General ramble today, but a little bit about the cost of having a business in Greece at the moment. First though: My copy of Lonely House arrived yesterday. I realised after a few weeks that I didn’t actually have one so though I’d better put one on my shelf. This makes number nine in the collection, sixth novel, ninth book. This copy came from Lulu and if you want to order one the link is here: Lonely House by James Collins.

Also on Tuesday we called in to get our last year 14-15 tax things sorted out with the accountant. Now then, you may not know this but as well as income tax on your personal income, if you own a small (or large) business there are other taxes to pay, some of which are paid after the event, some are paid in front. So, beneath this next photo is a quick rundown of what you can expect to pay for a business in Greece – numbers and things may vary depending on business and place and year and so on, so it’s not going to 100% accurate.

• First off you pay a tax just for having a business and that was, last year on Symi, €520
• Then you pay your income tax and that depends on your income of course, though there is a threshold which is, I believe, about to be lowered to a very low level indeed.
• And with that you pay €400.00 a year in advance, which you then have (I assume) off set against your next year’s tax or which you get rebated if you don’t work.
• And then you have your other running costs and cool stuff such as the VAT you need to pass on to your customers and then take from them to pass on to the government – 16% on some things, all about to change, depends on what work you do and so on
• And then you need to pay your town hall tax at a certain % depending again on where you are and what you do
• And then you pay your shop rent unless you own the building
• And of course you have the electricity and water bills
• And your stock bills on that otherwise you wouldn’t have anything to sell
• Staff? You pay your staff’s IKA (health insurance) for the year plus an Easter bonus, plus a Christmas bonus which a lot of folk don’t get because they work up until a certain date so no one is too sure where that goes
• And you pay your own TEVE or health insurance; this used to be around €200 per month to start with and increased year on year
• And then you have to pay your accountant for putting it all together and they charge at least €100.00 per month, again depending on business sand so on
• What did we forget? Probably something. I am sure there’s another tax that you pay for the fun of having to pay taxes; a kind of tax-tax, just to make sure you’ve paid something to someone somewhere.
•  So, you can expect to pay at least (does quick add up on the ‘set’ basics, i.e. not the stock or income tax or VAT) something around €9,000 just on the things needed before you start to make any money.

Is it any wonder small business are going bust left right and shopping centre?

I just thought I’d share that with you as I was thinking about tax stuff yesterday and it is actually yesterday today – just back from Town on Tuesday you see, ah, fooled you again! But tonight we have a party to look forward to and a walk to Pedi. There may be a bus back as today we’ve already been to Yialos and back. We took the scenic route down the zig zag below Lemonitisa which comes out, well all over the place, but in our case near the newly refurbished multi-million Italian property towards the bottom of the Kali Strata. Coming back up again with 10 kilos of cat litter, 10 kilos of shopping and a bag of 78s (thanks Steve! Love ‘em) in the heat at midday is something of a trial, but at least it’s exercise and you don’t get taxed on it. Yet.

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I think we’re both worn out from the ‘holiday’ week now, far too much entertaining and eating out. But no more guests for a while now, and I am going to get back into the habit of turning down invitations to things that start after eight p.m. Not getting old (well, I am of course) just want to get back into the early morning routine. It seems impossible this year though.

Still, here we are, Tuesday (Monday as I write) and I have a day in Rhodes to plan for next week. I think next Wednesday might be the day to go. I have some insurance things to see to and I fancy a day out. Before then there is work to do. I have started on the second draft of the new novel and will be progressing through that in the afternoons, without too many interruptions I hope. But having said that, there is one planned for this evening as it’s Sam’s birthday – and that’s not going to be too late a night; and even if it is, it doesn’t matter, It’s Sam’s birthday.

And meanwhile, on Symi, what’s been going on? The train is going, the horse and carriage is running its trips, the taxi boats are heading out, the Poseidon is doing its trips too – not sure about the Diagoras at the moment – and things are ticking along quite nicely. At least that’s how it looks from the outside. There’s lots on sale, there are day trippers coming in and the weather is hot. 30 degrees in the shade in our one porch by mid-morning. A slight breeze helps us keep cool, especially with all the windows open.

The cat’s not happy as usual, never is at this time of year. Doesn’t know what he wants. He’s always at my feet looking at me, trying to hypnotise me into taking him to the kitchen for another look at his food bowl. I keep it covered and as fresh as possible but he only thinks he wants to eat, he doesn’t really. He does first thing though, so it’s only the heat of the day that troubles him. Still alarms the house at five in the morning though when he thinks it’s time for us to get up.

And that’s my news really, another day of same old same old, ticking over, nothing to complain about, quite happy, getting on with things. And getting on with Tuesday: a trip to Yialos to see the accountant about my tax return, a trip to the post office, a trip to the pet shop to get cat litter (joy! 5 kilos to carry up the hill) and then a birthday party at Pedi to look forward to. Such is life.

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I had an idea, on Friday evening, to take photos of various flags on boats in the harbour, so we could see how many countries were here. Then I ran out of light, but I took some.

We were down there to meet some friends from the Blue Star when it came in, only slightly late. But before we went to Taverna Xaris on the south side of the harbour, right next to the taxi rank, and very nice it was too. Good service, very attentive, good Greek food served with potatoes rather than chips which makes a very welcome change, and generous offers of free afters. No matter how much we declined we were still treated to a slice of cake and a glass of Samos sweet wine. And all a reasonable price. Thanks James.

We waited for the boat at Elpida’s kafeneion, a very popular place amount locals and visitors alike, and then, after greeting our friends, went to wait at Pacho’s (also very popular with locals and visitors) while they checked into the new Symi Centre apartments by the nautical museum and has a bite to eat at To Spitiko.

And so the weekend went on, as it does when friends visit. Visits to the house, meeting up at a kafeneion, lunch there, dinner here, walks around the village, I was well and truly done in by Sunday morning and couldn’t get the energy together to do anything else but read and listen to music. I also had a bad throat and headache so I must have picked something up while out and about. But enough of that! We are now officially a ‘No moan zone’ so please bear that in mind if you bump into us at work or out and about.

I did notice, while down in Yialos, that everything was running as normal, the place was busy, the harbour was packed with boats, new visitors and old friends alike were pouring in and the day boats and ferries were coming and going as usual. It was good to see so many flags from various countries, Germany, Spain, Turkey, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and elsewhere. Over the weekend, we also so a few refugees with their whole life in a bag, looking for somewhere to stay while they wait for the big boat on Wednesday. And that kind of puts the holiday atmosphere into perspective.

I spent some time on Sunday looking for flights as my nephew said he might be coming over in September (not sure if Symi is quite ready for that but…). Apparently Ryan Air is doing a flight for £5.00 or something though I couldn’t find it, and it would probably end up at £500.00 once you’d paid for each individual piece of clothing in your 20cm x 30cm baggage alowance, paid for your seat belt, put 20ps in the meter for your decompression, used the loo (cheques taken), paid for your breathing space, paid 50p a time to read the magazine, put down a deposit on a life jacket just in case, topped the thing up with four star, and promised the driver at huge tip at the other end. Easy Jet and Aegean were doing better and probably more trusted deals where you don’t have to bring your own fuel, so I pointed him in their direction.

Before that though, we have a few weeks off from visitors before Neil’s son returns to Symi for the first time in nine years, or something. So, on that note, I am going to put the house back in order, make the beds and be a happy little house husband before starting work on another draft of another book, as Cole Porter might have said had he written books instead of songs.

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