Limbo - Day 8 (Deregistration)

Stadthaus, Zurich

I'm hoping that my fine on the train to Freiburg was my last bit of bad luck (or plain stupidity on my part) for a while.

When I returned "home" that evening (sorry Markus, am I making myself too cosy?), I checked into the private facebook forum for owners. Hurrah! After two weeks, electricity and water had finally been turned back on in El Andalous and twelve workers were busily putting things back to how they should be. The management company had received some payments and were willing to switch the facilities on again (it is still unclear whether the resort company or the management company turned them back on).

Holger, Emil, and Annette are obviously my lucky angels!

I mustn't get complacent though. The management company is still threatening to turn everyone's water and electricity off again at the end of December if they don't continue to receive more payments. We will see. Watch this space!

So, that was just this last weekend. Three days afterwards, my favourite share, Iofina, increased in value by 25%, due to good news. So, my shares are still down, but they are at least starting to look a bit healthier now.

I think it may have been that same Wednesday that the flight ban to Egypt was also lifted. I have in any case now booked my flight for 10th October.

And I didn't get fined yesterday, even though I half-expected it. All very promising!

There was a moment, though, when I thought it would all go horribly wrong again.

It had been in the back of my mind that I needed to deregister as you have to do this before you leave. I was feeling a bit nervous about it, because I wasn't sure whether I should have deregistered before I left my flat or whether it was before I left the country. I didn't like to deregister before leaving my flat, because I didn't know when I was going to be able to get a flight to leave the country and, in addition, I decided only last-minute where I was going to stay. I'm not sure how my life became so complicated! Anyway, I was worried that I should have done it before leaving my flat and that I would get fined for being late (this is Switzerland, after all).

Thankfully, it wasn't an issue when I deregistered, although there was some confusion as to why my request to keep my C permit said I was leaving on 19th September and my deregistration document was claiming I would leave on 10th October. My explanation about my flight being cancelled went down without a problem, though.

The procedure to deregister was more complex than I was expecting with the first visit being to the ground floor counter, followed by a visit to the first floor for the letter of confirmation, which you then took back down to the ground floor. The ground floor counter then took the letter of confirmation hostage while you went over to the tax counter and then, after you were done at the tax counter, you took the resultant tax statement back to the ground floor counter and you got your letter of confirmation back in return.

It turned out that I should have been worrying about the visit to the tax counter rather than about possibly being late in deregistering, but that's life for you, it just doesn't want to be predictable.

I'd been told that all I needed to do was to give a contact name for them to send the tax forms to (I am continuing to work part-time until the end of November and they don't send tax forms outside of Switzerland). Our HR person, Sidsel, said I could give them her name, so I thought I was sorted.

However, the lady at the tax counter informed me that before I left Switzerland I needed to pay 17k CHF to cover all my taxes for the year. To give the woman credit, she did look a bit sorry about what she was saying. I just looked at her, thinking that it was an impossible demand.

I think my face must have spoken for me, because she hurriedly added that maybe that was too much because I wouldn't be earning my normal salary. At this point, I managed to wipe the shocked expression off my face, and reiterated that I would be only part-time and only until end of November, so that therefore my tax wouldn't be that high. In addition, I said (shrieked?) that I had planned to pay 8.5k at the end of September as per their invoice.

To my huge surprise and relief, she nodded and said that was fine and she left it at that! Phew. I did have to sign some kind of letter in duplicate stating that Sidsel was going to take care of all my tax affairs and payments. I'm not sure that this is really what Sidsel intended when she said I could name her, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it....

Anyway, I think my life is undergoing a ripple effect, where you have a huge stone thrown in the water, then some other large ripples ensue, then the quiet waters start to take up more space and the ripples distort less and less. Finally, I am sure, I will end up in clear waters again. Hopefully, they will be the clear waters of Sahl Hasheesh.