Irregular side job
May 15, 2011 | 30,00 EUR | answered by StB Manuela Ponikwar
Hello,
I help out occasionally at a dinner show, where I set up, take down, control the music, etc. My main profession is as an employee. Since the dinner show organizers are a GbR, they now want me to invoice them for my services. I receive 50 euros per evening, with around 10-15 evenings per year, spread irregularly throughout the year.
Do I need to register as self-employed? If so, do I then write invoices, collect the money, and only have the tax deducted during tax filing? What about travel expenses?
Or can I simply write invoices and somehow indicate the income in my tax return?
Thank you.
Dear Inquirer,
thank you for your inquiry, which I would like to answer as part of an initial consultation considering the appropriate fee as follows:
If you carry out an activity independently, sustainably and with the intention of making a profit while participating in the "general economic traffic", the income is considered income from a commercial business. You are now a sole proprietor.
You must report the start of this activity to the tax office. You will then receive a questionnaire about the nature and scope of the activity that you must complete.
After that, you may receive a new tax number that must be included on all invoices you issue. Invoicing is a legal obligation. Until you (if at all) receive a new tax number, simply use your current one. An invoice must therefore always contain a tax number, as well as a unique consecutive invoice number, your address and the customer's address, the date or period of service, and a detailed description of the service.
Based on the questionnaire, the tax office will decide, depending on the projected profit from your self-employment, whether an advance income tax payment will be set. If this is the case, quarterly advance payments will be due, which will be reconciled at the end of the year. If no advance income tax payment is set, you can expect an additional tax burden at the end of the year (i.e. less refund or additional payment).
All costs related to your self-employment can be deducted as operating expenses from your business income within the framework of an income surplus calculation. This includes travel expenses, expenses, and any other expenses you may have. Only the remaining profit will be taxed.
Therefore, in your tax return, in addition to Annex N for your employment, you must now also include Annex G (business) and a profit determination in the form of an income surplus calculation ("EÜR") (income - expenses = profit). Depending on the extent of your profit, you can create this informally or use the tax office's EÜR annex.
If in the previous year you had turnover of no more than 17,500 EUR and in the current year will not exceed 50,000 EUR, you are considered a small business owner for VAT purposes and are exempt from VAT.
Since your customer is likely entitled to deduct input tax, you can consider opting for the "standard taxation". This means that you will additionally charge 19% VAT on the invoice and remit it to the tax office. On the other hand, you can reclaim the input tax from the tax office for all costs. With standard taxation, you are required to submit a monthly electronic VAT return by the 10th of the following month in the year of establishment and the following year.
You are only liable for trade tax once you have a taxable profit of over 24,500 EUR, which is probably not the case for you.
By the way, you must also report this secondary activity (i.e. under 18 hours per week and an average of under 365 EUR per month) to the social security office and the trade office. However, if the 365 EUR limit is not exceeded, there will be no changes in the social security contributions.
I hope this information helps you.
Best regards,
Manuela Ponikwar
Tax consultant
www.ponikwar.de
