Last week I had coffee with Lao Chen, he said he wanted to move to Berlin

Lao Chen is a designer I've known for six years, half his clients are in Europe. Last year he stayed in Amsterdam for three months, came back and asked me: "I heard German tax is 50%, is it true?" I didn't have an answer at the time.

(Side note: if you haven't even considered going to Europe yet, feel free to bookmark this for whenever that day comes.)

What's up with Pieter Levels' calculation

levels.io (the nomadlist guy) published a piece last year called "Germany does not take 50%, they take 49.3%". He wrote it for remote workers thinking about Berlin or Munich, breaking down Steuerklasse (tax class, six tiers total) and Kirchensteuer (church tax, an extra 8-9%), and landed on a combined rate around 49.3%.

The point isn't "how much less tax" — it's that he listed what's deductible: home office rent, equipment depreciation, health insurance, pension contributions. A lot of people don't know these are deductible. I made this exact mistake myself — first year I only declared my salary income, left every deduction blank, basically gifted the government two thousand euros.

What it costs you to replicate this

Money: tax software €30-50/year (WISO, Taxfix, that kind). Hiring a Steuerberater (tax advisor, like our accountants) runs €300-800 the first year, then €150-300 annually after.

Time: filing yourself with software, 4-6 hours the first time; year two you know the drill, 2 hours.

Technical barrier: you can log into a website and read German emails (Google Translate works fine), no accounting background needed.

First step: go to the Finanzamt (tax office) website, search "Steuererklärung für Freiberufler", and check if you fall under the freelancer category.

Advice by stage

Just starting out: if you're still on the fence, don't rush to move. Go to nomadlist.com, look up the German city you want, and check the "Net income" column. Numbers beat anyone's hot take.

Got 1-2 clients: try going remote for half a year, see if income can stabilize at €4000/month (pre-tax). Below that, moving probably doesn't pay off.

Scaling up: if annual revenue clears €50k, just hire a Steuerberater. Bundle your invoices + bank statements into one folder and send it over — the tax you save is usually 3-5x the advisor fee.