Mastodon forms new U.S. non-profit
Mastodon forms new U.S. non-profit
As part of our commitment to supporting the growth and operational capabilities of Mastodon, we have established a 501(c)(3) non-profit entity in the United States aimed at facilitating our efforts, including being able to receive tax-deductible U.S. donations.
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We’ve always been worried that developing Free and Open Source Software would not be recognized as a charitable cause by the German tax system, so we were glad when the tax office originally approved our non-profit status in 2021. But now we have received a notice from the same tax office that our non-profit status has been withdrawn. This came with no advance warning or explanation. Earlier this year we went through a successful tax audit, which in fact resulted in some favourable adjustments as we’ve been paying too much tax. Our tax advisor immediately submitted an appeal to the decision, but so far, we have no new information.
Germany doing its utmost best to drive away innovation. Genius.
But why go to the USA? The EU has 27 members and Switzerland is a neighbor...
I was wondering the same thing. Maybe in the USA it is easier due to our relaxed (almost non-existent) business oversight from the government? Not sure.
Also it's a bigger market of lawyers, so probably easier and cheaper to get high quality legal help against bullshit like this.
I don't know the answer but they pointed this out further in the press release:
However, it’s also important for us that Mastodon is one of the few, if not the only social media platform that operates out of the EU, and we would like to keep it that way.
I'd assume that this is for a reason, too. If it were advantageous to run your company out of the EU people would probably do so sometimes.
Pretty silly for something literally used by the European Union and other European Governments. Am I right in thinking the German Government is one of those?