donation in germany: taxes ("steuerlich absetzen")

[Neil Williams]

On Tuesday 05 July 2005 8:15 pm, Ekkard Gerlach wrote:
> * Ekkard Gerlach schrieb:
>
> I'm working with gnucash with my small business! gnucash or
> sourceforge need not to be charitable.

Umm, so am I. Have been for 15 years, I also work with multiple
businesses of various sizes, including some very large ones. I've been
doing my own taxes for best part of 10 years.

|  GnuCash or SourceForge may be or not
|  charitable. The money I spend to approve my business a valued for my
|  taxes.

But that's just a normal expense. The point is that, in the UK at least,
you cannot make a DONATION into an EXPENSE.

We do NOT charge for GnuCash - there is no price, no enforced price and
no compulsion to donate. I would be very surprised if the German tax
authorities didn't also expect a business to get the best value for
their "purchases".

A voluntary contribution cannot generate an invoice, there is no
compulsion to pay so how can it be deemed a business expense?

If you burn a ?100 note, is that an expense or a loss?

If someone steals from your business, you have to write-off any gap
between the loss and any insurance - if you give money away without
compulsion then it is a gift, not an expense.

-- 

Neil Williams
=============
http://www.data-freedom.org/
http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/
http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/

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