Sounds like PPK didn't do the legwork. If you're going to get paid for a cross-border contract, make sure you know what you're doing or pay someone who does. Saying "fucking" doesn't solve anything.
Exactly what I was thinking. I can imagine that he has to deal with a few _ssholes. I see how a foreigner would feel like he is hitting a wall when he is dealing with the bureaucracy in many Indian organisations (blanket statement), but at the same time, you have to understand that the only way you can get anything done in this scene is to have a little patience and have a cool head about the way stuff happens here.
I am not saying that being patient is a the right way to fix the bureaucracy, but being patient looks to me like the right way to navigate your way around.
BTW I am not judging the way the OP responded to his particular scenario.
> I am not saying that being patient is a the right way to fix the bureaucracy, but being patient looks to me like the right way to navigate your way around.
Or just avoid situations involving bureaucracies instead of bending over for them.
I've had my fun with W8BEN forms, EID numbers, and US customers. I still don't understand why technicalities of the US tax system were suddenly my problem instead of the customers, but realistically you either deal with this or you don't do business.
Indeed, US tax forms are no fun; I've made that mistake before. It was a few hundred dollars' worth of work - I decided that trying to chase down the paperwork was not worth it in the end, as I made more money just spending that time doing contract work for my EU customers instead.
Unfortunately, the US seems to get away with tax colonialism, whereby you automatically owe them money until proven innocent even though you never set foot there; and US citizens get taxed by the US even if they don't reside or work there. Sounds like India is even worse in that you can't get around their tax even after filling in the forms.
If I do business with non-EU customers in the future, it's going to have to pay at least mid 5-digits, and a sufficient premium above my EU rates to just pay for an expert to handle the bureaucracy and hassle for me. I'd recommend a similar policy to anyone. The anti-EU moaners have no idea how beneficial it is to small businesses doing something easily importable or exportable - it's actually slightly less hassle for me to do business with customers in the rest of the EU than in my own country because I never see the VAT (which isn't too bad to begin with).
