Re: [Debconf-team] DebConf 15 Legal Entity
Hi,
though I agree an e.V. would be most appropriate I need to give some
updates according to my own experiences. I assume legal and tax
council would be appropriate in this case anyways.
* Margarita Manterola (margamanterola@gmail.com) [140413 22:11]:
> This type of entity requires 7 members or more for it's foundation,
> from which 3 or more need to be elected as board members. If
hm, actually it need one or more board members, and the by-laws need
to specify how to get those. (I'm on the board of two e.V.s who need
"one or more appointed board member"; see §26I BGB for the
requirements).
> everything is in place and agreed upon, we would like for it to get
> founded during the May 3rd meeting in Heidelberg, which will have more
> than enough attendees. Most of the groundwork has been done, we are
> now in the process of finishing up the last details.
>
> The trickiest part of creating the association is to have a "purpose"
> that will be accepted as non-profit by the tax authorities.
I never found that hard so far, but well. Shouldn't be tricky if you
have someone who has done that already (debconf looks to me like any of
die Förderung von Wissenschaft;
die Förderung der Volks- und Berufsbildung einschließlich der Studentenhilfe;
die Förderung internationaler Gesinnung;
means:
the Advancement of Science;
the promotion of adult education and vocational education, including student aid;
promoting international attitude;
any of which is tax-deductible).
> If we do
> not attain non-profit status, it would mean that we would need to pay
> corporate and sales taxes (~ 30 %), and donations we received wouldn't
> be tax deductible on the side of the donor.
For sales taxes this is (mostly) non-relevant, because that depends on
revenue per year (not more than 17.5k / last year and not more than
50k/year; Kleinunternehmerregelung, see §19 UStG). (The exception is
that if you do things in the pro-bono-area, or in tax-emxempt-areas
that is not counted to these borders.)
(And in some cases it is even better to be not sales tax exempt.)
Also, this is also relevant in case some non-german entity organizes
the event, as this happens in Germany and so german tax laws are
applicable (see §1 II UStG).
> The reason why we are not using FFIS for this in the first place is to
> facilitate decision-making and agility; the venue is in Heidelberg,
> many of us in Munich, but FFIS is in Oldenburg. Regardless of
> location, we would also need active involvement from FFIS board in
> DebConf 15 organization, which we don't have.
I would say risk reduction is more relevant, but YMMV.
> A draft of the current foundational document of the association
> ("bylaws") is in git (debconf-data/dc15/verein/Vereinssatzung.tex)
> [in German :-/, since it's required for a German legal entity]. If you
> understand German and German law, you are welcome to review it and
> raise any concerns that you might have.
It might be helpful to update the links to git by now but I still
found it.
Otherwise, I better abstain from reading more of it after unfortunalty
having started. I'm glad to be no member nor officer there. (E.g.
having business year starting in the middle of a month is really a
bad idea, and will give you fun with tax authorities. It is not
purpose of the organization re § 52 Abgabenordnung but it's either the
purpose of an organization or not; this looks bogus. Section on
members is contradicting itself (members can only be natural persons,
but then others could also be sponsoring members).)
(For reference, one of the by-laws I wrote and which are accepted
without discussion by tax authoritites is
http://verein.schienen-tage.de/satzung.txt )
Andi
Reply to: