On May 6, 11:35 pm, Andrew Turvey andrewrtur...@googlemail.com wrote:
- HMRC response
a. Media
The rejection of our charity application was picked up by the Register who used the occasion to write an article criticising Wikipedia. We issued a statement in response to Wikinews. A news story was drafted for Wikinews but was rejected as being “not notable”. Although there had been some negative comment on the WikimediaUK-L list, the general feeling was that the reputation of the Board among Wikimedia UK supporters had not been significantly affected. It was agreed that it would be better in the future if news like this was shared with the Board first, so that a common position could be agreed, and then promptly shared with supporters.
b. Legal
TH had obtained a rough estimate on how much it would cost to get legal advice. This ranged from £600 to £4,000 – going directly to a barrister would cost around £2,000 plus VAT (£2,300). It was discussed whether we should obtain advice before or after responding to HMRC. It was agreed that we would send the response on 18 th May and do what we can in the meantime to obtain advice – including approaching the Foundation for funding and applying to LawWorks.
c. Response to HMRC
AT has discussed the matter with the officer at HMRC who had decided the case. The officer explained that this decision does not fall within the formal appeals process as there was not direct tax implication to the decision. If we submitted a reclaim form and it was rejected we would then be able to make a formal appeal. HMRC also has powers to refer complex charity cases to the Commission and the officer agreed that if we replied to him he could refer the case to them.
TH has obtained a letter which a barrister friend has drafted setting out the legal arguments for why we think we are a charity. It was agreed to use this letter as a basis for a response, incorporating in addition details clarifying what the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia UK do, and the experience of icommons in getting charity recognition.
TH agreed to post the letter on the wiki and Board members will propose their amendments on that page fro discussion between now and 18 th .
ACTION: TH; All
would it be possible to slightly adjust your "bylaws" and add education as most other wikimedia chapters do?
rupert.