Environmental impact of art at Kiezburn

First things first: Environmental impact is a very important topic these days and I appreciate every action that makes the in and on itself environmentally ... dubious ... the action of having a burn more sustainable and environmentally friendly.

Some thoughts on the matter:

1. The process of handing in dreams and process is very very tiresome for a lot of artists. This is already the case as german tax regulations require a huge amount of paperwork. The setup of dreams require them to also don promoting, writing a pitch & answering questions from dream guides and communities.
Part of the goal for the dream team 2020 (haha) is to reduce this friction for artists so they can spend their time doing art rather than worrying about filling out forms and other administrative things. The suggestion of "all proposals on the dreams platform answer in one question of their application in great detail about the environmental impact of their art / installation / contribution / project" is hence a super huge task. I would love to pick up your suggestions and see if we can boil your questions down to easy 'checkbox' questions where additional comments can be made.



2. I do not approve giving people tasks and requirements which are at odds with each other. In this case: Getting a receipt to get refunds vs. Getting things 2nd hand / not buying them new to be enviromentally friendly.
In order to get a refund for their expenses, the artist has to hand in an invoice or receipt. Getting things 2nd hand is more environmentally friendly, but often does not provide a proper option for a receipt. There are ways to circumvent this issue sometimes (as in having a 'Quittungsblock') - but the Finanzamt will not approve of a huge bunch of self-written receipts.
This is an issue we have at my real life work as well. We would like to be more sustainable but in order for the bookkeeping and finanzamt to be happy we are officially forced to get everything new.


3. Questions like the ones quoted below are great raise awareness / make artists think about more sustainable ways. To answer them takes a lot of time, effort and mental juggling of hypothetical numbers. I think these questions should be 100% optional and I also think that a communal effort to help artists make their project more enviromentally friendly is a better approach than forcing that task on the artists back on top of all the other things they have to do.
"How many kilos of material will need to be transported to and from Kiezburn for the project? Can this transport be done in a CO2 neutral way?

• How many kilos of plastic are used in a project? For each plastic material used in the project - is there a suitable natural material that can be used instead?

• Does the project utilize or generate single-use plastic? What materials can be used instead?"

This is a very fair and important point you're bringing up. Nevertheless, maybe there's a way to encourage thinking twice while deciding what kind of project one want to bring.

A fact is also, that environmental responsibility is a pre-requisite. Our art projects aren't. Meaning that to start a project from scratch will imply taking the decisions of which kind of materials/energy/transport you need. Maybe this questions could be enhanced, or highlighted, at the very beginning of any art project/dream process? Like in the "instructions" period?

As background: I've seen and done that of "well, I'll go for the single-use shitty plastic because it'll make things easier and cheaper. But this thinking is toxic and neglecting. I believe we can do better.

I am 100% with you here, @Cris !

My point of critique was the request to make artists write an extensive explanation essay answering roughly half a dozen questions as part of their dream outline.

To be very clear. The things I can personally think of that would also serve this goal but are more friendly to the dreamer:

• Coming up with a more dreamer-friendly way for them to report their environmental impact (f.e. through easy to answer Likert-scale questionnaires in the signup form + a free text field where they can make additional [but optional] comments about how they plan to make their art as environmentally-friendly as possible). Making environmental impact part of the basic information that is displayed about all available dreams. Just like 'Footprint' and 'Needs electricity?'

• Making 'Environmental impact' a part of the instruction manual for dreamers

• Encourage dream guides to ask questions about environmental impact when there seem to be obvious points where things can be improved (this will be up to the personal motivation and effort of the dream guide, ultimately.).
  

Saskia, thank you for the detailed input.

Regarding invoices for used goods: I think it is of paramount importance that the Verein establishes a good way for artists to hand in invoices for used goods / "Handbelege". This is a completely normal process and is also done by companies. I have handed in "Handbelege" in many cases to my previous company, and if they include all necessary info (Date, purpose, signature,...) that's no issue at all.

One question in regard to that is, if it touches the Finanzamt at all, because in our case these are to document expenditures from artists in front of Kiezburn e.V., in this case it could matter though if the money comes from "ticket sales" or "donations". Vereine do cash transactions for used goods in all Germany all the time (backyard sales /"Flohmärkte") etc. If Kiezburn provides a template to artists that can be printed out, that would be ideal, as then no required info would be missing. A printout eg. of an "Ebay Kleinanzeigen" ad can be supportive, is in no way a necessity though. It's mostly about the trust that Kiezburn has in the artist, and only that. (Printed invoices don't increase trust much, as you can easily shop at OBI, bring all items back after a few days, and get a cash refund.)

If it's about tax refunds from the Finanzamt: It makes more sense to buy used things at half the price, and not get a 19% tax refund, instead of buying at full price and being able to deduct 19% from that. You'll still spend much more.

https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigenbeleg

(Again, I think that's only barely relevant, as there will not be a Vorsteuerabzug for used goods, which doesn't matter, because they are anyway much cheaper than buying something new.)

If at some point someone from the Verein has an appointment with a tax consultant / Steuerberater, it would be good to clarify what's the best way for documentation.

If for some reason an issue arises, another solution is that the artist bills the Verein for the sum of all used goods bought ("Honorarnote"). This way, you have only one invoice / Beleg for all used goods purchased per each project, and you can easily give the artist a template for that.

Thank you very much for your wonderful reply, @David . This was the kind of knowledge we were and are missing at sometimes. The Verein has been founded a little bit more than a year ago and we're still in the middle of a steep learning curve. Getting information like this in such a condensed manner is really helpful! We will make sure to include a proper description of the process in the guide for dreamers in order to encourage them to look out for used and 2nd hand material rather than new stuff.

For that matter I am tagging @Alexxx . Can you bring this question to the Steuerberater?
Can Kiez Burn provide a proper template that will satisfy the Finanzamt in order to enable artists to buy used goods/2nd hand?

Cool. So to clarify for the Steuerberater, in that case we are not interested in a Vorsteuerabzug, just to do our bookkeeping properly.

And if he sees an issue, immediately go to solution 2, and ask what data an invoice from an artist ("Honorarnote") must contain. That, the artist can hand in to the Verein, one per each dream. And if the reason / Betreff on the honornote should mention these used goods, I suspect it will be smarter to leave it out and make it just a general "Honorarnote" for the art project / service rendered.

Hi David,

Excellent proposal, and a great insight to how the Verein and Finanzamt interact on this level. You are right on all counts.

Our documentation from last years "Receipt Hand In Protocol" had a section explaining that handwritten belege are fine, so long as they have the relevant information (Date of sale, name and address of seller, description of goods/services, price (with breakdown if necessary), reason for using a handwirtten belege (i.e. Privatverkauft durch ebay kleinanzeige), date and signature, artists could hand them in no worries. As Finance lead I am not worried about the 19% MwSt return compared the the 60% saved on an ecological purchase.
The dilemma was that the receipt hand in doc was about 10 pages long, and I couldn't make it any shorter, so many people simply didn't read that deep into it.

This highlights another problem, which is "how much effort should a dreamer put in to their dream, to simplify the work of the volunteer processing their refund as a real service". As the volunteer putting in the unrewarding grueling hours of processing these things (including a lot of photocopying), I ma inclined to pass the work on to the dreamer. And if they can't read the instructions when it clearly states "READ THE INSTRUCTIONS IN FULL IF YOU WANT YOUR MONEY BACK", then I feel no emotional obligation to bend over backwards for anyone.
(I am now getting sidetracked, back to my story.....)


I LOVE the idea of a template that Dreamers can use to ensure they have all the correct information. I will try to make one at a later time, but if you find time to whip one together and send it to the finance@kiezburn.org email, I would be very very grateful at having that task offloaded.

My intention to solve the long-doc problem, is to make a funky 10 minute video explaining the process and WHY we expect dreamers to follow the process (because the Finanzamt are the true Overlords of Germany, long may they reign.....).

I would recommend we also have some videos explaining the dreams process (including this proposal of guidelines), "how to make a dream", "how to gather and submit your receipts", "tips and tricks" etc. I think this would increase engagement and help the Millenials catch up with German bureaucratic systems without having to what many have been conditioned out of doing.... reading.....

Love the initiative, if I can support in any way, I would love to!