NY Bill Proposes Tax Credit for Open Source Developers

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Assemblymen Jonathan Bing and Micah Kellner, along with a number of co-sponsors, have introduced proposed legislation in New York State which would grant a tax credit to individuals acting as volunteers who develop open source programs. The idea of the credit is to ensure that volunteer developers, who could not otherwise deduct their expenses because they are not part of a 'business,' should nevertheless be able to receive a tax benefit for their contribution. The credit would be for 20% of the expenses incurred, up to $200. The preamble to the bill notes that the New York State Assembly itself currently uses 'Open Source programs such as Mozilla for email, Firefox for web browsing, and WebCal for electronic calendars,' and that these programs have led to significant cost savings to taxpayers. The preamble also cited a 2006 report authored by John Irons and Carl Malamud from the Center for American Progress detailing how Open Source software enhances a broader dissemination of knowledge and ideas."

Comments

How to prevent abuse?

[javacowboy]

The idea sounds excellent in principle, but how do you tell a true open source developer apart from a poser looking to abuse this program?

Re:How to prevent abuse?

[NewYorkCountryLawyer]

The idea sounds excellent in principle, but how do you tell a true open source developer apart from a poser looking to abuse this program?

Slashdot post history?

True. If they've never been modded to "-1 Flamebait" you know they're not genuine.

Re:How to prevent abuse?

[Chris Burke]

The idea sounds excellent in principle, but how do you tell a true open source developer apart from a poser looking to abuse this program?

Simple. Yank on their beard. If the beard pulls off, they are a poser. If only a few hairs pull out, and your hand comes away coated in grease and food particles, then they're legit.

No Thanks

[janeuner]

If you want to help open source, require that government software makes widespread use of open specifications. The rest will pay for itself.

The gnomes who did the heavy lifting

[NewYorkCountryLawyer]

By the way, for those of you anxious to know the background of how an Assemblyman named Jonathan Bing got into this issue, I should mention that

(a) the guy with the idea behind this bill was "open government", "open access to court records", "open source", "open everything" activist Carl Malamud, who was most recently in the news when Congressmen and Senators started picking up his thread about making PACER -- i.e. court records -- free (as in beer); and

(b) the guy who helped usher this through, and put together the details, and get the Assemblymen to put their backs behind this, in the halls of government, is a very dynamic young geek and Slashdotter named Benjamin Kallos (like myself a Bronx High School of Science grad) who until recently was working for Assemblyman Bing but is now running for City Council in Manhattan.