Yup, that is indeed the argument most people that never leased a place use. It's an easy argument that points the finger at the landlord. Out of experience though I know that screening doesn't help. Old, young, working, not working, male, female, it doesn't make any difference so it seems. Anyways, it's a fact that tenants in Belgium are overprotected, and A LOT of people take advantage of that fact, simply because they can. It's one of the main reasons people don't buy houses in Belgium to lease them anymore. It's a dying market here, and for good reason as I've experienced at first hand...gtmtnbiker wrote:So you were a landlord? This is one of the risks of being a landlord. This is why you have to screen people and check their credit, etc. Yeah, you have to be able to afford the hit if you have to evict someone or repair the damage that they did. It's not an easy business.elmagicochrisg wrote:For example, I tried to lease a small apartment in Ostend where I live. I took a €50.000 loan and paid €20.000 in cash (all the money I had) to buy it. Now the idea was to pay the loan with the rent I got from the apartment. Impossible so it seems. I had 3 people in it in 3 years time. All of them failed to understand you have to pay to rent a place once you're in it.
I have looked into buying rental property but in the end, I decided that I would rather invest in the stock market.
I was just a stubborn cookie I guess. Don't wanna be a sheep like most of the others. In Belgium you're either a hearthless wolf, a hard working sheep that barely makes ends meet at the expense of his / her health, or a lazy sheep that is satisfied with a small easy gained income. I hate bastards, and I hate sheep. The latter being either dumb or lazy...
Well, looking at the link it's still far from the +50 percent we have to pay here as a self-employed person, regardless of how much or how little we make. And by the time you guys are in the 35 percent category you're already making a hefty buck, so it seems...gtmtnbiker wrote:In the US, self-employed people have to pay 6% extra in FICA (Social Security). Otherwise, I think their tax rate is the same which is a sliding scale based on your income/investments. This chart seems accurate:elmagicochrisg wrote: I looked into becoming independent also. Self employed people pay 50 percent taxes on what they make, more or less. That's right, 50 friggin' percent!... I think in the US it's less than 25 percent max. So again, try to be an entrepreneur and you're fucked.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_tax ... _tax_rates
So you pay 10% on the first X dollars, then 15% on the next X dollars, etc. It's kind of complicated because you also get exemptions & deductions to reduce your taxable income. Investment income is taxed differently and at a much lower rate if you're in the upper tax brackets. I haven't sat down to figure out how much I pay in real money for taxes. It's probably at least 40% (US, state, FICA, Medicare, excise taxes, property taxes).
Not so sure about France. But you could be right, I dunno...BoringSupreez wrote:I don't think I'll ever move to Belgium. So far as I know, Norway, France, and Switzerland are the best places to live in in Europe.
