Die beliebte freie Grafiksoftware Krita ist in Schwierigkeiten
Das bekannte Zeichenprogramm hat Probleme mit dem Finanzamt. Es geht um eine fünfstellige Steuerforderung. Die Stiftung wird mit wenig Geld betrieben, und weiss jetzt nicht mehr weiter:
The Krita Foundation is having trouble with the Dutch tax authorities.
This is the situation:
In February, we received an audit from the tax inspector. We were quite
confident we wouldn’t have any problems because when we setup the Krita
Foundation in 2013, we took the advice of a local tax consultant on how
to setup the Foundation and its administration. We registered for VAT
with the tax authorities and kept our books as instructed by the
consultant.
However, the tax inspector found two problems springing from the fact
the Foundation sells training videos and books, so it is not 100%
funded by donations. This means that the tax authorities see the
Foundation is as partly a company, partly as not a company.
We claimed back VAT for things bought by the Foundation. But we should
only have claimed the VAT back to the percentage of income generated
from sales, which is about 15%. (The rest of our income is donations.)
The Foundation was created to be able to have Dmitry work full-time on
Krita. Because we sell stuff, the tax inspector has determined that
we’re a company, and should have paid VAT in the Netherlands over the
work Dmitry has been doing in Russia. Even though there is no VAT in
Russia on the kind of work Dmitry is doing. But because we’re not a
company, we cannot reclaim the VAT.
In other words, because we’re mostly not a company, we should not have
claimed back the VAT we paid; but we’re also considered fully a
company, so we should have paid VAT in the Netherlands over Dmitry’s
work, which we could not have claimed back because the Foundation is
mostly not a company. (It didn’t matter that Dmitry owns the copyright
on his work, and that the Foundation doesn’t own anything related to
Krita except for the trademark…)
The result is a tax bill of 24,000 euros. We have consulted with an
accountant, and together we got the bill reduced to 15,006 euros,
including fines and interest, but the accountant’s bill came to 4,000
euros.
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