Hacker News: markvdb

New comment by markvdb in "The Strongest El Niño Ever"

markvdb — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 21:13:44 +0000

- There is no "we", but it would take "we" to fix this.

- There is a global scale issue, but no consensus on this being a problem. Not at the global, continental, local or individual level. FFS, there are idiots proudly rolling coal.

- Leadership - in the rare places on earth where it is somewhat accountable - reflects this lack of consensus.

- Acknowledging the problem does not equal acting even on an individual level.

- There's lots of cognitive dissonance. Why am I even flying to the other side of the world next week?

We are cooked. Not so much us old farts, but the children.

New comment by markvdb in "Australian energy retailers must offer three hours of free daytime electricity"

markvdb — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 21:30:42 +0000

Not necessarily. At least in Flanders (northern ~half of Belgium), this was shifted onto consumers by making them pay for peak quarter consumption. Using more than 2.5kW for 15 minutes in a row on average means you pay a lot more for your fixed grid cost.

New comment by markvdb in "Australian energy retailers must offer three hours of free daytime electricity"

markvdb — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 21:26:37 +0000

The core of the EU system is much more elegant. It sets a day-ahead production price per 15 minutes at auction. In EU countries with reasonable distribution cost, dynamic rates are a quite popular way to shift consumption to when cheap electricity is abundant.

New comment by markvdb in "County with 37 Data Centers Asks Schools to 'Conserve Electricity'"

markvdb — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 16:15:13 +0000

Conserving energy makes sense regardless of nearby data center electricity consumption.

New comment by markvdb in "Founding a company in Germany: €9600, 152 days and I still can't send an invoice"

markvdb — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 23:27:18 +0000

Same here.

New comment by markvdb in "Founding a company in Germany: €9600, 152 days and I still can't send an invoice"

markvdb — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 23:26:02 +0000

This holds for Belgium too. The notary class here are overpaid self-dealing monopolists selling you mediocre service at best. We were just required to pay 801€ for a bog standard piece of paper. A web form would have served us better and more quickly. At least they've recently become a bit less hereditary than the last 200 years.

New comment by markvdb in "Founding a company in Germany: €9600, 152 days and I still can't send an invoice"

markvdb — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 23:09:30 +0000

Of my many many acquaintances with Belgian CIT liable companies, exactly one used to do their own taxes. They still outsourced salary payment though. That is even trickier than taxes. There's an entire sector specialising in wage administration...

New comment by markvdb in "Founding a company in Germany: €9600, 152 days and I still can't send an invoice"

markvdb — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 18:34:53 +0000

Substance would be real activity happening in Estonia: - Where are the decisions made? - Where is the work being done?

Why would I otherwise pay 66% in taxes in Belgium when I could just set up an Estonian ltd, get limited liability and pay 0 until I take anything out?

New comment by markvdb in "Founding a company in Germany: €9600, 152 days and I still can't send an invoice"

markvdb — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 18:20:56 +0000

You mean German CIT and German PIT I assume. How happy would the US IRS be with that?

New comment by markvdb in "Founding a company in Germany: €9600, 152 days and I still can't send an invoice"

markvdb — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 17:50:25 +0000

Belgium mandates peppol for b2b transactions since January 1st.

This at least carries the potential of simplifying things for honest businesses.

New comment by markvdb in "Founding a company in Germany: €9600, 152 days and I still can't send an invoice"

markvdb — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 17:40:14 +0000

OECD CFC rules have become much stricter in this regard...

New comment by markvdb in "Founding a company in Germany: €9600, 152 days and I still can't send an invoice"

markvdb — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 17:28:28 +0000

...and move to Ireland.

New comment by markvdb in "Founding a company in Germany: €9600, 152 days and I still can't send an invoice"

markvdb — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 17:24:36 +0000

> If you think about starting a company, spend some time to think through what it would mean for you to be a Delaware C Corp or an Estoinian one. It will increase your chances of success as you can focus on what matters.

Moving to Estonia or - even bigger hurdles- the US is not without its distractions either....

New comment by markvdb in "Founding a company in Germany: €9600, 152 days and I still can't send an invoice"

markvdb — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 16:33:27 +0000

Substance in Estonia is usually required. A rented address does not suffice for that.

New comment by markvdb in "Founding a company in Germany: €9600, 152 days and I still can't send an invoice"

markvdb — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 16:23:06 +0000

Not incorporating would be very fiscally suboptimal here (.be) for anything tech related. Your marginal tax+ social security contributions rate would be ~66% starting from 50k€ gross...

New comment by markvdb in "Founding a company in Germany: €9600, 152 days and I still can't send an invoice"

markvdb — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 16:18:07 +0000

> If you can file all of the taxes and other legally required paperwork yourself, you can be set up in a week or two.

Is realistic in the Netherlands to try and fulfill all formal paperwork requirements?

In my native Belgian city, outsourcing that be from ~3k€ excluding VAT/year for the very simplest CIT liable structure. That's excluding 409.3€ corporate social security contribution and 148€ provincial tax. That makes for about 300€ ex. VAT before you can start to earn anything at all. Unless you can fulfill all accounting yourself.

New comment by markvdb in "Founding a company in Germany: €9600, 152 days and I still can't send an invoice"

markvdb — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 14:32:47 +0000

Of course not. They'll just claim your llc needs to pay local corporate income taxe, VAT, pay local social security, dividend withholding tax, ... on top of whatever needs to happen to keep US authorities happy.

New comment by markvdb in "Canada plans 'nuclear renaissance' with up to 10 reactors built by 2040"

markvdb — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 14:20:00 +0000

> You'll never get waste management below about 300 years with fission, because that's basically what you get from the fission products.

That's at least one and probably more like five wars over the reactor territory.

I'm mildly optimistic about fusion's potential...

New comment by markvdb in "Founding a company in Germany: €9600, 152 days and I still can't send an invoice"

markvdb — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 14:11:51 +0000

If I set up a US llc as a Belgian while residing in Belgium, Belgian tax authorities will claim the center of control is in Belgium and claim it is a Belgian company.

New comment by markvdb in "Founding a company in Germany: €9600, 152 days and I still can't send an invoice"

markvdb — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 14:09:36 +0000

He mentioned German exit tax is keeping him from doing that.