Why Envato does not exclude their fees from authors’ tax base?

Typps · January 10, 2016, 12:12pm

Collis has provided an answer, as it’s been asked before. Quoting below:

Important Changes for Non-US Authors/Affiliates/Service Providers

So, the author pays the tax entirely. After that ENVATO takes its 50%, calculated as a percentage from the Item Price (again). I can’t understand why THE AUTHOR should pay ENVATO’s part of the TAX?

This is a great question. This is an income tax, but it’s an income tax on authors. Envato also pays income tax, and indeed our new Envato US subsidiary will pay income tax in the US of its own (and just to be super clear, we work carefully to ensure we meet our tax obligations).

I think your question boils down to, could we deduct our fee after the tax has been applied? This isn’t easily done in the system, and is maybe better expressed as - can’t Envato reduce it’s fees? Our fees are something we are always evaluating, particularly around non-exclusive rates, and the way we are changing author pricing tools on GraphicRiver. At this time nothing is changing however.