I'm a developer and recently had my first tax return made.
I also program as a hobby at home and also earn 10-20 euro a month. That just covers the server costs, so no profit.
Now my accountant told me to register a small business because it doesn't matter how much you earn.
A friend says I should leave it because there are many problems:
I have to make a trade tax return every year in addition to the income tax return, which is very expensive. Is that was?
Problems with health insurance (have I read here)?
The advantages are, of course, that I can write off certain things from the tax, such as laptops or other things, right?
What would you do?
If you do this small business alongside a regular job with salary, there are the least "problems".
a simple "income-surplus calculation" with excel (sales revenue against operating costs) is completely sufficient to prove either a "profit" or even a "loss" from the small business and it together with the income from the dependent activity once a year in the tax return. There's a special facility in which income from self-employment must be registered. Do you know "elster"?
you should still register this with the tax office, it costs a one-off fee of a few euro.
You are insured for the main job, so no action is required.
You can also use the proportionate room costs of your apartment in which your work takes place as operating costs. Depreciation for a laptop and other hardware only in the% framework in which you use it for work (as opposed to private).
That with the depreciation is really limited for you. You can only get back as much tax as you paid. If you earn little, you also pay little tax.
Your friend obviously has no idea, because trade tax only arises when you have made a profit of more than 24,500 euro with the trade (after deducting all expenses).
As long as you spend more time on your main job than on the trade, there are no problems with KV.
You can only register one trade. There are no small businesses. This is colloquially the small business regulation of § 19 UStG. However, this is only a tax relief procedure (also only with regard to VAT) and not a legal form or type of business.
Of course, you can only "write off" the tax if you pay tax:-) The expenses just reduce the taxable income.
An Excel spreadsheet with income and expenses is no longer sufficient. In the meantime, only an electronic transmission of the EÜR facility and the entire income tax return via Elster is possible. There are no fees for registering with the tax office - these are only available from the trade office.
True, i also meant the fees for registering with the commercial office. Did it myself about 15 years ago, the Excel table was enough and there was still no magpie.
Register with the tax office? The trade office wants a report and forwards it to the FA. Everything else is then stated in the tax return.
Think about or roughly calculate whether you really spend so much money a year on things that you could attribute to the trade that it is worthwhile to do all the effort with a trade.
Otherwise, I would simply ask those who send you the 10, 20 euro a month to put this money in a nicely designed envelope with the keyword "money gift"… Strictly speaking, you would actually legally register a business as soon as you someone pays you for your services without an employment relationship and the activity does not fall under the "freelance" activities or occupations. But everyone is allowed to give you a gift (up to certain allowances) simply and tax-free…
What else should the tax advisor say? Then he can charge you a few more bucks. With the business registration you are doing no other than a favor. Even financial officials would try to scare you away like an annoying insect if you made them stupid with this topic.
Many thanks for the answer. I was afraid that tax consultants would suddenly pay 3000 euro instead of 300 euro, but if it was 400 euro instead of 300, it was okay.
Many thanks for the answer. I thought so. You can find a lot of horror answers on the net.
Will not work for me, unless Google is really cool. Use AdSense, a Google service to make money.
Ah, okay, the variant. Jups, you can't "disguise" them as a money gift;).
However, there's still a potential back door. One of the necessary characteristics for the existence of a commercial activity is the intention to make a profit (the intention, NOT the actual making of a profit!). If your costs for the website are permanently (!) Above the income, this profit-making intention can be denied. And then a business registration would not be necessary.
You would still have to tax this income - via the income tax return under "other income" with an annual tax-free limit of 410 euro. However, the costs incurred are also offset here.
Ask your tax advisor if you could not "calculate" the trade and any taxation in this way!
I just checked the emails. The office replied and said I didn't have to register anything with these numbers. The tax advisor has probably already done this with this tax return.
Apparently a good tax advisor.
