GNU/Linux taxed in Poland ?!
Hello,
About month ago one of the local fiscal office in Poland has laid
a tax on some company in Poland which uses Linux servers and
StarOffice apllications. This information appeared in the past week
in Polish edition of Computerworld. AND THIS IS NOT A JOKE.
The fiscal office has treated GNU software as a DONATION for this
company with a price on the level of M$ Windows NT and M$ Office
prices. According to the Polish tax regulations this company must
pay about 30% (thirty percents) of these values now. So much.
Three weeks ago Computerlworld has asked Polish Treasury about
an interpretation of a term of donation in case of GNU software.
Nobody from the Treasury replied yet.
Maybe this is a less problem for commercial Linux distros like
RedHat, Mandrake, Suse, Caldera etc. because these product have
small prices and they can not be treated as donations but only as
expenses. I hope because there is still not clear issues concerns
prices of GPL, LGPL, Artistic, BSD licenses within the scope of Polish
tax regulations.
What in a case of Debian GNU/Linux servers? I have some fears.
I am not sure but maybe some official letter from the Debian community
to the Polish Treasury may change something in their mind.
Greetings from Poland,
Mariusz Przygodzki
dune@home.pl
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