Re: European bank account for donations

[Dave Neary <dneary gnome org>]

Hi,

On 03/11/2012 04:30 PM, Baptiste Mille-Mathias wrote:
> 2012/3/10 Germán Póo-Caamaño<gpoo gnome org>:
> > > Does this make sense?
> >
> > It might need necessary to figure out the way to do it properly (I think
> > that is what Baptiste is trying to figure out).  Otherwise, for the tax
> > office this sort of operation can look as money laundry or tax evasion.
> …and I don't want to go to jail. :)

That might be a bit dramatic...

Yes, we can receive money from people in Europe, and we can transfer 
that money to the US organisation with an invoice. And yes, we do need 
to be careful about falling foul of money laundering laws.

> We already had several issue due to the location of the Foundation in
> the past, like the tee-shirt design contest back on November 2010 [1]
> which excluded inhabitants of some countries due to the embargo
> decided by the U.S.A. It's perhaps the right time to think to have a
> legal representation in Europe (and perhaps on other continents).

It is true that it has not always been easy to deal with the GNOME 
Foundation, because the foundation understandably worries about its 
501(c)3 status and making funds available without a sufficient paper 
trail on how it will be spent (certainly the Libre Graphics Meeting guys 
will testify to that) - but the same should go for any subsidiaries 
working with the foundation. It's certainly much easier if money donated 
in the EU is spent on EU activities that are easily justifiable.

I disagree that a US organisation conforming to US export regulations is 
a huge problem, though - IMHO this is a completely separate issue to the 
money issue we're talking about here.

Cheers,
Dave.

--
Dave Neary
GNOME Foundation member
dneary gnome org
Jabber: nearyd gmail com