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On Fri, Jul 5, 2019 at 3:45 AM Aaron Bauman <bman@g.o> wrote: |
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> |
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> On Wed, Jul 03, 2019 at 09:08:14AM -0400, Rich Freeman wrote: |
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> > On Wed, Jul 3, 2019 at 8:56 AM Michał Górny <mgorny@g.o> wrote: |
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> > > |
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> > > Are you aware if the fee is going to be the same if we |
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> > > go for proper non-profit? |
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> > |
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> > Do you mean 501c3 by "proper non-profit?" Or some other tax-exempt status? |
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> > |
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> > I think most around here have abandoned all hope of ever running our |
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> > own 501c3. A number don't even think we should try, and a 501c3 is |
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> > hard enough to get approved if you have a professional board all |
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> > towing the party line. If you get people making public statements |
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> > like we ought to be a trade association (which is non-exempt) it would |
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> > be even harder. |
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> > |
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> |
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> This is not true. A 501c3 is not some mysterious unicorn that no one can obtain. |
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I never claimed it was. |
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> Plenty of organizations gain tax-exempt status with the IRS by simply filing and |
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> following the law. |
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Absolutely true. |
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> We will be just fine if we decide to maintain a 501c3. |
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Not true at all. Lots of organizations would have no problems |
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becoming a 501c3. Gentoo is not those organizations. |
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If you want to be a 501c3 you need to spend several years working |
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towards that status. You need to present yourself as fitting into the |
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categories that the status pertains to. You need to file your taxes |
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on time and so on. |
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I can't tell you how many times I've seen Trustees post on this list |
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or on IRC saying that they don't think that we should even be a 501c3 |
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and should be a non-exempt status like 501c6/etc. What is the chance |
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that we'll be able to refrain from having board members do that for 5 |
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years or so? Heck, I'm skeptical that we'll ever manage to file our |
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taxes on time 5 years in a row, though I at least see that as being |
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conceivable. |
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And then we have our history of non-compliance. That will only make |
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things harder even if everybody does everything right. |
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So, yes, all things being equal some hypothetical organization that |
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does what Gentoo does could probably become a 501c3. However, Gentoo |
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isn't some hypothetical organization and all things are not equal. |
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We're an organization with many conflicting views on how it ought to |
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be operated, with members who aren't all that interested in running a |
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non-profit, and with relatively limited interest in fundraising/etc. |
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Now, I wouldn't be opposed to just letting people who want to try to |
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create their own 501c3 play around with it for another decade or two, |
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except that in the meantime I think we're avoiding putting effort into |
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other approaches that are more likely to work out, like joining an |
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umbrella. |
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-- |
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Rich |
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