Interpreter too have to pay taxes – a sad truth! Me being no exception, I spent the weekend before last working on my tax declaration. As a free lancer I have to file an income tax declaration, a turnover tax declaration and a statement of earnings. Alas, a couple of years ago the German financial administration decided to help self-employed and free-lancing citizens in generating the statement of earnings…and created yet another form to fill out. Said form has incredibly complicated from day one. Now, from 2012 on the free lance interpreter has to file her statement of earnings electronically, using the vehicle of the Electronical Tax Declaration, aka ELSTER (a German acronym which translates as magpie, hence the title of this blog…). Wow! The electronical version of this darned form is confusing to the extent that after many many years I was desperate enough to ponder hiring a tax advisor. Thanks for nothing, dear “magpie”!
However, in my profession one get kind of used to cracking hard nuts. Without stamina and perseverance, without the capability of wheathering the storm and soldiering on until the tast at hand has been solved, an interpreter would never be able to master technical terms in the field of low migration varnishes or two-ram lifts in a matter of hours, if need be.
So I rolled up my sleeves, found the life-saving software and kept up the good work. Eventually, on Thursday, i.e. 4 (four) days later, the mission was accomplished: The complete set of tax declarations was transmitted via MAGPIE/ELSTER! In a state of exhaustion (albeit not happiness) I finally closed this chapter.
