Re: European bank account for donations

[Maciej Marcin Piechotka <uzytkownik2 gmail com>]

On Fri, 2012-03-09 at 11:15 +0100, Alexander van Loon wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> Recently I noticed the fundraiser for GNOME Accessibility. Even though I
> personally have no interest in accessibility features whatsoever, I'm
> quite satisfied with GNOME nowadays so I decided to donate something
> too.
> 
> The fundraiser page [1] offers two options for donating: PayPal or a
> bank transfer to a bank in the USA.
> 
> PayPal is a company I don't want to do any business with since they
> decided to sabotage WikiLeaks. That leaves only the bank transfer to the
> USA as an option, but this has a great disadvantage.
> 
> Not only does my Dutch bank require an IBAN-number for foreign bank
> transfers – which the fundraiser page does not provide – the cost for a
> transfer to the USA is prohibitive.
> 
> My bank charges € 5 for transfers to countries not belonging to the EEA
> [2] and if I pay for the costs of the receiving bank in the USA another
> € 9 is added. By contrast, my bank (and I assume many other banks in the
> Netherlands and the EU) charges no fee for bank transfers within the
> EEA.
> 
> So in short, could the GNOME Foundation provide a bank account at a bank
> in the EEA so that most Europeans can donate without any additional cost
> (I'm sure PayPal also takes a cut)?
> 
> Greetings,
> Alexander van Loon
> 
> [1] http://www-old.gnome.org/friends/
> [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Economic_Area

Does anyone knows how Wikimedia foundation solves it? You can set up
even direct debit IIRC.

In case of Wikimedia the charity status allows you to pay lower taxes in
some countries in EEA (either in 1% scheme, tax deduction schemes etc.
details may vary from country to country).

Regards