FYI a great outcome in Wikimedia Estonia's efforts to obtain tax-exempt status.
Begin forwarded message:
From: Raul Veede raul.veede@gmail.com Subject: Re: [Internal-l] Fwd: ERR News (Estonian Public Broadcasting): Tax Board Backs Down in Wikipedia Exemption Case Date: March 28, 2012 1:26:58 PM GMT+02:00 To: "Local Chapters, board and officers coordination (closed subscription)" internal-l@lists.wikimedia.org Reply-To: "Local Chapters, board and officers coordination (closed subscription)" internal-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Actually, the original verb after my citation was "grumbled", but no news outlet has yet dared to publish that word.
Well, we basically intimidated our Tax Board, carrying our disupte into media on the very first day and bragging about support by WMF. Many thanks!
Indeed, this outcome was good for WMEE, but it would have been even better if we could have a clear decision from the court that could be used by other non-profits to claim tax exemptions. Theoretically, Estonian legal system does not depend on precedents, but practice is a little bit different. We hoped to be useful for the whole 3rd sector, but at least everyone knows now it pays to be bold.
Raul
On Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 2:01 PM, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com Date: 28 March 2012 12:01 Subject: ERR News (Estonian Public Broadcasting): Tax Board Backs Down in Wikipedia Exemption Case To: Communications Committee wmfcc-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Well done WMEE!
http://news.err.ee/culture/72556373-ba16-4ac5-82f3-b4a155a5a2a0
Tax Board Backs Down in Wikipedia Exemption Case Steve Roman Published: 13:27
picture: In Estonian, it's called 'Vikipeedia.'
The Tax and Customs Board decided on March 27 to grant Wikimedia Eesti, the not-for-profit organization that runs the Estonian Wikipedia, tax-exempt status, thereby averting a court hearing on the issue that was to take place the same day.
The organization had taken legal action against the government because of changed rules that deny it tax-exempt status as a non-governmental, philanthropic organization.
"For Wikimedia Eesti, this is certainly happy news, but unfortunately it doesn't especially help matters for other NGOs who could have used our court precedent in the future," said Wikimedia board member Raul Veede.
Veede noted that a broader goal of initiating the court case was to draw attention to the Tax Board's narrow interpretation of what comprises a charity organization which, he said, was leaving a number of NGOs and volunteer groups subject to tax, uudised.err.ee reported.
He had earlier explained that, while the text of the law had remained the same, a few years ago the Tax Board changed its interpretation of what counts as a charity eligible for tax-exempt status.
Veede said that the new interpretation now rests on two conditions: first, the charity must distribute material goods; and, second, it must serve people who are disadvantaged as compared to the rest of society. However, the Estonian-language website of Wikipedia, with its mission of content creation and information dissemination, does not meet these criteria.
- d.
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