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Ha, I was about to say this! My son mangled his foot goofing off on a playground doing things he shouldn’t have been doing. The hospital visit was €30 after fix

Ha, I was about to say this! My son mangled his foot goofing off on a playground doing things he shouldn’t have been doing. The hospital visit was €30 after fixing his foot (he’s already back to normal, FYI), plus since he’s under 18, he doesn’t cost anything on my health insurance. Let’s also discuss the fact that if you live near any city, having a car is purely optional, and for less than €10 a month, you can get 40-50% off of public transportation costs through their subscriptions. So sure, you may pay an extra 10k a year in taxes, but no car payment, insurance, or healthcare costs probably makes up that 10k very quickly, if not in cash, then in peace-of-mind.

RestlessMind 4y ago
I have kids and I live very peacefully in Silicon Valley. If you are a decent tech worker and have a job at a decent employer, you will get health insurance with a reasonable out-of-pocket maximum (mine is 6000USD for my entire family). That, combined with insurance premiums (around ~4800 for the whole year) is still only 11000USD per year, which is far more than the salary differential between Europe and the US. In short, you don't have to worry about healthcare expenses as long as you are employed by a decent tech company.
- ThePowerOfFuet 4y ago
  >as long as you are employed
- withinboredom 4y ago
  Maximum out of pocket costs for me is €300~ish, and the premiums for my wife and I (kid is free) is €300 a month with worldwide coverage (we travel a lot). I receive Silicon Valley wages and live in Europe. My income taxes are around 25-28% depending on things. I grew up and lived in the US for most of my life. The healthcare simply isn’t imaginable for most Americans. I don’t have to argue with insurance about whether or not a medication is covered, I don’t have to add an extra two hours to my hospital visit just to work out billing, getting an epi-pen doesn’t bankrupt me, and so much less hassle. I got into a motorcycle accident in the US. After really good insurance, it still cost me nearly 100k, my son cost 20k + a huge argument with insurance about the date of conception so they could get out of paying for it. That would have all been free here without any argument whatsoever. I understand your denial, I was once the same way.
z9znz 4y ago
The tax difference is WAY more than 10k a year. I'm not even a FAANG level income person, and my taxes are almost double in NL. But as the original question was just about paying taxes, I didn't provide pro/con reasons for living in NL. I chose to live in NL, and I love having good public transport. However, 40-50% discount is not a normal thing. Even so, if you can avoid owning a car, it's cheaper to use public transport. But if like me you live in a village, you still need a car. And car ownership is much more expensive in NL than US. Of course fuel is much more expensive too, but most of us drive very fuel efficent cars here. All together, the best reasons for living in NL vs US are safety, availability of public transport, and relatively lower income inequality. You give up a lot of $$ for those benefits, but I think it's worth it. Now, when the moron entitlist farmers protest because they want to be allowed to maximize profit at the cost of regional and global pollution, and the NL government bends over and takes it all, that irks me greatly. So not everything is perfect. You do save money on dining out, though, because most restaurants have bland food with poor service; thus, it's better to eat at home or at a friend's.
- withinboredom 4y ago
  Haha. Truth on the food! It’s only a little higher than the US for taxes. But I was self-employed in the US, so I didn’t have an employer invisibly paying half my US taxes. If coming from a place of employment to the NL, a doubling of taxes would be normal? For the car, it’s usually far cheaper to just rent a car for a few hours (SIXT ride share) or days vs owning one.
  - z9znz 4y ago
    If you come to NL recruited by a company (as an employee), you'll probably be a "highly skilled migrant" and have the benefit of the 30% ruling - https://www.belastingdienst.nl/wps/wcm/connect/en/individuals/content/coming-to-work-in-the-netherlands-30-percent-facility#bd-licollapsed-0 https://www.belastingdienst.nl/wps/wcm/connect/en/individual... This essentially means that 30% of your income will not be taxed. This makes a huge difference! Unfortunately, it does not apply if you are self-employed. The 30% benefit also only lasts a few years. I believe the duration has been shortened in the last couple of years, and now has a maximum of 5 years. Stay longer, and you'll be paying proper Dutch level taxes. As for the car, there are a few good hourly car sharing services. However, those aren't useful if you live in a village where no such cars are near.

RestlessMind 4y ago

I have kids and I live very peacefully in Silicon Valley. If you are a decent tech worker and have a job at a decent employer, you will get health insurance with a reasonable out-of-pocket maximum (mine is 6000USD for my entire family). That, combined with insurance premiums (around ~4800 for the whole year) is still only 11000USD per year, which is far more than the salary differential between Europe and the US. In short, you don't have to worry about healthcare expenses as long as you are employed by a decent tech company.

ThePowerOfFuet 4y ago
>as long as you are employed
withinboredom 4y ago
Maximum out of pocket costs for me is €300~ish, and the premiums for my wife and I (kid is free) is €300 a month with worldwide coverage (we travel a lot). I receive Silicon Valley wages and live in Europe. My income taxes are around 25-28% depending on things. I grew up and lived in the US for most of my life. The healthcare simply isn’t imaginable for most Americans. I don’t have to argue with insurance about whether or not a medication is covered, I don’t have to add an extra two hours to my hospital visit just to work out billing, getting an epi-pen doesn’t bankrupt me, and so much less hassle. I got into a motorcycle accident in the US. After really good insurance, it still cost me nearly 100k, my son cost 20k + a huge argument with insurance about the date of conception so they could get out of paying for it. That would have all been free here without any argument whatsoever. I understand your denial, I was once the same way.

z9znz 4y ago

The tax difference is WAY more than 10k a year. I'm not even a FAANG level income person, and my taxes are almost double in NL. But as the original question was just about paying taxes, I didn't provide pro/con reasons for living in NL. I chose to live in NL, and I love having good public transport. However, 40-50% discount is not a normal thing. Even so, if you can avoid owning a car, it's cheaper to use public transport. But if like me you live in a village, you still need a car. And car ownership is much more expensive in NL than US. Of course fuel is much more expensive too, but most of us drive very fuel efficent cars here. All together, the best reasons for living in NL vs US are safety, availability of public transport, and relatively lower income inequality. You give up a lot of $$ for those benefits, but I think it's worth it. Now, when the moron entitlist farmers protest because they want to be allowed to maximize profit at the cost of regional and global pollution, and the NL government bends over and takes it all, that irks me greatly. So not everything is perfect. You do save money on dining out, though, because most restaurants have bland food with poor service; thus, it's better to eat at home or at a friend's.

withinboredom 4y ago
Haha. Truth on the food! It’s only a little higher than the US for taxes. But I was self-employed in the US, so I didn’t have an employer invisibly paying half my US taxes. If coming from a place of employment to the NL, a doubling of taxes would be normal? For the car, it’s usually far cheaper to just rent a car for a few hours (SIXT ride share) or days vs owning one.
- z9znz 4y ago
  If you come to NL recruited by a company (as an employee), you'll probably be a "highly skilled migrant" and have the benefit of the 30% ruling - https://www.belastingdienst.nl/wps/wcm/connect/en/individuals/content/coming-to-work-in-the-netherlands-30-percent-facility#bd-licollapsed-0 https://www.belastingdienst.nl/wps/wcm/connect/en/individual... This essentially means that 30% of your income will not be taxed. This makes a huge difference! Unfortunately, it does not apply if you are self-employed. The 30% benefit also only lasts a few years. I believe the duration has been shortened in the last couple of years, and now has a maximum of 5 years. Stay longer, and you'll be paying proper Dutch level taxes. As for the car, there are a few good hourly car sharing services. However, those aren't useful if you live in a village where no such cars are near.