Ok Who Can Translate Dutch ? - YouLookFab Forum

I received a letter addressed to the man who used to live here--like 8 years ago. Normally, I just throw his stuff out because it never looks important. But today, I received a letter that I beleive is some sort of financial form and it's written, I believe in Dutch. The heading on the form says:

Nonchmalige Aufforderung zur Abgabe von Suenererklarungen (the a has two dots over it) unter Androhung eines Zwangsgeldes.

It continues in some columns with numbers and what look like double S's, which I presume are dollar signs.

Is this anything of importance? Should I try to track this guy down or can I throw it away with all the other junk mail I still get for this guy? Thanks!

PS, My daughter thought it was the coolest thing in the world to get a letter with Luftpost stamped across it and with a foreing stamp. She tried to translate it online, but she couldn't duplicate all the letters on her American keyboard and was not up for figuring out the function keys for them all.

17 years ago

Ana

(website)

Veteran

I don't think it's Dutch, I think it's German.

I think it says something about this guy owing them money, but I'm not sure--I'm terrible at German. If you get any Spanish junk mail drop me a line.

Angie

Fashion Stylist

That’s actually German Nicole, and Antje or Inge should be able to translate for you. I’m fluent in Dutch if you ever need assistance that way.

Nicole

Oh even better... Antje can definitely help me out then! I thought I saw the word Dutch somewhere on the letter...that's why I thought it was Dutch.

The envelope had a postmark that said Lingen (EMS) and Finanzamt Linge (EMS)

Did it say Deutsch?

Finanzamt is Tax Office, and Linge is a river in Germany (I think).

Hee hee, this is fun.

Edit: I just googled "Lingen" and it says Lingen (EMS) is a city in Southern Germany in Emsland county.

Hmm....I'm interested to hear what Inge or Antje have to say, but I'd hazard a guess that this guy owes the government in Lingen some back taxes.

Now I'm not sure where I saw Dutch..or Deutsch...I don't see it on the form anymore. I was just glancing over it when my daughter snatched it to see if she could translate it. I must have just looked quickly and saw some combination of letters that my brain thought was "DUTCH". Annnnnyyyyywwwwwaaaaayyyyyy.....

Maybe I can fax it to Anjte (or someone who can translate) and they can let me know if it's important or not. It sure looks important--there are some pretty big numbers but with commas and decimal points in weird places....

Mm...I think in Europe they use decimal places and commas differently in monetary notation than we do here in the US. I know that's true in Latin American countries.

It does sound important. If it is, maybe you could write a letter to send to this office and Antje or Inge could translate it for you and that way you won't get any more tax letters for this guy. If you end up faxing it to them, let us know what it says, because now I'm really curious--it's like a mystery!

Inge

Moderator

Like Angie said, it is German. And I definitely need to brush up on that. But as a translator (I mostly translate from Spanish and English into Dutch), I can't resist...

Ana was right, Finanzamt is Tax Office.

It says something like: Second reminder to declare 'Suenererklärungen' under penalty of a fine.
I'm drawing a blank with the 'Suenererklärungen'. Are you sure that's exactly how it was spelled Nicole?
I've googled it, but can't find any reference. But Antje is probably much more familiar with German financial terminology.

(now you got me curious as well!-)

And yes, in Europe we use decimal points to indicate thousands, and commas for decimals.

I was just thinking: could it be Sondererklärungen?

Sonder means: special, extra', so I'm guessing they are referring to a tax declaration for extra expenses that hasn't been made yet.

Antje

Hmmm. Was it maybe "Steuer" as in "Steuererklärung"? That means tax. So the guys has not declared his taxes.
Or was it "Sühne" (Suehne)? That's a pretty antiquated word and means "punishment" (cf. Dostojewski "Crime and Punishment"; the German title has "Suehne" as its second word).

Oh, and personally, if that guy hasn't lived there for 8 years, and obviously owes some money or something to someone, then I wouldn't spend effort into tracking him down. I wouldn't toss it, but I'd give the letter back to the mail person, with a comment on the envelope "doesn't live here anymore". I wouldn't want to make this my problem. But it sounds like you're nicer than me

OK...I'm at work and don't have the letter with me. I'll just put it back in the envelope return to sender. Not sure if they will do for interntional mail though. Thanks ladies....

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