Law / Biggest supermarket chains in Poland vs Germany [23]

wulkan the data i saw on money.pl today was qute different - foreign supermarkets pay much higher tax, both in absolute terms (something like 10x the amount paid by Polo, Stokrotka etc) and as a perćentage of the top line.

Law / Biggest supermarket chains in Poland vs Germany [23]

They are allowed - its just competing with Lidl and Aldi on their own turf is extremely difficult. In the non food sector there are some very successful operators in Germany - Zara from Spain, Primark from UK, jysk from Denmark.

Law / British living in Poland - tax treaty with the UK? [30]

steve you are quite incorrect - if you are in Poland more than 184 days you would be liable for polish income tax even if you owned Brideshead.

What owning a uk property means is that you might finf it hard to avoid british inheritance tax when the day comes

Work / Some questions about average wages and hiring a cleaning woman/maid in Poland [23]

I have no idea who is advertizing jobs at 6 zloty an hour but paying that much is a criminal offence in Poland.

The average in Poland is not 2.500 - it is 3.900 gross mean and the median I guess is around 2.900. That is an average fort he whole country including small towns in the east. Wroclaw would be circa 15 percent above that average.

The figure i gave you of 15 is what I pay my cleaner, she speaks English and if needed I trust her with the kids for an hour or so. You seem set on the idea that you can get someone for 10 zloty so rather put your ad in the paper and tell us hwo it goes.

Work / Some questions about average wages and hiring a cleaning woman/maid in Poland [23]

The minimum wage is 11 zloty in January. In practice only about 5 percent of the legal workfoce get this - security guards, short order chefs etc.

In Wroclaw good luck getting anybody for less than 15 who speaks english.

Study / Clark University in Warsaw Campus (Professional Communication) [12]

If you mean the one near Boston then it is a University or at least a grad school, and fairly respectable at that. No idea what this Warsaw extension is like though.

Work / Some questions about average wages and hiring a cleaning woman/maid in Poland [23]

For a maid About 15 zloty an hour if you want someone you can trust who speaks a bit of english. Also consider their travelling time and cost - if just outside the city means no bus then you will prbably need to throw some petrol cost in there.

For the other two you will get nothing in a big city now for under 2.500 zloty, for your assistant who spoke good english you would need at least 3000.

Feedback / A special "for those living in Poland..." section. [33]

No I disagree - I have spent some time living here full time and some away but always have a strong connection. Like most people I am able to discuss a wide variety of topics without referring to Islam, Smolensk, Gays etc. However really this forum is just a reflection of the culture war in Polish society that reminds me strongly of early 90s USA. Its obvious some threads will cause flame wars and I just don't click on them.

to the mods I salute you - it is a thankless task. What is weird is that almost every forum are regularly visit - some travel forums, college hoops, some soccer, lots of music, have the same amount of axe grinders trying to bring grade school debating skills about totally unrelated issues. dzienki ;)

Law / International business trip, travel time reimbursement? How is it settled in Poland? [15]

if you want an hourly paid job when you get exactly the number of hours you work then McDonalds and KFC are probably hiring.

I presume the company that doesn't pay your Sundays also DOES pay you for the time you spend on the internet at work, or the times you need to leave 30 minutes early to take your kid to the doctors etc etc.

Work / How to find work in Warsaw "if u don't speak Polish" ! [176]

Try companies that have supply lines to Romania - quite a lot of retailers e.g. Auchan, CCC, Reserved, Kaufland but also manufacturing companies, car companies etc. These are the two biggest growing markets and its really difficult to find any logistics people. Smarten up your CV and get on the phone - might take you a few months but I'm sure you will find something interesting.

Language / Message from Polish speaking friend (in English) translation help [13]

I would say that she means "and that's up to her" i.e. its her daughter's right to see who she wants even if her mother thinks they are different people.

good luck ! I'm glad you get on with your mother in law - not easy with Polish family :)

Work / What is the salary of a cleaner in queen boutique hotel in Krakow or in any other restaurant or hotel? [17]

which part of these answers is useless ?

Love / Portuguese Boy with a Polish Girl - she is more conservative than others. How to approach her? [24]

Well if she is shy and doesnt like halloween then why not invite her to do something low key - coffee and a walk in the park ? I dont think its anything to do with her nationality !

Work / Thirteenth Salary in Poland [13]

Some wonderful views here - giving extra cash to your employees should be illegal apparantly.

It is of course a mechanism to keep people at crucial times e.g. pay your accounting staff their 13th month just after financial year end. Pay your retail staff their 13th month in January.

Doug, the govt sets a minimum wage in every one of the 28 countries of the EU. In many cases these are going up quite quickly, much more than inflation. Its up to honest employers to follow that legislation.

Work / Thirteenth Salary in Poland [13]

Assume 12 if you are not working for the govt. There might be some bonus scheme related to performance (I would say 80% of private business has that) but flat 13 salary is rather more common in Italy, France etc than in Poland.

by the way if that is a bank they normally have bonus schemes that are far more valuable than a 13th month, but it depends if you are generating revenue or not

Real Estate / Giving up a house in Poland [3]

Yes it is possible for him to give a power of attorney to a local Pole that he trusts but the notary dealing with that will probably take a lot of steps to ensure it is a kosher POA (including British notarization, official translation etc and I'm not sure about Britain but in some countries would also need to be apostilled - a kind of stamp saying that the notary is a notary).

All of that would add up to a few hundred quid of cost so if your partner has some spare time it might be as well to use Ryanair and have a short holiday in Poland and take care of it "na cztery oczy"

UK, Ireland / London Strip Clubs? What's it like for women working there? [74]

I was in a club in the UK at the weekend at a bachelor party and was very surprised that most of the girls were British - there was one Bulgarian, a few Latino but no Polish there.

Real Estate / How to sell commercial buildings in Warsaw? [4]

Unless you are experienced be really careful - there are many zoning issues and ownership complications with older buildings in Warsaw and plenty of foreign investors have spent years with their cash tied up while they wait to resolve that. you can get title insurance in Poland but its expensive.

unless you speak Polish then I would start with one of the western real estate consultancies - will be expensive but they will help you avoid some of the pitfalls above.

Work / Companies and pay for a Native English Teacher in Warsaw? [46]

Dom I would have thought that for someone who wanted to teach then doing a degree and then doing a PGCE and throwing a TEFL on top would actually be some quite responsible and thought through life choices.

And guess what, I don't want my kids to just do math and chemistry at school - those things are important but I do also want them to be taught some culture and to have some fun.

Not sure if you are aware but whenever I have a math problem I generally put it into a computer rather than try and dredge up what I was taught in the mid 80s from my memory.

Life / Expats` opinion on alien immigration to Poland - for or against? [87]

Ironside, like most armchair socialists its always the bankers fault. My post was not about that, more an answer to Pawian's post that immigrants in Germany generate more cash than they take out in benefits - a claim which I consider to be very debatable.

And you are quite incorrect about the tax burden falling on the average Joe - in most Western countries the top 10% of earners pay around 40% of the tax. In Germany then the top 1% of earners pay almost 25% of the total income tax receipts.

Law / Lawyer fees for incorporation in Poland [6]

For the 3rd question then about PLN 2000 to do a proper job. more if its a complex lease.

The first - I would pay about 3000 or 4000 but Im sure there are people that will do it cheaper. Pay peanuts get monkeys

Life / Expats` opinion on alien immigration to Poland - for or against? [87]

"Foreigners paid on average €3,300 ($4,127) more in taxes and social security contributions in 2012 than they took out in benefits, generating a €22 billion surplus for the public coffers that year"

In most mature countries then you can drive a bus through these kind of figures. In Germany for example about half of that surplus comes from about 100.000 people paying very high tax on very high earnings - foreign bankers in Frankfurt, the Japanese of Dusseldorf and the IT workers of Munich and Berlin. Plus I am guessing a few euro from Robert Lewandowski.

In addition to what they take out in benefits you must throw in extra costs to the state (translation, higher schooling costs, extra police and surveillance, costs of processing the asylum claim, govt legal fees, subsidized tv and radio programmes in their language) - you very soon start to make a big dent in that 22bn surplus.

In the UK its the same but these poorly designed studies don't show the skewedness. It is not an argument to send everyone home but the "economic case" is by no means clear cut and without a doubt in depresses the wages and the bargaining power of the weakest members of native society. That's why I am against - there might be economic benefits to immigration but I would like them to be clear and indisputable before taking on the social risks.

In the US it is a different situation - for a start they tend to get more educated immigrants, secondly pension and retirement provision relies much more on participation and 3rd it is bigger with cheaper land and more place to spread out. The town where I spent some of my teens and college has been totally changed by immigration - Mexican, Indian, some African, quite a few Yugoslavs and ex Soviets - but it has not affected living standards.

Life / Expats` opinion on alien immigration to Poland - for or against? [87]

Put me in the against column. Too many risks, high costs and no undisputed benefits. Generally im a liberal but I see no need to adopt such a divisive policy.

Work / Study ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) in Poland [6]

If you mean by registered that you are a qualified accountant then I am appalled - your grammar is awful and your manners too.

If you mean that you want to study Acca then doing it in poland would be a poor choice

Work / Career Options for ExPats in Poland? English native speaker from Los Angeles. [10]

Tell you what Dom - I graduated 23 years ago but lets get my economics class and your nuclear engineering class together one day, now there is their 40s and test them over a few metrics - health, wealth, attractiveness of spouse, job satisfaction, happiness, amount of countries visited, and of course your famous savings figure. i doubt the econ grads would come off second best.

You are prrobably a nice guy in real life but you should change the record - there is more than one way to skin a cat and it sounds like this guy is polite and well adjusted and is working hard in interesting jobs but just taking a few years to find his direction - nothing wrong with that.

Real Estate / Pitfalls of buying a Polish Flat built in 1950's [20]

I bought a 30s brick building house here and it has been an excellent purchase - warm in winter, cool in summer, not much has gone wrong with it in 14 years, we redid the roof and windows but left the structure more or less intact.

I would however be wary of anything from Commie times - material shortages and bent inspectors must have been an issue in the 50s

Work / Easiest way for native English speaker to get a job in Poland? [35]

I presume you don't speak Polish ?

There are very many threads on that here so I suggest you read those and also put on a tin hat and prepare for some abuse. Your best bet is to get a TEFL qualification and do that.

Work / New business start-up in Poland - opinions and ideas [32]

Yes you could live comfortably on 10k net per month assuming no private school.

Work / Polish Salary and Tax [43]

OK - now I understand, you are someone who possesses eccentric views.

There are still some jobs where you have to be Polish - being chairman of a bank is one, but not sure if any others still left ?

I know plenty of Poles making good careers in London, Paris, Frankfurt as accountants, bankers, IT specialists, in medicine and the arts.