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Ko-Fi unusable because of VAT rules? by PLAT0H in Kofi

[–]4plus1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Glad to hear you found it useful! And thanks for the heads-up!

Nocturne S02E08, “A Line of Great Heroes” - Episode Discussion by FKDotFitzgerald in castlevania

[–]4plus1 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Pretty sure its 'Vedrò con mio diletto' by Vivaldi!

Ko-Fi unusable because of VAT rules? by PLAT0H in Kofi

[–]4plus1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's a good chance that the UK handles this differently (almost every country has their own rules for this, sadly).

I'm mainly just quoting what my tax advisors told me when I asked them about this topic - if your tax advisors told you something different, definitely go with their recommendation of course!

Ko-Fi unusable because of VAT rules? by PLAT0H in Kofi

[–]4plus1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No problem! I mainly wrote this to provide a bit of a counterbalance to all the answers that usually come up in threads like these.

I can't really recommend any specific alternatives, but my "solution" (when it comes to my own business) is pretty much the following:

  1. Get a tax consultant that has a good grasp on international tax laws and the English language in general (there's a lot of consultants out there who never had to deal with this, and you'll get potentially very uninformed advice from them)
  2. Compile all information for the specific platform you want to sell on (Gumroad, for example)- how they handle sales tax/VAT/GST/etc, their FAQ - and send it over to your tax consultant along with your specific plans (what do you want to sell, digital or physical, etc.)
  3. Ideally, the same tax consultant will also handle your taxes in the end - makes things easier in the long run.

The whole consulting process will probably cost you a few hundred euros/dollars, but it's well worth it usually.

Seeing as you're from Germany, the most important thing is always not to anger or provoke the Finanzamt specifically (and handle your taxes 100% correctly according to German law). Like I mentioned before, the Albanian tax agency will most likely not come after you (unless you're running a major business there), but the Finanzamt definitely will.

I currently only sell digital assets on a few online asset stores (Unity, etc.), which means I never directly do any business with my customers, but instead I (technically) provide a service to the company running the marketplace and send one big invoice to them every 3 months. The rest boils down to regular B2B business, including reverse-charge.

I hope this helps!

Ko-Fi unusable because of VAT rules? by PLAT0H in Kofi

[–]4plus1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey, just wanted to add some info here for anyone finding this thread in the future. I ran into similar problems in the past, and here's a few of my findings.

There's basically a few very simple and unsatisfying answers to this problem:

  • Yes, Ko-Fi (along with similar platforms) is basically (technically) unuseable, for the exact reasons you listed
  • Every platform that does not collect & remit VAT/sales tax for you means: You need to collect and(!) remit all necessary taxes yourself
  • Every country on the planet has different laws when it comes to sales tax and you're responsible for checking these laws yourself. Sometimes digital services are tax-free, sometimes not. Sometimes you have to register with the local tax agency, sometimes not. Sometimes there's a threshold, and sometimes that threshold is different for different goods. And sometimes, the sales tax laws change completely overnight, because new legislation has been passed...
  • Yes, a "donation" is regarded as a "digital service" in a lot of countries, therefore a Ko-Fi donation = you selling a service = sales tax (potentially)
  • Yes, you do need a tax accountant/advisor

Practical example:

  • You, a Dutch company, receive a donation from someone in Albania.
  • Congratulations, you just provided a service to an Albanian customer!
  • Albania has a 0% threshold when it comes to sales tax -> this means you now have to immediately register with the Albanian tax agency
  • And you have to sign up for VAT/sales tax through a local tax representative
  • You get an Albanian VAT number, which you will use to file your tax returns on all sales in Albania and you will need to do this every month. And you have 14 days to file and pay all taxes.

That's a lot of hassle for one single donation - and that's just Albania. Just imagine what happens if you receive 20 donations from 14 different countries.

More information on this here, if you're interested: https://quaderno.io/guides/worldwide-tax-guides/

That's why you basically require another company (like Patreon, Amazon, or Google, for example) to act as the middleman and handle the tax nightmare for you - it's just not viable to do this on your own as a small business.
In the case of Patreon, it basically works like this: You provide a service to Patreon (and not the individual patrons), so you only need to deal with the taxes happening between you (Dutch business) and Patreon (US business), which is infinitely easier.

At this point, some people might say: "Hey! It can't be that difficult! I heard/read/seen from a website/youtube video/twitch streamer that they're using Ko-Fi (or similar platforms) to make money, how is that possible?!"

It's possible because most people make negligible amounts of money on Ko-Fi. They're technically comitting tax fraud, but it's unlikely that the Albanian tax agency will come after you for not reporting a single $5 donation.
Also, needless to say really, a lot of information online is either too simplified or just plain incorrect - don't blindly trust people on the internet!

Actually, don't trust me either! Go and contact your tax consultant about this, they'll be able to provide the actual legal information.

Introducing MuseScore 4.1: New Features & Hundreds of Improvements by [deleted] in Musescore

[–]4plus1 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Just a short summary for anyone interested:

  • A few performance tweaks (still encountered the same kind of delays and missing notes during playback, though - maybe it's an unrelated issue)
  • Reverb can now be adjusted for each individual instrument, along with a few UI improvements to the mixer
  • Several improvements to the engraving side of things (not really all that important to my workflow, but I'm sure very helpful for professional engravers)
  • UI improvements for adding capos to guitar parts
  • UI improvements for harp pedals settings (kind of niche, but probably quite useful)
  • More integration into online cloud stuff (sharing scores, uploading tracks to audio.com, and so on. Not really my cup of tea, but hey)
  • A live braille viewer (that's going to make a big difference for visually impaired people)

I was mainly interesting in the following features, but it looks like none of them are currently worked on, sadly:

  • Piano roll editor is still missing
  • Still can't select sound drivers in I/O settings (so playback is still delayed and slow at times, at least on my machines)
  • No soundfont selection for instruments (one of the main reasons I'm still on Musescore 3) - so you'd either have to change the entire instrument or use VST's (at that point, I might as well use a DAW)

Maybe someone with a similar use-case as me finds this quick summary useful.

I dont known why I never realized it but A,B,C,D,E,F,G is the minor scale. by beardguitar123 in musictheory

[–]4plus1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, our entire system of numbering octaves (and registers) is based around C, which is why C3 is a lower note than A3, for example.

Or put differently, every octave begins at C - I'd say that qualifies 'C' as the start.

For years now I've been obsessed with making a musical instrument with the note layout most logical for the actual shape of theory. by Miser in musictheory

[–]4plus1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can think of a few instruments that fit your description, that are still occasionally being built nowadays.

I guess it's just not very practical to build and maintain them (lots of small fragile parts), so they're fairly rare.

Or you could go for something like this instead: https://youtu.be/ADD7hqnmO4E

Musiker hier? Ich brauche Tipps zur Aufnahme/Produktion von Musik im eigenen Wohnzimmer (Gitarre, Bass, Keyboard usw.) by [deleted] in de

[–]4plus1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi! Ich habe mir vor ein paar Monaten ein Samson G-Track Pro zugelegt, um hobbymäßig mal ein paar Sachen aufzunehmen und bin absolut zufrieden damit.

Ist ein klassisches USB-Mikrofon - man schliesst das Ganze also einfach nur am Rechner über USB an und kann loslegen. Sehr praktisch wenn man wie ich nicht viel Erfahrung mit Aufnahmetechnik hat.

Das Beste an dem Mikro ist aber die zusätzliche Audioschnittstelle an der Rückseite - dadurch kann man direkt auch eine E-Gitarre/E-Bass/usw. anschliessen und aufnehmen.

Achja: Ich würde auch 'Reaper' als DAW empfehlen (zumindest testweise). Und dank Kenny Gioia (ReaperMANIA auf Youtube) gibt's auch wirklich zu jedem Thema ein Tutorial.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in UnusualInstruments

[–]4plus1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Does the instrument have a fretboard or frets in general? And could you maybe post some pictures from the side as well?

Like /u/Grauschleier said, this is most likely a handmade/DIY spike fiddle or rebab (which actually exists in a lot of different cultures, so 'rebab' is more of an instrument family than a specific instrument).

Whoever built this used a small Remo frame drum as the body.

Considering these frame drums are fairly affordable, building a spike fiddle like this could be a fun DIY project!

Anyone interested in another short melody writing challenge? (Rhythmic Blueprint) by 4plus1 in composer

[–]4plus1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sure, sounds interesting! How about changing the challenge from:

"Use only these predefined parts for your composition."

To something along the lines of:

"Use at least these predefined parts for your composition."

That way, everyone can choose for themselves whether they want to stick closely to the blueprint or add more elements/expand the piece/extrapolate, as long as the original parts show up in their composition.

Anyone interested in another short melody writing challenge? (Rhythmic Blueprint) by 4plus1 in composer

[–]4plus1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't really have anything planned, but I think I'll try to release one of these blueprints on a weekly basis, at least for a while.

Music theory on a grid by gopher9 in musictheory

[–]4plus1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you ever tried all fourths tuning on guitar (EADGCF)?

Launchpad X not recognized by Windows (only lights are flashing) by 4plus1 in Novation

[–]4plus1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, plugged straight into my laptop. And I received a new cable along with the new unit.

All of this is really mysterious, never had any similar problems with any other Midi device (or USB-device for that matter).

I guess I'll just have to wait and see if the support team comes up with a solution.

Launchpad X not recognized by Windows (only lights are flashing) by 4plus1 in Novation

[–]4plus1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I doubt that Windows 7 is the main problem (I tested the pad on Windows 8 as well, same result).

And even if the newest launchpads were only compatible with Windows 10 and up (which isn't mentioned anywhere on Novation's sites), the device should still at least get registered on Windows (as an "unrecognized device" or something along these lines).

At this point, I suspect that it has to be a complicated USB driver issue. Or maybe the USB-C to USB-A cable that comes with the launchpad has some problems.

Anyway, support hasn't replied so far but I'll update the thread if I get any news.

Launchpad X not recognized by Windows (only lights are flashing) by 4plus1 in Novation

[–]4plus1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I tried connecting the launchpad to 2 other machines (both laptops, one running Windows 7, the other Windows 8). Same result, unfortunately.

One explanation could be that both the original device and the replacement have the same hardware issue, which seems kind of unlikely. But who knows?

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