Author: Samuel Scott

Tips on artist taxation

Musicians, artists, freelance writers and other people who work in the artistic or performing professions often find some difficulties to fit neither into the income taxation nor into the trade taxation. Drawing the line in between can many times be a difficult task and there are benefits in both of the ways of paying the taxes of an artist. The way the taxation is handled effects on the practical ways of receiving the incomes as well. The following of the income taxation can be especially beneficial for part time freelancers. In this case the artist has no obligation to keep the accounting (in Finnish=kirjanpito) records. However, it can, in many cases, reduce the actual fees paid on the bank account since the costs for the client are much higher. However, the benefit as well is that the taxman will sum up all the incomes earned from different sources and the taxable doesn't have to worry about the compensations that much. The income earned will be paid according to your tax reduction card. For the professional artist, the artist taxation is a better choice since it grants better reductions for example from materials, studio and other workspaces, transportation costs and even from costumes acquired for example for the performances. The more complicated side of the artistic taxation requires careful accounting and thorough recording of all the money transactions and other financial events. The taxable needs to be quite vigilant on the incomes so that the compensations wont be too sizable. Artist taxation need careful planning and in most cases a professional accountant.

From early day accountancy to modern day electronic finance management

The earliest records on accounting have been found from the Middle-East, from the area of the ancient Assyria, Babylon and Sumeria, and they handled mostly

the annual crops, and cattle and it based mostly on the seasons of nature and farming. In ancient Rome people were keen to know the amount of their assets, incomes and expenses as well, and there are written records for example from the times of Emperor Augustus, where the public expenditures of the Roman empire was summed up. In those ancient times the business was mostly done without the artificial symbols of value, without coins or notes, and thus even the words for finance, assets, transactions and surpluses meant very different things than after the monetary economy took over all over the world. The next chapter of the history of accounting was written in current Italy, those days divided into many different and small principalities. There, in Venice, living with his roommate and friend Leonardo Da Vinci, a certain monk and a mathematician named Luca Pacioli wrote a book called Summa de Arithmetica, Geometria, Proportioni et Proportionalit. In his book he described what he had learned in his youth in Tuscany, the way the Venetian merchants kept their finances organized even though many different instances invested their money on the same venture. The double-entry bookkeeping described by Pacioli enabled the overlooking the records and accounts even if the investor wasn't there to take care of the thing personally. Paciolis method became an instant hit, and it is still the basis of the modern day accounting, the processes in general being much the same. The most recent cornerstone in the mans ever growing interest in his incomes, assets, payments and general possessions is probably the computerizing almost all imaginable processes there is in the world. The computer counts the costs and electronic finance management (in Finnish =shkinen taloushallinto) systems sum up the profits and displays the information in such a way that investors and shareholder can evaluate the financial condition of the company. The mere accounting and listing of the assets and costs has widened to be a tool for financial planning and gaining the profits.

Problem solved
So this was the actual situation where I started up my small company and got to be a self-employed freelancer; I had several clients I was working for on a different kind of part-time, project kind of employment deals. I started to soon realize that there would be some taxation benefits on running the incomes through a company name. The clients were as well very enthusiastic to get rid of all employee payments and taxes they had to add into my fee every time I presented my tax reduction card. Not to mention all the work they needed to do paying all those employee costs and the actual fee for me. I started soon to notice what was the reason behind the enthusiasm of my clients to push me to put up a company name. It actually saves them much more money than just my employee payments, since now they didn't need their accountant's

time for counting the payroll for me every month. I did it now by myself, and they didn't need to pay me for that, just for the actual work they had hired me to do. Now I did all those things the accountant departments of the big companies do. But they had all working day to do that, I had only the extra hours after I had done my working hours. After this went on for couple of months and my desk started to fill up with piles of receipts, papers, tax forms and such I decided that something must be done, since I didn't have the expertise of an accountant and neither had I time to learn the art of accounting and the financial management, the taxes and all that right now. So I decided to do as my clients had done, to outsource the paper piles to someone else to do. I bought accounting services from an accountant company and let the computer run the rest of the work in its electronic accounting (in Finnish=shkinen kirjanpito)software. I had now more time to concentrate on my profession and gained as well couple of free hours.

Member fee invoicing in easier way

We are a small environmental NGO working to get the politicians and private companies and their investors to run their functions in a more environmental friendly ways and try raising consciousness about the environmental issues and the importance they have in the preventing the climate change and solving the social problems as well. In our understanding the environmental issues do have a social dimension as well. We have a small but active member base of some couple of thousands domestic supporters who pay their regular membership fees and this way gives us the financial means to realize our goals. The practical work of an NGO has changed a lot in the past ten years after the social media and other internet based means of communications have risen to be one of the most important ways people connect with each other. The social media gives a way more opportunities to spread the NGO message and gain new people to support NGO actions. In the past, most of the time in the NGO work was spent on doing the posting and sending physical letters to for example politicians and people who support our cause. To raise a public campaign was a hard effort meaning among other things traveling from place to place and speaking with people while today we can just outline our message, organize the campaign and get people to participate into our cause, all in the internet. Even keeping the members up to date and gathering as well the valuable member fees which enable all the NGO functions is nowadays much more easier and takes much less volunteering time since the electronic billing systems (in Finnish=laskutusohjelma) automatic group messaging services does what in the past was posted by hand, in the actual envelopes.

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