Tallinn, Estonia, Day 1

Saying goodbye to the last day of the year from sitting in an office on the 19th, this morning I caught the flight from Oslo to Tallinn.  The flight was supposed to depart at 11am, unfortunately due to an act of God (bad weather) the flight was delayed till 12 and we didn't depart till 12:20pm.  I was supposed to arrive at 1:30pm local time and didn't arrive till 2:45pm.  Annoying.  By the time I arrived it was already dark.  And cold, colder than Oslo even. -18 or something like that.

We caught the 90K bus from the airport and 40 minutes later arrived at our point of interest, Linnahall.  After picking up the apartment keys, we dropped our luggage off then took a short walk to Old Town where we had dinner at the Old Town Garden Hotel.

The outside, during summer.

The inside, during summer, winter, and even on the day of Apocalypse I guess.

We had a late dinner because there was an event or something going on, just on the other side of the restaurant.  On our side, there was nobody.  Except the bulls heads hanging off the walls.  And the occasional wandering waiter.

Rye breadsticks with bits of pig fat on it.  I didn't know it was going to be like this, I expected long bread sticks but always a first time for everything.

Cabbage, pork and potatoes.

Chicken with fried vegetables.

After dinner we took a walk to the nearby Rimi and bought some eggs, vegetables, juice, water, chicken and other tummy fillers so we can cook our own meals the next few days.  That's pretty much day 1.  Or 1 day to the end of the world, whichever you prefer.

Dummies guide to skattekort (tax card) for foreigners

Skattekort (tax card) guide for all seasons edition

Bookmark this page if you're a newbie to Norway, it's that important and will save you thousands literally.  Read on to get free karma points!!  And it's a very wise decision to follow this blog.

In Norway there are two simple things you have to do every year, fill out your tax card (i.e. what you're reading now) and then do a tax return when the time comes.  Rinse and repeat.  This post is step one.

Note that this post does not constitute tax advice.  Everyone's situation is different.  This post is based on my own personal situation.  If you're married/with kids/divorced/illegal alien/own a house/living with someone or something like that, you're not me, and if you follow this and get into trouble, you only have yourself to blame.

Ho ho ho, I've come to steal!

Every year once a year during Christmas time, us slaves under the government, I mean, citizens of the country Norway get a lovely "gift" from Skatteetaten or the tax (thieves) administration of Norway, a skattekort, or tax card.  In it you'll find their estimation of what you'll be earning the following year, it includes deductions and other miscellaneous items that workers have to indicate so that they get less taken (stolen) away from the great wonderful government of Norway.  If you're a newbie in Norway, most likely you'll just see one thing, "minstefradrag" which is a minimum deduction based on your income level, the pennies and scraps that every serf is entitled to.  And if you're a newbie to Norway and you only see that it means you're getting even more ripped off by the government.  Or perhaps you feel generous and you're willing to contribute more to the stay home bums, the jobless, other welfare personnel, and line the pockets of useless politicians be my guest, and stop reading this post.  For the rest who want to get less stolen away from us, what you have to do is request for a new tax card.  Every year.  For the next two years.

What you want is to indicate the standard deduction for foreign workers which can come up to 10% of your salary or a maximum of 40000 nok, that's 7131 US, 5417 Euros or 6759 Australian dollars.  You're entitled to this deduction for your first two years staying of in Norway.  And this will never be entered into your form, you slave, so better do your homework and listen.

First you're going to have to log into the thieves administration website, that's available here.  Once you've done that, click on "Endre skattekortet" (change the tax card), then click on "Endre skattekort/forskuddsskatt elektronisk" and log in using your minID, or whichever ID you use.

Now you'll see the actual form where you get to indicate your deductions.

On the top left of the same page you'll see your name (hopefully, and not Bjørn hussein of Grønland) and your personal number.  In Section 2.1.1, indicate the amount that you will be earning in 2013.  It does not have to be exact, but should be as close to what you think you will earn in 2013.

Next scroll down to Section 3.3.7, here is where you want to indicate the standard deduction, 10% of your salary up to a maximum of 40,000.  In my example, 10% would be 30,000.  More information available here.

You're almost done.  At the bottom of the page you have to indicate the type of deduction, so just enter "Standardfradrag for utenlandsk arbeidstaker" and proceed.

You should now come to a summary page showing you your deductions, and income for 2013.

The parts which are important are highlighted in red.  And pretty much self explanatory.  Now just hit "bestill", and wait for a few days for your new tax card to arrive in the mail.

Bonus!! To get good karma points!!

Good karma for you sir/ma'am!

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And now you're done!  Simple?  Further down the line, you're going to have to do a tax return.

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Around the world in less than 14 days

I flew from Oslo to Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, to Singapore and then back to Oslo in 13 days.  16th Oct to the 28th of the same month.

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A to B to C to A, if you're flying economy class don't try this if you have back problems!

It took me 27.5 hours to get from Oslo to Australia, including a 5 hour stopover in Singapore and an hour and a bit stopover in Helsinki.  Then I flew again on the 21st to Singapore, which was another 8 hours.  So I flew a total of 35.5 hours in less than 6 days with almost no time for recovery which is pretty bad!

Almost the entire week when I was away, I was jet lagged, and utterly sleep deprived (all my flights were full so I pretty much got a big fat zero of eye rest) but it was nice to see my old friends and colleagues anyway.  Almost seems like yesterday, time sure flies.  Also I'd almost forgotten how bright the sky can actually appear to be, been living here too long.  From 33 degrees to minus 5 this morning, I've endured some real temperature changes in a short period of time, I was sick for almost an entire week and just about feel close to normal only as of today.

One thing that disturbs me is that when I was in Australia I was thinking "Gosh there sure is a lot of fat people in Australia." and I'd never thought like that before.

Today is the US elections, but it doesn't matter who wins, so for your sake, please spend time doing something that will actually help you like spreading the truth and seeking the truth!