UK Comix Thing & Fallen Kitten Services

If you’ll be in London this Saturday you’ll have the chance to catch Dan & I working one third of the new business, the Fallen Kitten Productions side, at the UK Mini & Web Comix Thing. We first launched Walking the Lethe in January and have spent the last couple of weeks preparing for our first convention. We’ve got a table, comic books, awesome posters and a giant origami butterfly to attract the attention of convention goers. We’re pretty excited, although I’m already exhausted just from the prep, and everyone we’ve shown the comic book too thinks it looks great. I hope lots of people agree.

If you make it to the convention, we’ll be at table 53. If you don’t, the book and maybe the posters will be available for purchase online soon. And you can always go read the comic online.

Site Launch

In addition to attending the comic convention, I am officially launching a new blog to support the Fallen Kitten Productions Services business. The blog is all about web design and tools to help comickers create the best platform for their craft on the web. I’ll be writing about resources that are out there, my thoughts and reviews on web software, tips about site organization and more with a webcomics (and other web artists) audience in mind. I’ve been wanting to do something like this for a long time, so I’m happy that I’ve finally putting myself out there.

For those who are DIYers like me, the blog is intended to bring together helpful resources. For those comickers who don’t want to fight with their websites, that’s where the Fallen Kitten Services come in. I will be designing websites, offering a backend coding service, and even editing and transcribing pages because, frankly, I like to do it and I know that some people are there don’t.

Places Around Maastricht: Reitz Friture

Type of Place: Friets Takeaway & Restaurant
Location: Markt Square
Website

Fries. Chips. Friets. Patat. No matter what you call them, potatoes cut into sticks and fried up are popular the world over. The Netherlands, and certainly Maastricht close to the Belgian border were they apparently have an extra special love for friets, is no exception. With 101 years of business under their belts, Reitz always seem like a popular place to get a snack. It is with that in mind, as well as our desire for a cheap lunch alternative, that Dan & I ducked inside to try out a cone-full of their particular fare.

I think that friets are one of those foods that is half about the experience of eating them; like a starchy version of shellfish. These friets are served in a paper cone wrapped around warm fries with a tiny ‘friet fork’ to help you get at your messy meal.

Reitz also serves their friets with a wide variety of flavors from the boring, American-style “with salt” to the classic Dutch mayonnaise dollop to even odder choices like zuurvlees (literally ‘sour meat’; its Limburgish). Dan tried the pindakaas (peanut butter sauce) variation and I opted for zuurvlees and mayo. The fries were fresh and hot and the flavorings tasty. A small size would have been enough for the two of us, but if you have a big appetite they also offer a large. We did find that we should have eaten faster as the toppings soak into the friets quickly and the bottom half of each cone turned into a soggy mess. Fortunately I was full by then, so it wasn’t a big deal.

Reitz also has a restaurant in the back, but we have not visited it yet. And if you chose to eat your fries at McDonalds next door, shame on you.

A Belastingdienst Visit for ParapluInfo

A visit from the tax man. Convention prep for the UK Web Comix Things. Research. New Website. Language classes. Seriously it goes on and on. But you’re not here to listen to me complain. Just suffice it to say it has been a particularly busy couple of weeks.

Friday I met with a couple of gentlemen from the Belastingdienst at my new business’ office (i.e. my living room) to discuss setting up the administration of the business. I didn’t actually know that they did this before I registered, but it turns out that the tax office regularly checks in on new business owners to make sure their T’s are getting dotted and I’s crossed. The idea is that this early visit will prevent business owners from failing future audits.

The meeting was quite straight forward. They sat down, kindly spoke in English with me, and I showed them what I’d already done to comply with Dutch tax regulations. After the meeting I should receive a report about my status and what steps I need to take to be compliant. Of course the report is in Dutch, but I asked them to email it to me as well and they were quite willing to do so.

Setting up Administration

Actually setting up an administration for an eenmanszaak is pretty straight forward. At its most basic, you must retain records of every penny that comes in and out of your business for 7 years. It seems that your business number (dossiernummer on all the paperwork) needs to be on nearly all paperwork you create, although that may not be strictly true. Also, the tax office representatives also indicated that all Work Proposals I make, even those not agreed to, need to be saved. I’ve got a basic system lined up and the they seemed to think I was doing the right thing.

Invoices & Purchase Orders

Invoices are always numbers sequentially (restarting the sequence every year if you include the year in the number) and have to include the business’ dossier-number and VAT/BTW (its BTW in the Netherlands/VAT everywhere else) number. Not a problem. I had already started doing this with the few invoices I’ve sent out and frankly it makes sense. The parts of a standard invoice should be:

• Date
• Invoice Number
• Your business information including Dossiernummer and VAT/BTW number
• Your client’s business information including VAT/BTW number (unless the client isn’t a business than simply a name and address will do).
• Description of service or product and amount to be paid.
• VAT/BTW amount broken out

See. Pretty easy.

The more confusing aspect is purchases made for your business. If you make a business purchase, you can usually subtract some amount of the VAT/BTW you paid from the amount you owe every quarter to the Belastingdienst. The tax office representatives said that receipts were not enough to make a claim; and instead I needed an official “invoice”. I think they meant a purchase order. For larger purchases this seems sensible, but for smaller purchases (of which I will probably be making many) it seems quite unwieldy. Hopefully I’ll find a workable solution soon because I want to be able to claim some of that money back.

Belastingdienst Online

I also learned that I am responsible for making VAT/BTW tax payments on a quarterly basis (like most Dutch businesses). These payments are actually done through an online section of the Belastingdienst’s website set aside for business owners. And is in Dutch of course.

I’ll hopefully be talking to an accountant soon to help me work out dealing with this aspect of business ownership. I am baffled by how and when to apply VAT/BTW to my services and, since there is so much variety, the tax office representatives couldn’t give me much help.

Now I just have to wait for the report to come and take the time to puzzle the Dutch out. All in all I’m pretty happy they made the visit. I just hope this doesn’t put me on the shortlist for future audits. Its not like ParapluInfo is going to be big business.

Income Tax image by alancleaver_2000 via Flickr. Licensed via Creative Commons Attribution License

Nose to the Grindstone & TEFAF Alternatives

It has been another nose to the grindstone week and weekend for Dan & I. Between business administration set-up, website building (mine unfortunately), and preparing for our trip to London at the end of the month to attend the UK Web Comix Thing, things have been tight. I have mostly been staying in and working; which since the weather hasn’t quite warmed up enough is more or less Ok with me.

Our short break from Dutch class is over and we return to the classroom on Wednesday. As always I’m quite nervous.

We did take a little time on Saturday to meet up with Dave Hampton, a fellow expat blogger living in Maastricht. We had a great time chatting about Maastricht, business, and the biological sciences (ok, so Dan & Dave talked about that) over drinks at John Mullins.

TEFAF

Of course this week TEFAF is happening and I’m a little disappointed that we couldn’t swing the cost to attend this year (55 euros or 90 for a couple). TEFAF is one of Europe’s largest fine art shows with exacting standards and exclusive collection and dealers. Many of the items on view are kept in private collection so this is one of the few chances to see them. If you do have a ticket, dealers are giving two hour tours at the end of each day of the show talking about their experience as art dealers and showing pieces from their collections. That sounds like fun.

If you, like me, are not attending TEFAF this year, consider one of these alternative to get into that artistic mood.

• Look at the “Virtual Tour” on TEFAF’s website.
• Visit the Bonnefanten Museum.
• Prowl Maastricht for smaller art galleries which are sure to be open in hopes of attracting attention.

Broodscappen Doen in Maastricht

Lets build on Wednesday’s Aldi article shall we? The Dutch phrase for grocery shopping is broodschappen doen, and I find I tend to do it more often here than in the US. Maybe it’s my small refrigerator. I’m not particularly adventurous when it comes to shopping for food, but Maastricht is bursting with grocery shopping options and alternatives for everyone from the budget cook to the gourmet. Here’s a few suggestions and Dutch words to help you along.

Grocery Stores

The Dutch grocery store (or supermarkt) is your one stop shop for food. With a little bit of everything, plus the paper and cleaning products you need to keep a household running, this is how I choose to do my grocery shopping. I find it the simplest option and clearly so do many other people since the stores are almost always busy. Shopping early in the day is advisable since produce and milk frequently sells out and isn’t restocked until the following morning. Most grocery stores are open a little later than the average store, typically to about 8 pm, but they are not usually open on Sundays. Grocery stores you’ll find in Maastricht are:

• Albert Heijn: My preferred shop and the most common in Maastricht.
• C1000
• Jumbo
• Amazing Oriental Aziatische Supermarkt
• Aldi

Farmers Markets

If you like to buy you produce, bread, meat, and cheese outdoors you can do so at one of the weekly open air markets in Maastricht. Since many vendors are from the region, the produce is frequently fresher and sometimes cheaper than the grocery store. Seafood lovers in particular should check out the Friday Fish Market.

• Weekly Market on Wednesday: Produce, bread, meats, and a variety of non-food products.
• Organic Market on Thursday: Organic produce, bread, and meat.
• Fish Market on Friday: Huge selection of fish and seafood. Plus everything you find at the Wednesday market.

Specialty Shops

Finally the best way, although frequently most expensive way to purchase quality food is through a specialty shop. I thick that small shops are a popular way to grocery shop in Maastricht. The food is always fresh or fresh-made, and the shops are owned by local people rather than chains. The professionals in the shops can make recommendations as well if you’re about to cook a new recipe. I only regularly visit two speciality shops in Maastricht. Simon Levelt is a loose leaf tea, coffee, and chocolate store with a great tea selection. Nearby, the Green Shop is an organic produce shop and during the summer they have great deals on berries. Here’s a few of the types of shops you’ll find and what they are called in Dutch:

• Butcher (de slager): For all sorts of meats, including fresh slavinken.
• Bakery (de bakker): Fresh backed bread, pies, vlaai, and baked sweets.
• Tea shop (theewinkel): Gormeat tea and coffee. Sometimes combined with chocolate shops.
• Chocolate shop (chocoladewinkel): Local chocolaters as well as larger general candy stores.
• Green grocery (groenteman): Fruit, vegetables, and maybe a few other odds and ends.
• Cheese shop (kaaswinkel): The best option for fresh local and international cheeses.

There are also a couple of small, ethnic grocery stores to watch out for as well. These can help you fill out your menu with a variety authentic international cuisine and sometimes you’ll find a surprise; like baking soda at the Asian grocery store on the Markt square.

What’s your favorite way to buy food?

Grocery image licensed under Creative Commons.

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