Mittwoch, 29. April 2009

Getty and Me

As many good photographers and bloggers before I now enqueue to the line of the persons that blogs about this Getty and Flickr thing. The reason for that is that I got such an invitation recently and at the moment I have no idea what to do.

A short information for all who dont know what I am talking about:

Some month ago our good old friend flickr signed up a deal with the world's "biggest supplier of pictures and video to media and advertising companies" Getty Images to combine their businesses. In reality this means that Getty searches through the big flickr universe and invites images of which they think that they are suitable for selling to their stock. The terms for that are reason for many controversial arguments these days. A photographer that wants his work to appear in the Getty stock has to give all selling rights to Getty what means that he is not more allowed to sell his work on his own for the time of the contract (2 years). If a photographer agrees he gets 20-30% of every image that is sold without having any costs. Many professionals bring forward the argument that they get at least 40% if they give their images to other stocks. I am not really into all these professional photography selling things but what I think is that for all the persons that do photography only as a hobby this is good way to get a bit of extra money out of their stuff.

So, why am I unsure about adding my images? The reason for that is the tax issue. Of course you have to pay taxes on your earnings but it is not as easy as it sounds at least not here in germany. Due to the fact that I have not really worked yet( my apprenticeship will start in september) I have no clue about taxes and this stuff. I dont want to get into problems because of these few euro but on the other hand I dont want reject it because it is a easy way to earn some cash without doing anything for it. What I found out yet is that I would have to register a trade only for this Getty thing and then doing my tax declaration and all the other things that are connected with that. Sounds like a bunch of stress doesnt it? The problem is that I dont know who can really give me tips about my special case. I think I will recherche a bit more and then publish my decision here.

 

I would like to know whether you received such an invitation too and if so how did you decide? And why? Have you had problems with taxes? How much did earn? If you have any tips or your personal story with Getty please contact me I am thankful for every information about this thing.

Thanks in advance!

Ivory


4 Kommentare:

Anonym hat gesagt…

schwierige situation. ich kenn mich damit leider auch nicht aus, hoffe aber dass du bald jemanden findest der dir helfen kann. wär schon nich schlecht auf diese art und weise n bisschen geld reinzubringen.
weiterhin viel erfolg.

Anonym hat gesagt…

I can only speak for Canada and the US but, in both those countries, there is a minimum that you are allowed to earn before having to file taxes, generally several thousand dollars. Secondly, there is usually just a line on the tax form for "additional earnings" which are things that you don't get mailed tax forms for (any tips servers make and that sort of thing) so adding money earned from places where you are not officially 'employed' is fairly straight forward.

In short, unless you are expecting to earn multiple thousands of dollars (I don't know what 30% of a photos sales would amount to) you are probably just fine on the tax front.

(On the photo front, no invitations for me yet)

Ole hat gesagt…

Von den Steuern solltest du dich nicht abschrecken lassen, finde ich. Ist alles halb so wild. In Deutschland liegt der Freibetrag zwischen 7000 und 8000 Euro. Solange du (alle Einkünfte zusammengerechnet) pro Jahr weniger verdienst, musst du gar keine Steuern zahlen. Und auch wenn du drüber liegst: eine Steuererklärung ist eigentlich schnell gemacht, besonders wenn man sich eine entsprechende Software dafür kauft, die sind ja nicht allzu teuer. Im Prinzip beschränkt sich der Aufwand darauf, die Zahlen aus den Getty-Abrechnungen zu übertragen und fertig.

Nach meinem Verständnis musst du kein Gewerbe anmelden, solange du die Fotografie nicht gewerblich/professionell betreibst. Wenn nebenher trotzdem ein paar Einkünfte anfallen, ist das nicht schlimm.

Wir sehen uns morgen beim Ausflug nach Stralsund, da können wir ja noch mal drüber quatschen.

MATE hat gesagt…

Cooler Blog

Du bist super Creativ, mit nem gutem Auge fuer kleine Dinge. Danke fuer deinen Award (auf Flick Soulmate is mein Account)


besten Gruss


Mate