Great morals! Love people with the work ethic like you
Do not donate to me (2013)
51–60 of 65 posts
Re: Do not donate to me (2013)
#52He's Belgian. Belgian taxes are awful. If you want to accept 'donations' for software, you have to be self-employed. This comes with a boatload of hassle, including paying national insurance contributions of 20%. (which are calculated based on your income from three years ago). And given that the man has a day job, he'd also be looking at a 50% tax rate for these donations. So a 100eur donation would net about 40eur…
And if you are unlucky (Belgian IT salaries aren't that great compared to the rest of Western Europe) you gets bumped a tax class, possibly making those donations a net loss.
Being a software engineer in Flanders (the Belgian region the article author is from) I can tell you that this is a misconception.
Our taxes in Belgium are high, the salaries for engineers are well above average. In pratice, it's possible to end up in different tax 'scales', but they'll not end up in a net loss.
I'm also hugely in favour of the system here. Health care is a non-issue. I need prescription glasses (dioptry -8.5) and I pay nothing for those.
Yearly dentist appointment? about 20 euro you end up paying after the 'mutualiteit' pays you back. Similar for doctors appointments or hospital appointments.
Being married with a Mexican (family living in the US) I can tell you that I hugely prefer our system over the US or Mexican system.
Re: Do not donate to me (2013)
#53He's Belgian. Belgian taxes are awful. If you want to accept 'donations' for software, you have to be self-employed. This comes with a boatload of hassle, including paying national insurance contributions of 20%. (which are calculated based on your income from three years ago). And given that the man has a day job, he'd also be looking at a 50% tax rate for these donations. So a 100eur donation would net about 40eur…
Can't he just sell overpriced buttons/stickers/tshirts (or even virtual goods) instead, to circumvent this?
Re: Do not donate to me (2013)
#54He's Belgian. Belgian taxes are awful. If you want to accept 'donations' for software, you have to be self-employed. This comes with a boatload of hassle, including paying national insurance contributions of 20%. (which are calculated based on your income from three years ago). And given that the man has a day job, he'd also be looking at a 50% tax rate for these donations. So a 100eur donation would net about 40eur…
This is one of the few situations where cryptocurrencies come in handy.
[deleted]
Re: Do not donate to me (2013)
#55He's Belgian. Belgian taxes are awful. If you want to accept 'donations' for software, you have to be self-employed. This comes with a boatload of hassle, including paying national insurance contributions of 20%. (which are calculated based on your income from three years ago). And given that the man has a day job, he'd also be looking at a 50% tax rate for these donations. So a 100eur donation would net about 40eur…
Can't he just sell overpriced buttons/stickers/tshirts (or even virtual goods) instead, to circumvent this?
That's pretty much the same. Any money you get has to come through a company, so either you're an employee either you have your own company (even you're alone in it).
Re: Do not donate to me (2013)
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Money laundering?
It's tax evasion, not money laundering. The two are quite different things. Tax evasion: You get some money. (Legally or not; the tax system doesn't care.) You are supposed to pay taxes on it but don't want to. You find a way not to, e.g. by hiding the income from the tax authorities. Money laundering: You get some money by illegal means (theft, blackmail, whatever). You want to be able to use the money without havin…
Yes, and usually when someone launders money the goal is _to_ pay tax on it. That way it looks like legitimate income.
Re: Do not donate to me (2013)
#57He's Belgian. Belgian taxes are awful. If you want to accept 'donations' for software, you have to be self-employed. This comes with a boatload of hassle, including paying national insurance contributions of 20%. (which are calculated based on your income from three years ago). And given that the man has a day job, he'd also be looking at a 50% tax rate for these donations. So a 100eur donation would net about 40eur…
At the highest level of taxes (>38 080€), in Belgium 100€ would result in a net of:
- ~37€ if the self-employment is not subject to VAT (less than 25.000€ per year as self-employed)
- ~30.7€ if subject to VAT
(100€ / 1.21) [VAT] * (1 - 0.21) [Social contributions] * (1 - 0.53) [Federal tax 50% + local tax 50% * 6%]
Re: Do not donate to me (2013)
#58Re: Do not donate to me (2013)
#59Re: Do not donate to me (2013)
#60He's Belgian. Belgian taxes are awful. If you want to accept 'donations' for software, you have to be self-employed. This comes with a boatload of hassle, including paying national insurance contributions of 20%. (which are calculated based on your income from three years ago). And given that the man has a day job, he'd also be looking at a 50% tax rate for these donations. So a 100eur donation would net about 40eur…
At the highest level of taxes (>38 080€), in Belgium 100€ would result in a net of: - ~37€ if the self-employment is not subject to VAT (less than 25.000€ per year as self-employed) - ~30.7€ if subject to VAT (100€ / 1.21) [VAT] * (1 - 0.21) [Social contributions] * (1 - 0.53) [Federal tax 50% + local tax 50% * 6%]
Good news: social contributions are 20.5% for 2019, not 21% :-)