feel free to skip, but seriously. ARGH.

[janie_tangerine]

The proof that this country is fucked: when you want to pay uni taxes, they make your life hell.

So. The first year everything went fine because I could use a check to my name to go at the bank and pay, which worked just perfectly because I mean, uni expenses are the only thing I get money from my parents for and it's not like I have enough income to cover it even if hi, public so at least it isn't really expensive in comparison.

Then they changed the rules (last year, first term) and I was told that I needed to pay either in cash or the check had to be to the name of the owner of the account, which means that I could pay with a check only if the account was mine. Now. Considering that here most students don't have jobs at the same time and they're in their early twenties, will someone tell me how could this ever be SMART considering that I don't know anyone who owns a goddamn bank account, my age at least? Anyway, it meant going with 1000+ euros in cash (last year, second term), which as you'll realize is awesome when you use public transport. The first time I tried with the check, it didn't work and I ended up getting a 50 euros fine because I paid ONE DAY late. Funny thing? I go there and get told that uh, wait, the rules either changed or could be interpreted this other way so I didn't need to go with my mother or with the cash, the check was suddenly valid.

I had been very happy, as you can imagine.

So this year I paid the first term in cash because it wasn't really as much money and I could feel half comfortable bringing it along. Then now I need to pay for the second term and I figured I'd go with the check since last year it was doable. So I wait two hours at the bank and WAIT, when I get there what do they tell me?

Either cash or the check to my mother's name. AGAIN. Even if last year I had been told that had re-changed. Result: I didn't pay the taxes and it'll end up with me and my mother both losing time because she'll have to get the cash or come with me. Because, of course, I can't even say fuck it and tell her to go with my receipt, because since the taxes are mine I need to be there. Now, dear taxes people, I'd love to have a job and to earn enough to get a bank account for myself, move out and a lot of other things, but until I'm studying full-time that isn't going to happen. Same thing for another whole lot of people. Can't they at least make someone's life easier, dammit? Or at least tell me so that I didn't lose half of the morning which I could have spent doing something more productive? Or at least DECIDE because it's ridiculous that rules change every two weeks? Arrrrgh. /end rant

Okay. I'll have lunch, answer comments, have some more Deadwood and go to the last class.

Comments

[bold-seer.livejournal.com]

Anyway, it meant going with 1000+ euros in cash (last year, second term), which as you'll realize is awesome when you use public transport.

Oh frak, that's absolutely ridiculous! Even university education around here is (still) more or less free - something like a hundred euros a year - but I can imagine that situation all too well.

popping in

[thandie.livejournal.com]

"something like a hundred euros a year"
Really?! Only that? Wow.

Janie, we are definitively born in the wrong country.

Re: popping in

[bold-seer.livejournal.com]

Come north, my friends!

I can't think of any other compulsory fees atm than this 80 euro thing. But really, it's basically free. Besides, the government pays you a certain sum each month, so I'm basically getting paid for studying. (It's the Swedish/Finnish system.) But some politicians are, of course, always lobbying against it, and I guess people are on their toes that one autumn they'll suddenly have to pay 3000 euros.

Re: popping in

[thandie.livejournal.com]

That's great, it's a sign that you are civilized, not like here in Italy where people in this field don't even get funds...especially my field, you know, scientists of every kind. In my uni we basically have to pay SO much to have labs that are about to rot, and we are lucky not to catch diseases while we are in there. I think it's a situation that only exists here, of many countries I know of directly or not.

Re: popping in

[janie-tangerine.livejournal.com]

it's a sign that you are civilized

Janie, we are definitively born in the wrong country.

Word on both. It makes me regret not going to university outside Italy in the first place. *headdesk*

I think it's a situation that only exists here, of many countries I know of directly or not.

^ word too.

(Argh, stai in campo scientifico? Ci credo che siete messi male, già con quei pochi soldi che danno non si va avanti da me che è filosofia e servono solo libri, per la ricerca scientifica è mooolto peggio =_= paese di m....)

[janie-tangerine.livejournal.com]

A HUNDRED? God, why wasn't I born north? Seriously? I mean, I pay about 1500 each year total split in two very uneven parts, but I think it's actually cheap in comparison to a lot of other places. (Well, not talking about the US here, in comparison it's nothing.) Lucky you and your system. ;) But yeah. It's not like they even try to make things easier, do they? And yeah. Ridiculous. I think that the time I did do that I looked so freaked out and clutching the bag that every possible thief would have guessed I had something worth stealing. :/

[bold-seer.livejournal.com]

Oh and I'm sorry, but now I have this sort of hilarious image of Viggo Mortensen in A Perfect Murder, clutching a bag full of money as he's on a packed train - only that's, you know, you. (I'm tired, okay?)

Don't even get me started on US college fees. Egalitarian, n/n?

[janie-tangerine.livejournal.com]

BUAHAHAHAH hey if you compare me to Viggo it's an honor. I'm way not as charming though. ;) ;)

US college fees are a joke. Which is why I'll never complain about actually how much money I'm paying. I'm complaining on HOW I'm supposed to pay for it. N/n indeed.

[bold-seer.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't know; I've never had a chat with him.

;)

[elliotsmelliot.livejournal.com]

I think you should send Al Swearengen down to sort out your payments!

[janie-tangerine.livejournal.com]

I think I should go and elect him for PM directly. He might be a jerk but he's a jerk that knows how to work with money and he couldn't be worse than the current one.

Also, I need a Deadwood icon asap.

[mollivanders.livejournal.com]

taxes are so freaking stupid :( I'm sorry the system's so messed up bb *hugs*

[janie-tangerine.livejournal.com]

That. One would think that since they are getting the money they would make things easier to pay it, right...? <3

[fosfomifira.livejournal.com]

That system sounds incredibly complicated. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the taxes because, uh, if you're not working and thus have no income, what are they taxing you on? The only time I paid taxes was when I had a full-time job and back then, because I made so little, my employer was supposed to automatically make that cut, along with cuts for health insurance and your retirement fund.

[janie-tangerine.livejournal.com]

That's Italy for you. If it's simple we complicate it and if it's complicated, we make it messier. And it's a tax because.. argh, it's complicated to explain because we have two kinds of taxes which stand for two different things, but English only has one word for that because I think that the one they'd use in this situation would be a fee. I mean, we have a tax meaning #1 which is the taxes you mean that you have taxed on and pay when you have a job and stuff, and a meaning #2 where a tax is something you pay in order to get a service back, which is a different thing. University taxes are taxes because you pay for enrolling and giving exams, not for listening to lectures. If it's public then anyone could virtually attend a lecture, but you give exams only if you paid the tax. Anyway, just adds to the whole complicated crap.