On Thu, Oct 09, 2003 at 04:58:22PM +0000, Dylan Thurston wrote: > IANAL, but I believe that according to US law there are limits on who > non-profits can give money to: if the lab is not a non-profit > corporation, SPI could not (in my understanding) give money to the > lab. OTOH, SPI could surely purchase services? > > Could somebody with a better understanding of the law help here? I can try. SPI is a 501(c)(3) in the United States. This means that donations from within the US are tax deductible. SPI doesn't pay taxes and you can deduct your donation to SPI from your taxes according to a set of rules the government lays out. You're right is assuming that this tax exempt status introduces some restrictions on how we can spend money. At Debconf3 I gave the follow example: Developer X creates a trivial MP3 sorting script and throws it into a Alioth project. She then registers it as an SPI member project and donates USD 50K to SPI (marked for her project). She writes 50K off her taxes. She then has SPI buy her a car or a new computer or send her a pile of cash she uses to throw a coke orgy or something -- all tax free. The major rule of thumb is that the members of the organization can't benefit financially from the organizations decisions. Now, if SPI wants to hire a consulting organization that's fine. If we hire one unconnected to any SPI member there's no room for a problem. If we hire one that is owned by a member, we need to be able to prove that she is charging my normal rates and that those rates are competitive, and such. Additionally, 503(c)(3)'s can't spend money directly on politics. This means we can't spend money lobbying congressmen and women or endorsing candidates or donate to their campaigns. It's a little bit of a fuzzy line though because we can *educate* people on a set of issues and, AIUI, on how politicians stand in regards to an issue. You're correct in your description. We can hire HP to do work for us but we can't provide a way for HP to invest in itself tax-free. It can sometimes be a fine line. Does that clarify things at all (or at least clarify that things are a little bit unclear)? :) Regards, Mako -- Benjamin Mako Hill mako@debian.org http://mako.yukidoke.org/
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