Hi Lindsay et al I think this returns us a bit closer to the point I was trying to make.
Microsoft's "generosity" is not limited to registered charities at all. It promotes itself as a good, generous corporate citizen. It certainly gives away a lot of product (though whether it 'costs' them or 'benefits' them in the long term is obviously another question). We here were given a considerable amount when we opened our Community Centre here - which is not a business at all, but is not a registered charity. *My* point was that MS keeps up the PR of it being a big, generous citizen, but at the same time is narrowing (considerably) the range of its generosity, specifically excluding churches and church run bodies - whether or not they are community services. It is MS's money and it can give it to whomever it wants, but I think there is an issue of truth that is lying around here somewhere. Gordon ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lindsay Brash" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "insights" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, June 11, 2004 9:36 AM Subject: Re: Government, The Smith Family and Software Promotions > G'day All, > > At 06:30 PM 10/06/04 +1000, Clare Pascoe Henderson wrote: > >... but I personally have a big gripe with churches being allowed > >tax-exempt status on the basis of being charities, when they actually > >function as businesses. > > Generally speaking churches do not have charity status, although they do > get various tax concessions. This means that donations to churches are not > universally tax-deductible, only when they meet specific criteria. > > The RSPCA for example is a charity and so all donations are tax-deductible > - whether the money is used to run animal shelters or to fund illegal > "rescue missions" on poultry farms. And the RSPCA definitely functions as > a business. > > Which I guess leaves open the question of how appropriate are these > concessions in particular instances, and whether they could be better > targeted. > > Kind regards, > Lindsay. > > > ------------------------------------------------------ > - You are subscribed to the mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] > - To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the message body 'unsubscribe insights-l' (ell, not one (1)) > See: http://nsw.uca.org.au/insights-l-information.htm > ------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------ - You are subscribed to the mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the message body 'unsubscribe insights-l' (ell, not one (1)) See: http://nsw.uca.org.au/insights-l-information.htm ------------------------------------------------------
