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Mozilla Foundation Now IRS 501(c)(3) Approved

Posted by Hemos on from the get-out-the-donations dept.

jesus_X writes "We at MozillaNews have discovered that the Mozilla Foundation is now officially 501(c)(3) approved by the IRS, meaning you can now deduct donations made directly to Mozilla.org from your income tax returns. This is separate from, and obviates the Open Source Applications Foundation donation method mentioned in August on MozillaZine."

6 of 116 comments (clear)

  1. This is great... by mp3LM · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think this is going to make a lot more people donate, because it has double benefits.

  2. Where does the money go? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    WHen you donate to Mozilla, where does the money go, is it purely on the server, does any of it go to the programmers? Who decides where the money goes? If we donate money to them, can we get any say as to where it goes?

  3. That Is Nice But by ArchAngel21x · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I am thinking of donating a small portion to Mozilla since Firefox is my main browser now. However, my motive is not fueled by a tax break. I want to support an organization that makes good software.

    I encourage everyone who uses a Mozilla browser to donate at least $5. Come on, that is only the price of a value meal at a fast food joint. Just think what the organization could do if we all donated.

    1. Re:That Is Nice But by swillden · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Why not give the tax break to the charity if the donor does not want it.

      That's really no different from the US approach, it just shifts the paperwork from the donor to the charity and reduces the government's contribution with respect to a particular tax rate.

      Assume I'm donating $5 and I paid $1 in taxes on that money.

      Under the Gift Aid approach, if I give $5, the charity gets $5 and then can file to get the other $1, for a total of $6. Net, the charity is up $6, $5 from me and $1 from the government. The charity has to do the paperwork on the donation, I don't.

      Under the US approach, I give $6. Net, the charity is up $6, $5 from me and $1 from the government. Except that's not actually right. If I paid $1 in taxes on $5 of income, I paid $1.20 on $6. So under the US scheme, $4.80 of the $6 comes from me and $1.20 comes from the government, rather than the $1 under the UK method.

      I wonder if that side effect was planned when the UK approach was set up?

      I have no idea if the US scheme actually does encourage larger donations. I know I don't actually think "I can afford to donate $100, but I'll get a $20 tax break for that, so I'll donate $120 (or, ideally, the limit of the converging series 100[.2^n], which converges to $100/.8, or $125)", but I certainly do think "$100 is kind of a lot, but it's really only $80; I can afford that", so the tax effects do cause me to make larger donations than I would otherwise, but I can't really generalize that beyond my own giving habits.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
  4. Re:Before you donate... by michaelggreer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not so scandalous, in my opinion. Someone took their trademarked logos to use in a KDE theme. Now, they may have been wrong not to allow that, but I can understand why they did. They don't want people tagging all sorts of things with their logos: their logo refers to them. It's a brand. If they don't defend it now, then later they can't do so. This is not fair use either: its not a commentary on the logo, but an appropriation of it. There might be ways around this, but it is a far cry from a "scandal."

    Be reasonable, folks. I agree with the free software movement, but that doesn't mean I think everything anyone ever does should be available for anyone to use under any conditions.

  5. Re:Before you donate... by linuxci · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why can't the mozilla foundation protect its trademarks?