude single individuals by: -as far as I can see- often require 1M+ of revenue during the last couple of years, x number of employees, compliancy to ISO norms, etc...
• There seem to be many different types of tenders. It is not quite clear to me what all the different types of tenders entail
• Being able to submit an offer in the right format for these tenders seem to be a whole skill in and of itself not only wrt format but also pricing as you seem to have no view at all on what other people bid.

Have some of you already participated in these open tenders? What is your experience? Was it worth it?

Hello

I am living in Belgium and bought a rather expensive article (250 euro) from this company in Romania on their webshop:

XANDER CREATIVE S.R.L. 400118 Cluj-NApoca CJ, Romania
VAT: RO52736213

However they never shipped my article nor refunded me. I reached out to them countless times via e-mail, instagram and phone but never got any reply except once. I once threatened them I would undertake legal actions to get refunded and then suddenly got a reply from them via e-mail saying they have a problem with their mailserver but will get back to me in a couple of days. Needless to say, they never got back to me.

What can I do to get a refund or my objects? Hiring a lawyer in Belgium to sue them will be quite costly, more than the object's value.

In Belgium, we have this organization, which you can pay something like 20e/year IIRC and they will help you to come to some kind of settlement in case of disagreement or conflict. The organization does not employ lawyers but jurists.

What possibilities are there in Romania?

Thank you