With high-quality cameras, the color and photo enthusiasts hold beautiful holiday panoramas, expressive personalities or other motifs. They often accept smaller orders in the private sector. Their goal is to reduce the cost of today’s excellently developed but expensive components of equipment such as
Caution when explaining the hobby to the profession!
The above components of the equipment exceed the budget of many average earners. Many people are trying to explain their hobby as a profession. However, a judgment of the Finanzgericht (FG) Munich from 2007 (file no. 5V 12/07) is not advisable. In the corresponding case, the expenses of the photographer, who is solely engaged in leisure activities, were considerably higher than his income, in particular through travel expenses.
Photographing as a pure hobby
Therefore, the court denied the so-called winning intent. Thus, in the income tax return, his operating expenses were not recognized as deductible expenses. The hobby photographer was therefore not able to offset his losses with the income, his activity was classified as a hobby. But the expenses of a year are by no means all.
Guide and help
If the tax assessments of previous years are not final, their losses are also not recognized. The reason for this is the provisional reservation of the fiscal department. All in all hobby photographers should be aware of the fact that they should be profitable at some stage as a profession - otherwise this goal of the photo-enthusiast will fail.
Registration as a business
Basically, someone who does photography as a hobby does not need to be given any information about income taxation. He also does not have to register with the professional association or the Chamber of Crafts. However, he can not expect any reimbursement by the treasury. However, a legal limitation for the hobby does not exist explicitly.
As a rule of thumb, taxes are obsolete in a few assignments a year, in which only a few hundred euros are made. The financial office is first of all interested in the income itself, and not by what activity it is. Nevertheless, hobby photographers should make demands for the payment of their services in writing. These are not bills in the proper sense. You may not include VAT.
When leisure clips often make snapshots of companies, it is recommended to create a document on the computer in which you can insert the corresponding data. This is helpful for the filing of the client and the own overview. Anyone who sent such a request for payment should pay attention to that
In case of doubt, the first call of a hobby photographer should apply to his or her financial adviser. Students or students can receive information without obligation. If they did not have a tax number so far, they get a new one. If the responsible fiscal officer decides that an employee who is required to make snapshots after the end of the working day has to register a business, he is also assigned a new tax number. This includes the previous employment as well as the newly entered secondary service through the making of pictures.
Especially for employees or in the workplace of other people who are still taxing the second source of income, income and expenditure become confusing, as are the tax opportunities and obligations. In principle, it makes sense to get an overview. Carrying out a manual budget is extremely cumbersome and no longer up-to-date. Trial versions from the Internet or Microsoft applications, such as Excel spreadsheets, are free.
It is however cumbersome to update them themselves. In addition, freeware often pop-ups, which advertise for the paid upgrades and which can not be switched off. Legal innovations, such as tax law, are also not integrated, so you have to make all updates yourself. Another example of an innovation in the banking sector is the Sepa conversion, which became mandatory in more than thirty EU countries.
These new features are included in licensing programs. Accounting service providers such as Lexware have developed software for private finance, which includes many other features besides an overview of revenues and expenses. The licensing programs are usually also tested for one month for free, so each hobby photographer can decide for himself whether this is the right thing for the personal objectives.
If leisure clubs realize that their services are more and more convincing in a local or regional environment and they have the chance to make more money in the medium or long term, it is sensible to register a business. For this purpose, they must be registered in the so-called craftsman's roll. To this registration, you go to the competent craft chamber
It represents in self-administration a certain American chamber district. There, too, people with experience are active so that a hobby photographer can get information about the financial consequences of a registration there. In the Chamber of Crafts, all types of craftsmen (with and without authorization), craftsmen-like companies, journeys, employees with successfully completed vocational training as well as apprentices are summarized
Without a business registration: freelancers
The registration of the trade in the craft chamber is usually not a big problem. Also, the contribution for someone who registers is not very high. Commercial taxation is not due to the open-air ticket initially, if the profit of the hobby photographer does not exceed 24,500 euros in the calendar year - a relatively high sum. The tax declaration must be submitted, as VAT has to be paid. However, social insurance does not apply. In general, the so-called photo business must submit the EÜR (= revenue statement), unless the profit for the financial year is less than EUR 17,500. The great advantage of the described registration is that the expenses for the above-mentioned photo utensils, required software or other costs can be offset. However, it is crucial that they are needed by hobby photographers to carry out their work.
The Bundesfinanzhof (BFH), which was established in Munich, decided as early as 1998 that a photographer must register in any case if his pictures are primarily intended for his clients. This means that they have less artistic, but for example advertising character. For example, a leisure club can be commissioned to record the opening of a local furniture store, whereupon the pictures are reprinted in the catalog or the customer magazine. The advertising character is given in this case, since the furniture store hires the hobby photographer to increase the interest of the target group.
Invoice
One way to work as a hobby photographer without a commercial registration is to register as a freelancer. These include certain professions which are not commercial oriented. These are listed in section 18 of the Income Tax Act (EStG). Official examples of these professions are
An important question for invoicing in the case of an industrial application is that of value added tax. If, however, the hobby photographer chooses the reduced tax rate of 7 per cent in the commercial sense, the tax office can make additional demands on the tax. However, if he integrates the regular tax rate of 19 percent on the other hand, problems can also arise.
In certain cases, the treasury allows only 7% deduction of input tax deductions. The images are, however, protected by copyright in any case. It does not matter whether it is more artistically oriented or non-creative pictures. One solution would be to mix both value-added taxes. However, this is not generally granted by the financial authorities. Otherwise a calculation of the photohonorare with 7 per cent and all other achievements with 19 per cent value added tax would make sense. In the end, it is best to weigh the risks individually and to inquire at the responsible financial authority.
A hard case (case), the camera itself, various lenses, strong flash lights, image processing software, a tripod or batteries
The exact address, with the full name and the bank account
Doctors of all kinds, lawyers, sworn accountants, journalists, pilots
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