• Tax preparation costs are federally legislated, not set by the individual preparers.  The amount is based on your income level. Guess there is no incentive for them to innovate.
• Expenditures for local craftsman/workman services, for example having your apartment painted, are tax-deductible if you have a receipt.  You get a tax deduction and the government keeps track of service provider income. No wonder you can often get a discount if you pay cash – and forgo the receipt!

Because the article is in German here is my rough translation and interpretation of her 7 tips. Please feel free to suggest any changes.

1. Turn off the ‘Automatic Network Selection’ mode found on most mobile phones. Manually select your local network.  If your phone is set on automatic and it happens to think the French signal from across the Rhine is stronger than the German one and it connects to the French network even if you are physically standing in Germany you will be charged as if you are roaming.
2. Understand how your plan (tarife) charges you for incoming and outgoing calls, SMS and data usage when abroad. There was EU wide legislation in 2007 that requires pricing for calls within Europe to be fixed as part of your plan – though there wide variation between plans. Go to Handytarife.de for more information on international roaming and German cell phone plans.
3. Know how the system works before you decide to not pick the phone up when you are out of your home country and instead let your calls go to voicemail.  I will have to investigate this more, but the claim here is that you can still be charged a roaming fee for having the call connected through to your phone only to have it connected back again to your German voicemail box.  Assuming this is true there are two things you can do: 1) Deactivate the forwarding back to your mailbox or 2) setup automatic forwarding to mailbox (phone calls will go straight to voicemail and not be connected through to your handy).
4. Use SMS when abroad.  Beyond being the cheapest form of basic communication on your handy, receiving SMS’s is typically free. In the example Bianca provides,she carries two cellphone with her when in Switzerland (she lives in Freiburg and goes to school in Basel). She receives incoming SMS’s from her German friends on her German handy for free (and cheap for them).  She then replies using her pre-paid Swiss handy which offers better international SMS rates for her.
5. If you’re going to be abroad for an extended period of time, buy a pre-paid card in the country where you will be. One consideration here – make sure you have an unlocked handy so you can easily switch your SIM cards.
6. If you’re always traveling take a look at Globalsim.net.   This seems similar to Maxroam by Cubic Telecom, which claims to save you lots money on international cell phone roaming charges.
7. Use phone cards. While not the sexiest of options they’re available at every kiosk and grocery store worldwide and offer very competitive international rates.  When I studied abroad in Singapore, while it’s not the most fun standing at a payphone during a monsoon, this is what I used to manage my international calling costs.

Do you have any tips for managing your handy as a Grenzgänger? Please let me know.

Taking things one step at a time with my re-immersion into living life in German, the last few weeks I’ve been frustrated when results from searches performed in Firefox are not returned in English. When I want results in German I just search from google.de. So, how do you “fix” this feature of Firefox?

Check out Mike Kornieko’s Instructions on how to override Firefox search language settings. They worked for me.

The next day I went to Hornbacher (German Home Depot) and found their mouse killing aisle. A few Euros, three mousetraps, and a bar of Milka (Ganze Haselnüsse) later, I returned home prepared for a protracted engagement. Why Milka, you might ask? Some of it is made in Lörrach, and much as the locals drink Lasser Pils (brewed a block away from us) my bet was Milka is probably a local mouse favorite.

A week later, I turn to you, dear reader, for some food recommendations. The first few nights, much to Ally’s relief (disgust), the Milka worked. Since then? Nothing – and trust me – they’re still here. We traded the Milka for some cheese (alternating between Mimolette and mini Baybybel) but it seems as though German mice don’t like French cheese.

Before I run to the grocery store does anybody have any suggestions or recommendations on German cheese or chocolate that both mouse and man will like? Limburger, Emmental…Rittersport?