[ZF] Why is non-profit status important?

[Aroldo Souza-Leite]

Hi Tres,


thanks for the clarification. You can count on me if you need any 
support in reading, making comments or evaluating the documents.

The importance of the non-profit status might be a trait of the kind of 
customers I usually deal with. They see the "owner" of the Software I 
try to "sell" to them as "companies" that they would like to get to know 
better - especially if they are financing sprints and other events that 
might have a positive effect on the value of Zope as a whole. GFU Cyrus 
is just one example as a private corporation, but semi-governmental 
institutions are even stricter in this sense. I hope to explain my 
position more clearly in the course of the  discussion around the 
elections.

Regards,

Aroldo.

Am 10.02.2012 17:09, schrieb Tres Seaver:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> On 02/10/2012 10:46 AM, Benji York wrote:
>> On Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 10:21 AM, Jim Fulton<jim at zope.com>  wrote:
>>> On Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 9:14 AM, Jim Fulton<jim at zope.com>  wrote:
>>>> Aroldo's note prompts me to ask: Why is non-profit status so
>>>> important?
>>>>
>>>> Do we think the amount of contributions would be substantially
>>>> different if the Foundation was non-profit? I'm skeptical.
>>>>
>>>> Given that the board members are all busy, pursuing non-profit
>>>> status seems like a waste of time.
>>> Note:
>>>
>>> - Rob Page pointed out to me in person that without non-profit
>>> status, any Foundation Income in excess of expenses is taxed. I
>>> don't know if this is an issue, but I still doubt it's worth
>>> worrying about.
>> That's a good point.
>>
>> Is it not already paying taxes because it's for-profit at this time?
>> There's been at least one tax year to end since the ZF was created, I
>> suppose it payed taxes then.  We can use that as a measure of how
>> much being for-profit would hurt.
> AFAIK, the foundation hasn't shown a profit after that first year (2006):
>   we are still operating on the "cushion" of the original
> "consoritum"-level dues paid by ZC and a couple of others (Nuxeo?)
> Current revenues from sponsor members ($399 each annually) don't exceed
> our hosting costs.
>
> We started the process of obtaining 501-c3 status, and need to determine
> what our actual status is with the IRS.  I am currently waiting on scans
> of some hardcopy correspondence with the IRS about this status (the
> treasurer is out of the country until next week).  Based on what we find
> there, I expect that the board will either decide to table the issue
> indefinitely (if the IRS issued a final decision), or else try to
> complete the process.
>
>
> Tres.
> - -- 
> ===================================================================
> Tres Seaver          +1 540-429-0999          tseaver at palladion.com
> Palladion Software   "Excellence by Design"    http://palladion.com
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> Version: GnuPG v1.4.10 (GNU/Linux)
> Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/
>
> iEYEARECAAYFAk81QU0ACgkQ+gerLs4ltQ4U7wCfRBxxYVFlMc2okAVx9yKb9yVv
> Hw8AoJl6h74dDY946Tzc2turicjM3koG
> =dyAh
> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
> _______________________________________________
> foundation mailing list
> foundation at zope.org
> https://mail.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation