[Qgis-psc] Bad news: negative reply from Zurich tax office

[Andreas Neumann]

Hi,

As a first action I am now contacting an Open Source lobbying group in
Berne to see what they think and ask them for help.

At the same time, we should investigate if there are more Open Source
friendly Cantons or countries around. Personally, I have no problem moving
the domicile of the organization if we find a better solution.

Andreas

On 29 January 2018 at 21:31, Richard Duivenvoorde <rdmailings at duif.net>
wrote:

>
> Hi Andreas,
>
> Ouch that hurts! So FIFA is less profitable then QGIS??
>
> Shame on those Swiss Tax-people!!!
>
> But do not blame yourself. You put a lot of effort in this.
>
> We do not do 'marketing' of sofware is it? We do promoting of Free
> Software, not so much marketing the financial terms?
>
> Let's investigate if other FOSS projects got exemption, maybe even in
> other kanton's? My experience with tax stuff is that sometimes you need
> the right person on the right place :-(
>
> 7.7% ??
> Well that is at least better then our dutch 21% :-)
>
> Not sure if moving to another country is worth all the administrative
> hassle...
>
> It would be easier for euro payments though too...
>
> Regards, and again, no regrets and thanks for all the work you did!
>
> Richard Duivenvoorde
>
>
>
> On 29-01-18 20:51, Andreas Neumann wrote:
> > Dear PSC members and community,
> >
> > Unfortunately I got a negative reply for my application of tax exemption
> > from the Zurich tax office. For those who can read German I attach the
> > letter.
> >
> > They claim that our statutes imply that we follow an economic intent, by
> > dealing with software development, bug fixing and marketing of free
> > software. They also state, that in general they don't do tax exemptions
> > for Open Source associations. Clearly, they don't understand how Open
> > Source works.
> >
> > This comes at a real surprise to me, because when I had a look at the
> > list of tax-exempted organizations in Zurich, that seem to follow quite
> > clearly an economic intent, whereas I have the impression that there is
> > a lot of voluntary work going into QGIS with the intent to make GIS
> > software available to the ones who otherwise could not afford to use GIS
> > software. Because the german QGIS user group got tax exemption in
> > Germany, I had the impression that a similar thing in Switzerland is
> > only a formality - apparently not.
> >
> > What are the next steps? First I will ask other Open Source
> > organizations in Switzerland about this topic and if they think,
> > something could be done about it. Otherwise, I will suggest, that we
> > move our organization to a country that better values all the voluntary
> > efforts that go in to Open and free software. Any suggestions of other
> > countries who may host QGIS.ORG international?
> >
> > For the budget, it will mean that I can't commit to additional QGIS 3
> > bug fixing currently - I will set aside a couple thousand Euros for tax
> > payments.
> >
> > I also don't know how to deal with VAT in upcoming sponsorship invoices
> > - should I add the 7.7% VAT on top of the sponsorship amounts, or should
> > we declare that the sponsorship already includes VAT, meaning that from
> > a € 500.- sponsorship we can only keep € 461.5 ?
> >
> > Any opinions and suggestions?
> >
> > Anyway - I deeply apologize for my failing to deal with the matter - and
> > I apologize for the misbehaviour of my country's tax office. Apparently,
> > people and organizations are not "equal" in my country. While very
> > powerful organizations like the world soccer organization (FIFA), the
> > olympics and the world economic forum are tax exempt - organizations
> > that have turnovers in the billions - small organizations with lots of
> > voluntary people like QGIS cannot be tax exempt. I am personally very
> > disappointed.
> >
> > Andreas
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > Qgis-psc at lists.osgeo.org
> > https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-psc
> >
>
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-- 

--
Andreas Neumann
QGIS.ORG board member (treasurer)
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