Earnings Report discussion (December 2022)

Yes, I know that the tax is that level of challenge. Just saying that I lost a lot with it. 30% plus the other 16% when the money comes from my paypal to Brazil.

But the 3 points about:

  • transparecy to earnings reports, more detailed would be super important.
  • bring content bonus back can be a helpful thing.
  • the item points also disappeard in silence, already comment it twice here.
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Let me know if you get it. I also want it. Dont see any reason to remove it from the article that has it before.

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Seems like the balance is broken. I have a 50% drop in earnings. This is not sustainable for authors.

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Agreed - that’s why I mentioned only the 30% tax issue you raised before ;] I’m not saying a word about other points :slight_smile:

I am following this thread and I want to highlight things that are impossible to change (30% tax) and things that should not be changed because it would have bad consequences (Unlimited Downloads Model should stay as it is). We need to focus on the things that are actually up for discussion without being distracted by things beyond our control.

Come on! It was their decision to move to the USA, that’s why we pay US withholding taxes now. And Envato Market only recently starts to collect AU taxes, where they have been before? Working since 2008 without any AU withholding taxes, and then… !BOOM!.. you should pay them on Market.

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Have you ever calculated how much customer is getting and how much are we earnings?
For example let say customer has paid for a year and that mean we (authors) can earn 16.5/2 = $8.25 from that customer per month.

Let’s say now that the customer is interested only in Photos (he don’t need any other category). If he download 30 image per day (around 900 images per month) we authors will earn 0$.

8.25 / 900 = 0.0096 - less than 0.01 and you will see in your dashboard 0.00 earnings. That money has “disappeared” for us Authors (not for Envato).

And guess what? The Black Friday with 50% off was there - now the (same) customer need to download only 420 photos per month and we authors will earn $0.

The point is - the subscribe price is too low for all items + unlimited use.

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Your calculation is half correct, you should state also from how many authors the subscriber downloaded from.
Because if he downloads 900 images a month only from you, you make full % so 8.25$ per month.
If he downloads 30 images a day from 30 different authors (900tot), so each author makes 1/30 of 8.25, so 0.275 per author, 0,009 per download… (yes, less than 1 cent)

Matter of fact, we are still getting exploited.

Yeah just like when they came up with the faity tale of us being direct sellers, and when all of a sudden they realized there’s also VAT… :joy:
The far west!

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My calculations are 100% correct because of course that I have calculated that the customer has downloaded from many authors - otherwise the earnings will not be 0$.

The supper active customer (who downloads a lot) is bad for Authors on other side the “lazy” customer was ok for Authors - there was a bonus from unused “money”. Now the lazy and super active customers are bad for authors.

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We can come up with 100 solutions, but it wouldn’t matter if Envato doesn’t want to fix itself. Maybe the statistics show that Envato is growing and everything is ok, but there will be a time when things will start to fall off. Because as authors, earnings are the only motivation to create more (to earn more), but when we create more and see lower results each time we grow our portfolio, then there is no point of creating new items. We need to see earnings that match the hard work we put in our creativity.

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The Elements is growing, there is no doubt but the problem is that it looks like the number of authors/items is growing much faster then number of customers.

If we could get a “average” (Total Authors Earnings / Number of Authors (or Total Number of Items of all Authors)) author from 2019-2020 and today - that will be the right answer.

But I really hope that we are all wrong and the numbers will much better after this Black Friday (we will see the results in January/February).

That is the easiest part to change - but that is something which Envato should do (but of corse if will not happened - and yes, that is the reason why is “impossible”). That tax is because we are selling our items to Envato (Australian company) and after that Envato (Elements) is “re-selling” to the customers. So, the first part between us and Envato is a “problem” - because of that is 30% tax.

Solution? Envato should “move” company in some other country which will be much better for most customers (ideally no tax) - simple like that. As I know, you have also “moved” your company outside your country because of tax - the same thing can do Envato.

Name a country which have tax treaty with all the other countries. You are talking only for yourself. If Envato moves to another country which might benefit you but affect other authors. So when it comes to tax I don’t think envato can do anything. It is more complicated and least possible thing to do from Envato side.

Then there comes another question… Why should Envato do it? Few authors are paying more tax than others.

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Please, it is so simple to find a solution for that - you need 10-20min of your time and access to the internet - that is all. I am not tax expert and I can not tell you in which country the Envato should move but I can tell you at least 2 services online who will do all the job for you and for one of them it will cost you 5% + 50¢ - and that is all - no matter from which country is a customer.

You will sign also argument with them that you are selling your items to them and they will re-sell the content to customers. One service is new (has start to work a year-two ago) but another is very long there - I have used it 5-6 years ago when I was selling over my own website. They are doing all the job about the VAT/invoices and all other things. And you will not pay 30% on taxes - no matter from which country is a customer. Why the Envato can not do the same thing?

Here you can find a list of countries which are paying less than 30% tax.

And I am asking you how much are there countries which are paying less then 5% + 50¢ (the “tax” which is taken by other services)? There are 12 countries. What about the rest of the World? Are there still just a “few” authors?

The major concern here is the lack of transparency, like in the case of Item Points table, number of licenses and so on…

It is the law, Envato was founded in Australia so it is an Australian company.

I’m no tax expert. But tax laws are different and complicated in each country and I believe you can’t override them for few authors needs.

For example in my country, if I’m running any online business outside my country and receiving the income to banks in my country i have to pay flat 18% service tax and then later pay income tax on the profit as per the income level. That is 33% + 18% on total income.

So it is not that simple.

I am not talking here about the tax in your country. I am paying also tax in my country and that has nothing to do with 30% tax which I am paying to Australia.

I am talking here only about 30% (which for some countries is 10% or 5% - you have on link in my previous post) which is taken by Australia government / country / laws.

I am saying that there are services which are working on same way like Elements (they are re-selling your own work) and for that they will take you 5% + 50¢ and not 30%. So, obvious that is possible because that already exist.

Of course, no matter if you will sell over Envato or services about which I am talking - you should pay plus taxes in your country. The problem is only with 30% AUS tax - that part can be reduced a lot.

I understood your point. But what i was saying is the tax laws are complicated in each country. So it may not be possible for a corporate company to use the methods you pointed out. Because laws are different for individuals and companies.

If they move to some other country it may reduce your tax will sure increase some one else’s tax.

If any service provider is providing you services without holding the Tax, they are doing something against the law.

For example if you as a company or a individual do business with any US company or individual you have to pay the tax on the income to US government as per the treaty if there is one. You can’t escape from that. It is the same for Australia and a lot more countries.

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If any service provider is providing you services without holding the Tax, they are doing something against the law.

It is 100% legal - probably they are registered (services providers) in the country whose laws allows that (has a great contracts with rest of the world/countries). Again, I can not name that country (maybe Luxemburg or Cyprus or some other) but again the service providers about I am talking are 100% legal and they are used all over the internet - I have also paid several times over their system (I have bought scripts and subscriptions on several websites).

It was possible for them do not pay AU withhold taxes on Market till 2022.
I don’t know Australian law, but it is very interesting how Envato collected AU taxes on Elements and in the same time ignored them on Market.
And suddenly in the same month they cut our bonus and provide AU “taxes” on Market. Soon we will see Mexican taxes, because Envato has office there?

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