[arch-general] Why are financial contributions not accepted?

[Thomas S Hatch]

On Sun, May 1, 2011 at 3:19 AM, Kaiting Chen <kaitocracy at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sun, May 1, 2011 at 2:39 AM, Allan McRae <allan at archlinux.org> wrote:
>
> > On 01/05/11 15:35, Johannes Held wrote:
> >
> >> On 01.05.2011 04:13, Ray Kohler wrote:
> >>
> >>> I also have donated in the past, and would do so again if it were made
> >>> possible.
> >>>
> >> What about a normal bank transfer to one of Arch's core maintainers?
> >>
> >>
> > That would have taxation implications for that developer.
> >
>
> At least the US allows for something like $5,000 tax exempt in personal
> gifts each year. --Kaiting.
>
> --
> Kiwis and Limes: http://kaitocracy.blogspot.com/
>

I believe the amount was $11,000 for 2010, but I need to check.

This is a serious problem, for a lot of reasons, especially that Arch could
use some more money :). The server resources are limited, and having more
resources would be great!

I will check with my accountant as to the best solution for this problem, I
think that the easiest solution would be legal formation of an entity that
deferred taxation responsibilities away from guys like Aaron.

I don't think that we need to become a 501(c)3. That can be very expensive
for an organization like Arch, since it is not blatantly clear that we are a
non-profit (They hand those out like candy to organizations that
"help children" for instance, but it took the Linux Kernel Foundation years
to get it, even though I would argue that Linux definitely helps children).
But another organization format will almost certainly be cheaper (most legal
business entities in the USA can be formed for less than $50) and most of
what 501(c)3 buys you is letting your donors declare the donation to be tax
exempt.

-Thomas S Hatch