We realized we left everyone hanging on the 30% tax decision ruling. The issue was hotly debated for months this fall. During that time, a concession was made by the Dutch government: that they would be cutting the ruling short to 5 years as planned, but not instituting the change until January 1, 2021, buying people more time to get their affairs in order. Even this was still being debated up until the law was signed by the final branch of government at the end of December. So we had our answer going into the New Year.
What this means for us is that we have two more years of the tax benefit. We will effectively lose 19 months. Of course we are glad to not be losing 3 full years, but we clearly didn't want to lose any at all. I am relieved that our borrowed time will get us through the next US Presidential election, which certainly will be telling and will likely shape our longer term plans. We plan to stay at least through the summer of 2021 (completing 7 years here), and may stay on for the 8th year we intended albeit without the tax breaks. Then we'll see.
Feeling anxious about our future related to the tax ruling, in late fall, I decided I should be working more. My one consulting job had slowed down and I found myself with too much time on my hands, time I spent having fun, sure, but also time spent fretting about the future.
I wanted to start my search by expanding my network in Europe. Ideally, I would be working a job with normal hours and not solely in the evenings as I've been doing since March. A visit to the European Society of Human Genetics website revealed a jobs link and the first posting was for a remote genetic counseling position for a company in London. I was asked to give a presentation to the CEO and others, which went well. I was paid for my time and told that they looked forward to working with me, but have yet to sign a contract so it is unclear if/when I will be starting that new job!
Around the same time, I had dinner with my colleague from Recombine who lives in Utrecht. When our company was bought and stopped offering carrier screening, I sent one email to the new manager about wanting to stay with the company, but didn't follow through when I didn't get reply as the Alzheimer's disease study was keeping me plenty busy at the time. Meghan was more persistent and was trained on the new company's product, genetic testing of embryos for couples pursuing IVF (Preimplantation Genetic Testing for Aneuploidies- PGTA). I sent another email, this time with a positive reply. I was trained over Christmas break and have started making calls. I am juggling this schedule with the Alzheimer's study job, which has really picked up. So I am happily busy again!
When I was worrying this summer about finding more remote work, my grad school friend Heather gave me a boost of confidence telling me that if anyone would figure out a way to make it happen, it was me. Sometimes we just need to have others believe in us!
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