On 8/23/07, Ted Roche <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Is the primary focus of the organization business?
Presently, the primary focus of the organization appears to consist of (1) a mailing list host, (2) a meeting coordination service, and (3) debating our own existence. :-) In my experience, most members seem to regard the binding elements of GNHLUG to be Linux/Unix/FOSS, plus residence or strong interest in New Hampshire. FWIW, our incorporation paperwork states our purpose is: "The promotion of the use, development and education in the use of the Linux operating system and associated software, especially open source software". Business is part of the above because business is part of everything, just like people and society are part of everything. But "primary focus"? I'd say no. > How do we justify the MythTV presentation, the most popular recent event? Question answers itself. It was very popular, thus there was strong demand for it, thus we were giving people what they wanted. > I think it could be argued that the main focus of the group is not business > as much as it is focused on the community of Open Source and Free Software ... Right, but the IRS doesn't have a category for that. Indeed, as far as the IRS is concerned, everything that isn't a flesh-and-blood person is an organization; "communities" don't exist, except in the abstract. Anyway, given our focus on "community", we might well be a "Social welfare organization" (501(c)(4)). Indeed, based on the definitions given by the IRS, I would say that is our best fit. Again, see my notes (and feel free to add to them, if you like): http://wiki.gnhlug.org/twiki2/bin/view/Organizational/LegalEntityType However, I'm not sure there is a practical difference (in terms of tax benefits) between a (c)(4) and a (c)(6) "Business league". If there's no difference, we might be better off going for a (c)(6), because the IRS website leads me to believe that a (c)(4) has a greater potential for dispute. None of the information I have read on the IRS website about 501(c)(3) organizations leads me to believe we would qualify. They all appear to be about things like feeding the poor, non-profit schools, curing disease, and so forth. But again, the IRS's mission is to collect revenue, so there may be bias in the information on their website. Ed appears to think, as a matter of practical law, we *do* qualify for 501(c)(3) status. I am inclined to trust his judgment. Finally, I also believe the type we apply for will have little to no practical impact on our activities for the foreseeable future. I don't see us doing anything that is likely to be significantly swayed by the tax-deductibility of potential donations. But maybe I'm being too conservative in my thinking. -- Ben _______________________________________________ gnhlug-org mailing list gnhlug-org@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-org/
