Archives for January 2008

Die Kirchensteuer

January 23, 2008 By 1 Comment

Kirchensteuer, or church tax, is a a tax on income in Germany that benefits a church that the payer belongs to. The level of tax depends on the state or Bundesland that you live in.

Payment is made from your wages by your employer to the Finanzamt, therefore the church who benefits is noted on the Lohnsteuerkarte.

For the main churches, the Kirchensteuer is an important form income. They do, however, use this to provide services to the community which in other countries may be charged for separately.

To hear a simple explanation and a short discussion in German, listen to the podcast:

(Press the “play” button to listen to the podcast)

Download the MP3 file | Subscribe to the podcast

Disclaimer: this podcast is a simple explanation for non-native speakers. For tax advice, please contact a Steuerberater.

Filed Under: German Words Explained, Podcasts, Tax Tagged With: ,

High-level Soccer

January 22, 2008 By Leave a Comment

It may not affect many stadiums in Europe, but the FIFAs ban on international soccer (football) games above 2,750 meters is something that could seriously affect Boliva’s football team.

If you think of such heights above sea level in Europe, then you think about mountains – the Alps in particular. The Schilthorn, for example, is at 2,970m above sea level (that’s the one with the restaurant on it in the James Bond film “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”!)

At this altitude, the air becomes thinner and so the body has to adjust so that the lungs can absorb the oxygen better. No mean feat for a visitor, but image playing football at that hight – or even higher, La Paz being another 1000m on top of that.

So FIFA, the world body governing football, has banned matches played at such levels without acclimatisation. But how long do you need to acclimatise? I think I needed about a week when I was in Sucre and another few days again when we climbed up to the Potosí/La Paz heights.

On the one hand, that makes it a bit unfair on lower-lying countries in South America when they send their players there.

But on the other hand, why should Bolivia suffer for it’s altitude and have to play it’s international fixtures elsewhere?

Filed Under: Bolivia, La Paz, Sport Tagged With: , , , ,

Going shopping

January 21, 2008 By 1 Comment

Today’s Monday Podcast takes a look a shops in Germany, in particular for the weekly groceries.

When you first come to Germany to live, you need to get used to shopping at the supermarkets, which may not be open for a long as you were used to before. Certainly they will have different brands of goods so the first few weeks or even months can be very confusing. Some items that you look for may be very hard to find as they are not so common.

Also, you now have the wide choice of discounters, local supermarkets and larger out-of-town supermarkets. These vary in price and range, so to optimise a budget you may need to go to more than one type during the course of a week.

Listen to the podcast to find out more:

(Press the “play” button to listen to the podcast)

Download the MP3 file | Subscribe to the podcast

Filed Under: Monday Podcasts, Podcasts, Shops Tagged With: ,

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