OSI and Conservancy Announce US Tax Exemption Working Group

[Bradley M. Kuhn]

URL: http://sfconservancy.org/news/2014/aug/12/tax-exempt-working-group/

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   OSI and Conservancy Announce US Tax Exemption Working Group

Software Freedom Conservancy and the Open Source Initiative are pleased
to announce that they are the founding members of a working group
focused on tax exemption issues for organizations in the United States.

Recent activity by the Internal Revenue Service in response to
applications for tax exempt status have sparked a lot of interest and
discussion amongst free and open source software communities.

OSI and Conservancy recognize that the IRS's understanding and
evaluation of free and open source software can impact both new
organizations created to promote the public good as charities (known as
501(c)(3) organizations after the corresponding tax code provision), as
well as new organizations formed to forward a common business interest
(known as 501(c)(6) organizations).

The working group will be open to equal participation from all concerned
parties, and the working group will seek to recruit legal experts to
participate in its processes. Aaron Williamson, partner at Tor Ekeland,
will chair the group.

"We've been watching this issue for some time and look forward to
pooling our resources with other organizations and companies," said
Karen Sandler, Executive Director of Software Freedom Conservancy.
"Together we can come to a better understanding of the IRS's perspective
and plan strategically to communicate the value and importance of the
corporate forms we choose."

"Over the years, applying for 501(c)(3) or (c)(6) status has become the
de facto standard for new FLOSS projects in the US." said Allison
Randal, Director of the Open Source Initiative "It's not clear yet
whether recent responses from the IRS are isolated special cases or
represent a more general trend, but it is worthwhile to look into the
topic more deeply, and ensure we have a strong and diverse set of
healthy growth patterns for FLOSS projects, to last decades into the
future."

Those interested in getting involved with this working group should
contact Allison Randal at <allison at opensource.org>.
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-- 
Bradley M. Kuhn
President & Distinguished Technologist of Software Freedom Conservancy