7 ms·
That's really sad to hear. With how complex laws are, it's scary that going to a professional may not be sufficient. But when you're totally unfamiliar with wh
by Jonnax 9y ago
That's really sad to hear.
With how complex laws are, it's scary that going to a professional may not be sufficient.
But when you're totally unfamiliar with what the requirements are what can you do?
Do large law/accountancy firms give a guarantee for their advice in the case that it was incorrect?
- _wmd 9y agoNo, they can be slippery as all hell. Ask a question by e-mail, expect a definitive yes/no answer, instead receive a phone call that's instantly claimed to be "off the record", and receive a parable about a nameless other customer who had this one situation this one time. Chances are the accountancy firm had never set up a charity before and has misunderstood the constraints, and chances are also high that they won't be liable for the problem caused without some long drawn out struggle.
- wila 9y agoTrue, but it is worse than that. If you call the tax office and ask them direct questions about doing business abroad then even they still give you an answer with a disclaimer that it might not be correct.
- greenshackle2 9y agoMy flatmate is an international sales tax expert. I helped her debug hairy tax problems a couple times - not that I have any expert knowledge of tax laws, I was mostly rubber-ducking her - it sounds like an absolute clusterfuck. Like other domains of law it's not always clear cut, it wasn't like, yeah Alice Inc. owes exactly X% taxes because of law A, it was like, we can argue that Alice Inc. owes X% based on laws A and B, C, but the tax authority could argue they owe Y% based on an argument that actually, laws B, D, and E apply to their case, which we would counter-argue with, etc., etc., etc. So I'm not surprised the tax office wouldn't give straight answers; even they may not know how a court would rule depending on the specifics of the case.
- mrkrabo 9y agoSay what you will but this is simply fraud. If they were selling stuff, they should've collected and paid the VAT for Dmitry. You are NOT a non-profit if you sell stuff. There is absolutely no complexity about this. Didn't they see anything wrong with selling stuff without collecting the VAT from every transaction? And the best part: they are now separating the sales from the foundation so they can avoid paying taxes. This is the kind of stuff HN abhors... ooops it's not Amazon, it's Krita! Then let's allow it!!!
- boudewijnrempt 9y agoWell, actually there is complexity. We did pay the VAT over everything we sold, of course. That was simple. What we didn't do was pay VAT in the Netherlands over the money we sent Dmitry for his work in Russia. If the Foundation had been a company, we would have had to pay that VAT in the Netherlands, but would have claimed it back -- net result, 0. If the foundation had never sold anything, so not been company-like, there wouldn't have been VAT due. Because it was a mix, the tax people wanted the full VAT paid, which could not have been reclaimed. In short: you're enough like a company that the VAT gets transfered, not enough like a company that you can claim it back. Even the accountants found that complex and disputable...
- molszanski 9y agoAlso, I would try going to the local tax office. Maybe yours is a friendly one (I've been to both types) and you can get to speak with a your tax area local management. They might have enough knowledge and administrative power and help you out. Human to human protocol. Been there, done that, got a t-shirt.
- pbarnes_1 9y agoYou can only ever sue a law/accounting firm for the total cost of services rendered to you in that year or whatever. Depends on the client agreement. Even then it's always a grey area where it's advice that may or may not be what you should do and it depends on your decision, blah blah blah.
- roel_v 9y ago"Do large law/accountancy firms give a guarantee for their advice in the case that it was incorrect?" Do you give a guarantee on your code, including damages?
- icebraining 9y agoThe company I work for does, that's why we have insurance.
- leksak 9y agoOne of the first things I'll do in the future when creating a company is establishing a good relationship with a reputable business lawyer and accounting firm. It's literally one of the first things I'd put money towards. Sounds like their accountant might not have been entirely on the up-and-up. As soon as I get my paycheck I'm totally donating a little. I've used Krita and enjoyed it as an alternative to when I do not have access to Photoshop. Now if only ZBrush had a top-tier alternative that would be something.