[CREATE] [LGF] Get a status : association, foundation ...

[Dave Neary]

Hi,

a.l.e wrote:
> in switzerland (and i think in germany and france, too) you don't need
> to register an association.

In France we have something called "Associations loi 1901" - you need to
register at the prefecture, lodge statutes, minutes of AGMs and the
names & addresses of the officers of the association every year. No tax
returns, if your budget is under a certain amount - but I suspect that
with LGM the association will be over that limit.

If you want donations to be tax deductible, you need to justify that
your association is "d'intérêt général" - in the public/general interest.

> what is harder to do, is to be recognized as a public interest non
> profit organization (since free software is not so well known as
> charitable activity and most of us refuse to exclude profits from the
> uses of our software)... but: do we really need it?

Bigger US donors will appreciate getting tax receipts for donations.
SPI, SFC, GNOME Foundation are all already 501(c)3 organisations in the
US, meaning that donations are tax deductible, and "related earnings" of
the association are exempt from taxation.

Cheers,
Dave.

-- 
Dave Neary
dneary at free.fr
Tel: +33 9 51 13 46 45
Cell: +33 6 77 01 92 13