[LGM] finances

[Frank Trampe]

Hi, Louis and Jehan.

I ask about taxes because they are (1) very expensive when liberally paid
and (2) legally risky when incorrectly unpaid. Taxation is not an
inconsequential game, and it has the potential, done wrong, to cost us a
lot of money that we could use for reimbursements or, at the other end, to
embarrass us and our donors with legal problems.

Strict tax laws are not unique to the United States. I don't know about
France, but I just looked at Canada and Germany, and, in both places,
reimbursement for travel is not deductible from income (or, alternatively,
free travel received is taxable) in many cases when the travel is not
business-related. Both also have withholding regimes.

Nobody has explained to me the legal rationale that we used in the past to
avert tax filings and withholdings or that we might use in the future to do
the same. It would be very helpful to have that information.


On Wed, Nov 29, 2017 at 1:41 PM, Jehan Pagès <jehan.marmottard at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi!
>
> On Wed, Nov 29, 2017 at 8:35 PM, Louis Desjardins
> <louis.desjardins at gmail.com> wrote:
> > 2017-11-29 14:19 GMT-05:00 Frank Trampe <frank.trampe at gmail.com>:
> >>
> >> I have a few to add.
> >>
> >> Aside from VAT, would K8 take the necessary steps to ensure that the tax
> >> treatment of the reimbursements (particularly across national
> boundaries)
> >> doesn't result in withholdings on the reimbursements when they are
> >> expensible by recipients? Is there a way to avoid imputing taxable
> income to
> >> people lacking a business rationale for their attendance at the
> conference?
> >
> >
> > Hi Frank,
> >
> > Can I ask why you keep asking about the tax issues? We never ever had an
> > issue with this since year 1 of LGM.
> >
> > Is there something I don’t understand?
>
> I agree with Louis. I don't know how it is in the US, so if the chosen
> entity is based in the US, maybe there are taxes. In this case, I
> missed this.
> In France for instance, donations received are tax-free when you are a
> non-profit. And reimbursing flights or other expenses are not taxed as
> well. So there is no taxes involved in the whole process of receiving
> sponsorship then using it to reimburse participants (note well that
> this is "when you are a registered non-profit").
>
> Incomes are still taxed of course, even when we are dealing with
> non-profits, but expense reimbursements are not incomes.
>
> Jehan
>
> > Louis
> >
> >>
> >>
> >> Does K8 support this year's event such that some portion of the 15% fee
> >> might actually go towards it? In that case, it might not be as big a
> loss as
> >> it seems.
> >>
> >> On Wed, Nov 29, 2017 at 12:47 PM, Dave Crossland <dave at lab6.com> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Hi
> >>>
> >>> I spoke with Soenke :) Some questions for him/me/us to answer :)
> >>>
> >>> 1. SZ: What is the effect for K8 if the deal is a sponsorship, not a
> >>> donation?
> >>>
> >>> 1b. DC: A sponsorship draft agreement should be shared fro Dave to
> review
> >>> what the obligations on K8, and for the LGM, will be. I'll try to do
> that in
> >>> the next few days :)
> >>>
> >>> 1c. SZ: Will K8 be able to provide video recording of the event and
> >>> publication within a reasonable timeframe?
> >>>
> >>> 2. SZ: If the money is coming from outside the EU, will VAT be due
> >>> (hopefully no)?
> >>>
> >>> 2b. SZ: Can K8 provide a W8BEN form
> >>> (https://www.google.com/search?q=w8+ben)?
> >>>
> >>> 3. SZ: What if someone from the LGM community wants to adminster the
> >>> funds; could K8 reduce or share the 15% with them?
> >>>
> >>> 4. LGM: How would LGM want to set up the bursary?
> >>>
> >>> Cheers
> >>> Dave
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> Libre-graphics-meeting mailing list
> >>> Libre-graphics-meeting at lists.freedesktop.org
> >>> https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/libre-graphics-meeting
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Libre-graphics-meeting mailing list
> >> Libre-graphics-meeting at lists.freedesktop.org
> >> https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/libre-graphics-meeting
> >>
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Libre-graphics-meeting mailing list
> > Libre-graphics-meeting at lists.freedesktop.org
> > https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/libre-graphics-meeting
> >
>
>
>
> --
> ZeMarmot open animation film
> http://film.zemarmot.net
> Patreon: https://patreon.com/zemarmot
> Tipeee: https://www.tipeee.com/zemarmot
> _______________________________________________
> Libre-graphics-meeting mailing list
> Libre-graphics-meeting at lists.freedesktop.org
> https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/libre-graphics-meeting
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/libre-graphics-meeting/attachments/20171129/782d5ceb/attachment-0001.html>