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<p>Hi,</p>
<p>Ok - I found out a bit more about what the tax situation means:</p>
<p>Here the german version:</p>
<p>-------------<br>
</p>
<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Helvetica
W01 Roman", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;
font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-style:
initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline
!important; float: none;">Grundsätzlich unterliegen Vereine der
Steuerpflicht. Allerdings wird ein Jahresgewinn unter Fr. 10'000
und ein Vereinsvermögen unter Fr. 100'000 nicht besteuert.</span><br
style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; -webkit-font-smoothing:
antialiased; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Helvetica
W01 Roman", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;
font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-style:
initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">
<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Helvetica W01
Roman", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;
font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-style:
initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline
!important; float: none;">Mitgliederbeiträge an die Vereine
werden nicht zum steuerbaren Gewinn gezählt.</span><br
style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; -webkit-font-smoothing:
antialiased; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Helvetica
W01 Roman", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;
font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-style:
initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">
<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Helvetica W01
Roman", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;
font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-style:
initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline
!important; float: none;">Ab 1.01.2018 (Steuerperiode 2018)
werden Jahresgewinne, sofern sie höchstens Fr. 20'000 betragen,
nicht besteuert.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Helvetica
W01 Roman", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;
font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-style:
initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline
!important; float: none;">-----------------------<br>
</span></p>
<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Helvetica
W01 Roman", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;
font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-style:
initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline
!important; float: none;">I try to summarize what it means:</span></p>
<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Helvetica
W01 Roman", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;
font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-style:
initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline
!important; float: none;">the yearly profit (income minus
expenses) below 20'000 CHF is not taxed (starting from January
2018). Funds below 100'000 CHF are not taxed either (relevant is
the bank account situation on December 31). I think both
thresholds can be easily undercut - if the developers who work
on bug fixing or other infrastructure work for QGIS always send
me the invoices in time (before end of the year). We don't plan
to accummulate funds anyway. What we have as income from
donations and sponsorships should be spent in the same year, if
possible.<br>
</span></p>
<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Helvetica
W01 Roman", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;
font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-style:
initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline
!important; float: none;">On the VAT situation:</span></p>
<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Helvetica
W01 Roman", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;
font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-style:
initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline
!important; float: none;">Donations are not subject to VAT, but
sponsorships are subject to VAT - if we do advertising for
sponsors (see the discussion around the listing of URLs to
company webpages). Membership fees also wouldn't be subject to
VAT - if the membership fees and categories are equal to all and
declared in a transparent way.<br>
</span></p>
<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Helvetica
W01 Roman", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;
font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-style:
initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline
!important; float: none;">This situation raises for me the
question if we could either get rid of "sponsorships" and call
them "donations" or introduce a "membership fee" instead of
sponsorings with different categories based on an organizations
size. Sponsors would become members. This would be more
complicated, because members can usually also vote and influence
the association. Not sure if we want that. It would complicate
the already quite complex structure of our voting process.<br>
</span></p>
<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Helvetica
W01 Roman", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;
font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-style:
initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline
!important; float: none;">Another negative effect of not being
tax exempt are the higher Paypal transfer fees and the fact that
some organizations may have a policy that they can only support
organizations that are declared tax exempt.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Helvetica
W01 Roman", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;
font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-style:
initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline
!important; float: none;">Anyway - I am still in contact with an
Open Source lobbying organization in Switzerland to see if they
can help us in our situation. They also have lawyers - but so
far the lawyers did not respond - only the president of the
organization.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Helvetica
W01 Roman", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;
font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-style:
initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline
!important; float: none;">Will keep you updated. Something to
discuss on the upcoming PSC meeting. Sorry to bore you with this
stuff - but somehow we should find a solution here.<br>
</span></p>
<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Helvetica
W01 Roman", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;
font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-style:
initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline
!important; float: none;">Andreas<br>
</span></p>
<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Helvetica
W01 Roman", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;
font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-style:
initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline
!important; float: none;"><br>
</span></p>
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