Tax suckers !

[glassmax]

Hi there,

Here in good ol´fu....ng Germany we have very strange tax laws.Here´s a true story about banana state laws in a civilized coutry :
In Germany you got to pay different taxes depending if your work is art or "just" craft.Artists pay 7% and others 19%.so me and my brother always paid a lot to ourtax consultant to make our tax return and paid these 7% to the tax office.Years later there was a tax audit and a simple civil servant decided retro active that our works are not art and that we have to pay the difference from 7 to 19 %.
And this for years back! This means tens of thousands of Euros !
Because we have made uniques all these years,we went to a lawyer and the whole thing went to tax court.There was even a judge visiting our studio/gallery before the final trial to have a look at what kind of glasses we make and WE LOST.
Because a civil servant,who has no idea and education about arts at all has the power to tell you what´s art and what´s not.One concequence of this was that my brother had to sell his home with losses to pay the state.
So ain´t this a nice story which shows that even civilized countries have banana state laws ?

The pics show some of the "non art glasses" that the tax office assessed.

long lives the state,

Axel

[mer]

wait, you weren't even making pipes? the work you've shown should easily fit into any interpretation of art that i'm familiar with. i'm not sure about what legally differentiates art from craft in your country but i'd be interested to hear.

[glassdocnc]

Wow, that sure sucks. Are you planning an appeal? Sure looks like art to me.

[3rdI]

WTF that's like a bad episode of the twilight zone... Those are as artful as it gets- beautiful and inspirational stuff.

[Mr. Wonka]

7% or 19%... Is that income tax? If so, it's really not that bad. Our income tax rate in the U.S. is at least 30%.

Tom

[hashmasta-kut]

regardless if its not bad or not , if they try and ding you for years of back tax at 12% thats a huge unfair bite on ya.

[richsantaclaus]

You call THAT art?...lol Just kidding - great work! Too bad the government is SO stupid!!!!!

[leatherneck8541]

i would loose lots of sleep over that, live and let live, art on brother;)

[glassmax]

Hi,

Here some answers :
- No,we didn´t make pipes or any other serial stuff.
- I talk just about GMT.Income tax comes extra!Depending on how much your income is,you got to pay up to more than 50% !
- Yes,these wankers want retro active 12% more.But it is clear that we didn´t calculate our prices that high.
- Another weird thing is,that we have a so called "artists social insurance".This
covers your health and pension securitys and is sponsored by the state.This
means that tha state pays half of your social insurances.You only can be a member if you are an artist!Me and my bro are actually memebers of this insurance since many years.It´s just another civil servant(we call them chair farters...) from another office who´s deciding if you´re an artist or not!
- No,no chance for an appeal because we simply don´t had the money to pay the lawyers any longer!
Well,the only "good" thing for me was,that these suckers first tarted to squeeze out my brother and afterwards came to me.So I had a little time to arrange my belongings.But this has some unpleasant consequences for daily life.For example it´s almost impossible to get any credit or credit card from any bank,unless you´ve not payed these taxes.They can confiscate your whole bank account and shut down your card without informing you before.
Thats fun,when you have been shopping and want to pay at the counter with your card!

long live Germany,
long live banana laws,

Axel