Paperwork.

I have actually tackled the paperwork stack yesterday, and I did make quite good progress - not all done yet, but soon I will be through (and that includes sorting stuff for easier tax-paperworks, so that's really fine). However, this year, I will have to brush up on tax stuff and get a little more knowledge in additionally, so I will have a bit more quality time with the paperwork stuff...

Unfortunately, taxes in Germany are a bit of a jungle, and it's not always easy to find your way through. It already starts with the name: There's Umsatzsteuer (literally: turnover tax) and Mehrwertsteuer (literally: value added tax). Which is exactly the same, only that USt. is nowadays the official term, but MWSt. is still used more often. Then there's different VAT rates for foodstuffs, books, and normal wares; if you teach for a school or private school, your honorarium might be exempt from VAT, but at another school it might not be. So to make things easier, there's a possibility to just not do VAT at all, but that is only possible under a certain maximum amount of income. You see? Jungle. Must find my machete. (If you actually want to have a quick and very incomplete first overview about German VAT, look here.)

Why I'm actually telling you about this? Well, my closed season seems to be over, and I will have to do MWSt. in the future. Which is a milestone, really - so I'm not too unhappy about it, just very curious on how it will go from now on.