On 15 August 2011 02:20, Daniel Shahaf <[email protected]> wrote:
> Raphael Bircher wrote on Sun, Aug 14, 2011 at 08:01:45 +0200: > > > I assume that a donnation to the ASF is only tax-free in the US. > > Every Country has here there oven criteria. That's the reason why > > Wikipedia has NGO's in each Country. It means, donnation to the ASF > > will not be Tax-Free in Switzerland. > > I'm aware of one case of an entity incorporated in Europe having wanted > to donate to the ASF but faced tax issues in the process. They ended up > supporting the project in other ways. > > BTW: I don't see ASF having NGO's in each country. Having one NGO is > enough overhead... > In the UK you have to be a registered Charity with a board of trustees to get tax relief on donations. Setting up a charity is much more involved than setting up a company. Many non-profit companies are either CICs or companies limited by guarantee rather than limited companies with shareholders. One reason why we are a straight limited company is that unless we were a charity there really isn't much advantage. One other method of getting resource into the projects is through EU grants. Over the last 2 years I have written 3 successful applications with a grant value of about 800,000 Euros. Unfortunately, the recent OpenOffice.org application failed, but that was on a legal technicality because the submitting organisation in Germany was not the right type of legal entity :-( The application was deemed to be good enough. So I propose that we put in at least 2 versions of this through 2 different teams to different National Agencies. One for Apache OOo and one for LibO. Since the application is based on certification of end users we could "clone" this application further eg to other Apache projects that could benefit from skills certification or more generally other FOSS projects such as Inkscape, GIMP, Audacity etc. If anyone has any suggestions for Apache projects that could be candidates, or better still interest in running such a project please speak up. You need to be able to apply through a legal company or public sector body in an EU country. We can get grant funding to meet and plan and I will provide whatever support is necessary. I can find partners in a range of EU countries. We can apply for these grants each year (unless the EU changes the system). If we can use these to get viable certification programmes for FOSS going, that can then generate further income in perpetuity. It's low risk because the grants are not money that has to be repaid but it is in our (FOSS) interest to set up a sustainable business so that we are not dependent on them in the future. -- Ian Ofqual Accredited IT Qualifications (The Schools ITQ) www.theINGOTs.org +44 (0)1827 305940 The Learning Machine Limited, Reg Office, 36 Ashby Road, Tamworth, Staffordshire, B79 8AQ. Reg No: 05560797, Registered in England and Wales.
