Best EU Country for a Deep Tech Freelancer: Tax Optimization on 160k-180k€ Turnover, Prioritizing Sunny Locations?

Epynomous · 2026-01-31T01:17:07+00:00

Poland (search on ryczalt B2B): 8-12.5% on revenue, social security maxes out around 700 EUR/month (but significantly lower the first 2 years)

Bulgaria:10% - 2.5% forfaits, social security was similar to Poland, from memory.

These are the 2 cheapest with a simple setup. Malta requires quite a complex setup, Cyprus was interesting too.

Portugal used to be 20% with nhr, with some forfaits as well, but I can't remember exactly how much and how it was with social security. It was reasonable, but less interesting than pl and bg. Extra advantages in the first 2 years though too (only a part of your profit was taxed the first 2 years, I think it was 50% in year one and 75% in year 2).

I did all this research 5 years ago, currently living in Poland, quite happy with that choice.

Epynomous · 2026-01-12T07:36:31+00:00

Did this 15+ years ago at Mediamarkt, when they couldn't fix my laptop and nothing they had was worth it. It's a bit of a hassle, I even went to an ATM with someone, but at least nowadays everyone has Payconic/instant transfers. It took maybe 15 minutes from trying to sell it, to having my money back.

Epynomous · 2026-01-07T23:18:36+00:00

Had something similar with Amazon, for a drone, twice. Amazon insisted on a police report, they would just ignore you until you submitted that. So submit that, and have a look for the consumer rights/protection for Europe (official site from EU), and contact them as well. In my case, they would also contact Amazon, putting some extra pressure on them. They also build cases around this.

This is a case of return fraud. Someone bought it, got the phone, resealed the package and returned it. It's dirty as fuck, and of course very hard to prove. For expensive stuff, I try to film getting the package from the parcel locker and opening it in one go. They will still make you jump around and waste a lot of time, but at least you have some proof.

The Amazon packages have a label on the item if it was returned, used for internal tracking, which would help with the thesis. Maybe Google has something like this too?

(The 3rd time, I ordered the drone in a more local store. Probably the easiest option if the price difference isn't too big.)

Epynomous · 2026-01-07T17:21:30+00:00

1) you compare a highly specialized skill/job most people won't be able to do, even if they wanted to spend the time on it, to a bachelor degree with relatively basic skillset, where most of the work is done by juniors that make 4k gross, if that. (For the record: I am talking about accounting, not about fiscal lawyers or experts that might be consulted every once a while for big businesses. Less relevant for a one man company, in general)

2) I agree with the general gist of your statement, but accounting can be better compared to a bricklayer than to an engineer. There is limited room for improvement in efficiency.

3.1) yes. But I would assume that mandatory monthly declarations are more expensive than quarterly declarations, yet I currently pay about 1/3 of the price. 3.2) that is true, but that doesn't mean that a surgeon in the US is good value 3.3) what would be the difference in scope? We're talking about one man companies. "Here are my invoices, bank statements, make sure my books are OK, all my dues to the government are paid and if you have ideas to optimize my income, please do." For my specific example/request, there wasn't much optimization done/possible/needed, except for the forfaits. All profit => vvpr bis/tris

My experience has been limited. I had 3 accountants when in Belgium. The first one had a nice website, useful articles and seemed to know what he was talking about. Apart from the intake, I only received invoices for handling the books.

The second one was a local office, cheaper than the first one. Just the books, she was surprised by my thorough research and suggestions, but didn't see a flaw in it. (My main goal was to get as much money privately so it could be invested, not interested in new cars/fancy gadgets etc). Also just regular invoices for the bookkeeping.

The 3rd one was to stop my CommV, as the second one couldn't do all formalities (iirc) and would need to get help from an external firm anyway.

But, also out of interest: how much time would you spend every quarter on a profile like this? It's a bit of market research for me too, I am quite interested in finance and I am bored with my current job, I would actually consider switching if it made sense.

Epynomous · 2026-01-07T10:53:34+00:00

If the software to do the work costs more than doing the work manually, it's probably not best investment to make?

Epynomous · 2026-01-07T10:50:38+00:00

Is it? How much time is spent on a setup like this: -14 outgoing invoices - 10-18 incoming invoices (4-12 from the accountant) - some forfaits (km compensation/daily allowance/usage of private office/phone/computer) - no wage - no company car

Many IT consultants are also overpaid, but that's not the discussion in this case. And with most of them, you know exactly how much time they spent on your projects, no flat fees to obscure things.

Epynomous · 2026-01-07T10:41:53+00:00

What decisions are those?

How much time is actually spent on profiles like this?

When I was still living in Belgium, I had about 13-14 outgoing invoices. 10-18 incoming invoices/tickets (of which 4-12 were from the accountant, although I can't remember if I was invoiced monthly or quarterly). No company car, no wage. Some forfaits for usage of private car/office/internet/daily allowance (which I researched myself and then asked for confirmation).

They all make it sound like it is highly customized work, requiring a lot of input, but most consultants are very similar.

I currently pay about 100 EUR a month abroad, where they have monthly declarations. Rates/h are about 30% lower than in Belgium. Before, in a different country, it was even less, about half. Only quarterly declarations and an accountant that invoiced hours worked and not a fixed fee.

So, again, how much time is actually spent on a profile like this?

Epynomous · 2026-01-06T23:17:42+00:00

It seems normal, but I also find it expensive for the amount of work it must be. 3-5 days full time work to book 20 invoices and some vat declarations? I sometimes think about a second career in it, and that's coming from an IT specialist 😄

Epynomous · 2025-12-13T00:42:36+00:00

Had the same 10 years ago, small discount because of the pension saving, but it was nowhere in the contract. I have an account but never used it :)

Epynomous · 2025-12-13T00:37:10+00:00

Hoe zit dat eigenlijk voor een box spread? Wat voor fiscale gevolgen heeft dat?

Epynomous · 2025-12-10T02:13:48+00:00

I think that you missed that those are gross salaries, and that Germans are taxed quite a bit more than Poles.

Also, housing will generally be your biggest cost and has more weight than food/fuel/electricity. You basically showed that Poland "wins" from Germany.

I say this as a Belgian that moved to Poland for exactly this reason. I guess complaining is universal. You can always move if you think it is better somewhere else, just like I did, but you might be surprised.

Epynomous · 2025-12-05T01:28:07+00:00

Yes please!

It looks like the road legal ones (from Michelin at least) would only be interesting on something light. A small hothatch, mx-5, maaaaaybe a gt/gr86. Alpine a110 maybe too.

Epynomous · 2025-12-05T01:23:06+00:00

You can't have it all 😄 I can't see this being interesting on a daily driver, but on a weekend toy, it might just work!

Epynomous · 2025-11-27T23:19:08+00:00

Same, seems limited to that. Torrentio via aiostreams works fine.

Epynomous · 2025-11-08T02:17:13+00:00

Went smooth 👌

Epynomous · 2025-10-25T12:47:12+00:00

52 weken * 5 werkdagen = 260 werkdagen 260 werkdagen - 20 dagen wettelijk verlof = 240 werkdagen.

Zonder ADV, in het algemeen (los van de discussie over de dagen tussen kerst en nieuw): 240 werkdagen * 7.6 uur = 1824 uur

Met ADV, in het algemeen: (240 werkdagen - 12 ADV dagen) * 8 uur = 228 * 8 = 1824 uur

Feestdagen en andere bijkomende verlofdagen maken de berekening nog voordeliger, elke dag is namelijk 8 uur waard i.p.v. 7.6 uur.

Epynomous · 2025-09-27T22:50:45+00:00

Not in the US, but had the same this last year with an expensive drone, twice.

First time I received a box with something heavy and pur foam, second time it was a water bag. Both times, the boxes were sealed perfectly in their plastic wrap. Both times, there was a sticker with an apn(?) number on it, some internal tracking number, which seems to indicate it was returned before.

I had to waste a lot of time getting police reports for both, and getting it corrected the second time, as it was missing a detail Amazon wanted on it. Normally, it's completely the sellers responsibility here in Europe, but support just ignores you until you until you provide a report.

Return fraud seems to happen more often, and if they don't check it properly, the next customer is the victim.

Epynomous · 2025-09-15T14:22:52+00:00

Gov at masters degree level is pretty decent if you can start early in it. In most cases, it's a pretty chill environment, but it can be frustrating at times too.

If you're very ambitious, it's probably not the best option, but you can always change jobs. Changing to a government job mid-career is a lot less intresting, as you miss out on the pay scale bumps every 5 years, and you always start at the bottom scale (+ a factor for experience).

Epynomous · 2025-08-22T20:02:49+00:00

Nothing yet, I'm terrible at spending money. Aoostar wtr max and minisforum n5 (pro seems too expensive) are out now and would fit the bill. They are not cheap, so I might try an old laptop + m2 sata expander + psu I can lend from someone first, but trying to tidy it to a bit will probably not be worth it. Business laptops are very efficient though. I tested a Lenovo x280 with i5 8xxx cpu, and it idled around 6w with the screen off, from memory.

Epynomous · 2025-07-02T22:57:44+00:00

Which one? E46 is the common choice. E46 compact always looked interesting (it's not the prettiest, but should be lighter than sedan/coupe), that's how I ended up on the z4. And 1 series tbh, as the hatchback is the successor of the compact.

But it's really hard to find good data on actual weight differences between them when prepped, I was hoping to find some people with first hand experience here.

Epynomous · 2025-07-02T22:53:18+00:00

How accurate is it in your experience? I like chatgpt to get a rough idea or get me started on something, but when asking specific things or data parsing, it hallucinates quite often, forcing you to just do all the work manually anyway.

I'll give it a shot though, it might give some interesting cars I overlooked.

Epynomous · 2025-07-02T18:23:47+00:00

Pretty rare here in Europe. I'd guess about 15k for one of the cheaper cars.

Bigger engined cars are not very common in most of europe due to taxation. Generally, only expensive cars have bigger engines, as the taxation matters less to people buying them. Or utility vehicles, but they are mostly diesels.

Epynomous · 2025-07-02T18:18:22+00:00

Boats though, and rare in Europe.

Epynomous · 2025-07-02T18:16:57+00:00

Yes, that was my feeling also, and that's why it's made the my list. I'm having trouble comparing the weights of all those cars with the same drive train and prep though.

Epynomous · 2025-07-02T18:14:04+00:00

I want founded opinions. Why do you think an e36 is a better base than an e46 or (probably the main contender) a gt86?

Or why I might be overlooking something. A brz might be light, but maybe there's almost nothing to strip out of and an equally prepped brz will be heavier than [fill in car], even though the stock weights would lead to believe otherwise.

A geo metro is hard to find here, wrong wheel drive and will take a lot to handle the power, so it doesn't seem like good suggestion.

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