On May 6, 11:35 pm, Andrew Turvey <andrewrtur...(a)googlemail.com>
wrote:
2. 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.