This is a combined reply to Slavek, David and Michael :)
None of these "for free" or "for little fee" platform/companies will make [TDE-ORG] a legal entity. It's quite the contary: Now Tim is the legal burdon-carrier. The moment TDE leaves his nest, it's on it's own. In the worst case this is a fork - with possible the consequence of loosing TDE as a trademark and name. Having mentioned trademark: in Austria trademarks are quite cheep, I remember I payed € 250.- for 10 years, but trademarks are given to legal entities, not projects.
The moment [TDE-ORG] takes money, it needs to be a legal entity. Again, now it's Tim. If [TDE-ORG] wants to move away from busfactor=1 to e.g. busfactor=6, then 6 people will need to form a legal entity. Where that entity is located is essential in almost any sense: copyright, legal satatus, tax, domain, ...
I strongly suggest that everybody tries to figure out his/her countries legal situation concerning NGOs/association and the like. EU is not that unified as it might appear. There is a list of must-haves:
- VAT exemption, aka 0% VAT rate. - no tax requirement if income (in minus out) is lower € XXX (which happens to be ~ 5500.- in Austria) - simple bookkeeping requirements (in, out) - who is allowed to be board member (Austria: everybody AFAIK)
ANd stay away from US legislation :)
Nik
Anno domini 2020 Fri, 24 Apr 09:36:34 -0500 Michael scripsit:
On Friday 24 April 2020 01:15:14 am Dr. Nikolaus Klepp wrote:
Anno domini 2020 Fri, 24 Apr 04:17:12 +0200 the legal implications. A professinal bookkeeper for a costs you ~ 300.- / year for simple bookkeeping (again: Austria) - that is, if you feel overhelmed with dooing simple bookkeeping yourself. If going for legal, how should these companies handle local laws? To which laws ate they bound? What's with VAT?
civicrm.org --> US backdropcms.org --> US opencollective.com --> US stripe.com --> UK
Choos your poison.
Ah, I see I didn't transfer my thoughts well :(
civicrm.org and backdropcms.org are free platforms that can be used to replicate an Open Collective reporting system. The jurisdiction of either has nothing to do with [TDE-ORG] (or any of their other users). The rates were PayPal, those rates don’t apply to checks and any other monies that can be processed by the bank the [TDE-ORG] checking account is with.
They are both what I am moving my own site and the vast majority of my clients to in preparations for Drupal 7 going end of life in November 2021. (It may claim to be for NGOs, but it’s also used by commercial entities for it’s completeness of functions.)
My unwritten assumption was that I was the one building/hosting/upgrading/managing the civicrm and backdropcms site, hence it was ‘free’ to the [TDE-ORG]. The other unwritten bits were that civicrm is able to replace much of the scattered functions TDE has today into a single, integrated, space. [1]
[TDE-ORG] would need at least:
- legal status as a non-profit
- checking account(s)
[TDE-ORG] could use:
- someone who can read and do simple math for a tax return
Creating [TDE-ORG] as a non-profit is not exceptionally difficult (even in the US [2]), it’s just a matter of reading, filling out forms, and paying a filing fee. If we even need help with that, we can ask any other Linux/tech related NGO questions.
Best, Michael
[1] The CiviCRM User Guide: Note: It needs a much better TOC, the ‘Next’ topic link is bottom-right on the page. https://docs.civicrm.org/user/en/latest/introduction/what-is-civicrm/
[2] Huh, the Amazon Smile thing seems to only be for USA based non-profits?
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