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You have to pay tax if you run a company at home? Wow. That's not all of Europe, though, this must be a French peculiarity.

krzyk 12y ago
Not only France, same in Poland.
- ptaipale 12y ago
  The taxman cannot in reality come and check your home to see whether you actually work there or not. Can you rent a brass plate address somewhere which has a nominal working place, on a cheap rent? A room in a warehouse in an industrial area could be shared by several (let's say thousands) or people who actually work at home but claim a company residence there. Yes, criminal, but not immoral...
  - DanBC 12y ago
    I think you under estimate European bureaucracy. While they don't visit every home they do visit some. As you say tax evasion is criminal; it's a really bad idea to lie to tax authorities. Here's the UK government talking about visiting your home to check your business accounts if you run a business from that home and they want to check your compliance. https://www.gov.uk/tax-compliance-checks https://www.gov.uk/tax-compliance-checks
    - ptaipale 12y ago
      Of course you must not lie to tax authorities, but matters are often up to an interpretation and it is not unreasonable that there's a business address even if in reality a person does not want to incur every day the expense, emissions and enmity of traffic in order to travel to that place of business. In Helsinki, we did have this silly "let's chase the home offices" bureaucracy in 1970's and 1980's but that hunt went to grave at the same time with the Soviet Union, deservedly.
skrebbel 12y ago
Woa Americans don't pay income tax if they generate the income themselves? Awesome. Completely fair, too. EDIT: I completely misunderstood, my bad. Not deleting this comment because it's already gotten a reply.
- ptaipale 12y ago
  You misunderstood, perhaps intentionally? This wasn't about paying tax for generated income. This was about paying land value tax for using own home for professional purpose. Over here (Finland) you actually get a deduction for that, not additional tax - although in general we have very very few deductions.
  - skrebbel 12y ago
    Misunderstood, not intentionally. Thanks.

krzyk 12y ago

Not only France, same in Poland.

ptaipale 12y ago
The taxman cannot in reality come and check your home to see whether you actually work there or not. Can you rent a brass plate address somewhere which has a nominal working place, on a cheap rent? A room in a warehouse in an industrial area could be shared by several (let's say thousands) or people who actually work at home but claim a company residence there. Yes, criminal, but not immoral...
- DanBC 12y ago
  I think you under estimate European bureaucracy. While they don't visit every home they do visit some. As you say tax evasion is criminal; it's a really bad idea to lie to tax authorities. Here's the UK government talking about visiting your home to check your business accounts if you run a business from that home and they want to check your compliance. https://www.gov.uk/tax-compliance-checks https://www.gov.uk/tax-compliance-checks
  - ptaipale 12y ago
    Of course you must not lie to tax authorities, but matters are often up to an interpretation and it is not unreasonable that there's a business address even if in reality a person does not want to incur every day the expense, emissions and enmity of traffic in order to travel to that place of business. In Helsinki, we did have this silly "let's chase the home offices" bureaucracy in 1970's and 1980's but that hunt went to grave at the same time with the Soviet Union, deservedly.

skrebbel 12y ago

Woa Americans don't pay income tax if they generate the income themselves? Awesome. Completely fair, too. EDIT: I completely misunderstood, my bad. Not deleting this comment because it's already gotten a reply.

ptaipale 12y ago
You misunderstood, perhaps intentionally? This wasn't about paying tax for generated income. This was about paying land value tax for using own home for professional purpose. Over here (Finland) you actually get a deduction for that, not additional tax - although in general we have very very few deductions.
- skrebbel 12y ago
  Misunderstood, not intentionally. Thanks.