Last Tax Payment for this Year

Hoorray (hmmph!)! With this last payment of 1,000 euros, I will have paid exactly 45% tax on my earnings for last year. I was pregnant for most of it, but I worked up to 1 and a half weeks before delivery (I worked past my due date because Sugar was born two weeks late) and started working two weeks after. My revenue was about 10,000 euros (don't work, don't get paid, although I worked a hell of a lot for that money, I must say, much more than I would have liked). So I got to keep 6500 of it (woo hoo).

I am telling you this so that if you're one of those people who complain about libero professionistas not paying their share of taxes, you will think again. We pay lots of taxes, we don't get sick pay or maternity (we pay in, but from the experience of one of our financial club members, she got more money as an unemployed person after her first child than as a contributing professional for her second) and have no guarantees that we will make enough money to pay our accountants at the end of the year.

The same people who complain say things like "But you can work under the table" as if regular employees can't. Many do. Anyone can work under the table. It does not mean that Libero Professionistas are doing it more than anyone else.

By the way, if I asked my accountant how much I pay in taxes, or how much to put aside, he would not say "put aside 45%" he would give me a barrage of numbers like 18% here, 21% here, 4% paid by clients, half as a downpayment for next year based on last year, etc. But what it comes down to is this: I have to take my already miserable earnings and half them if I want to be realistic about my take home.

That is my thought for my Italian friends with safe and steady jobs (god bless ya!). To my American friends who think Italy is a great place to work because of amazing benefits, gazillion-year maternity leave, etc. I remind you of this.

For others who say "If it sucks so much there, why do you stay?" I remind you of this.

I have a great life here.