Comment 5 for bug 1575127

there is something you could try. It is a rather messy operation, but in my case it helped. The objects you are using are currently represented as 'arcs'. You want to trigger a conversion to represent them instead as 'cubic Beziers'. And then do the boolean operation.

- select the object and open Edit->XML editor. the object you selected should show up highlighted in the editor. inspect the 'd' attribute and note that it contains many 'a' or 'A' elements, which stands for 'arc'.
- select the Node tool, 'F2'.
- click on a specific node and use the up/down arrows to jiggle it up once and then down again. The shape should not change, but in the XML editor you will see that the 'd' attribute now consists of 'c' or 'C' elements, which stands for cubic Bezier.
- do the same for the other circle as well, to get the attached edited drawing.
- then do the difference operation.
- let us know if this helps...