The issue which was raised was the reputation of the charity, not the cost
of the vouchers.
Bear in mind that WMF received £2M from Google in 2010 which falls within
the period covered by the Public Accounts Committee report on Google
published this summer:
http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/…
The companys highly contrived tax arrangement has no purpose other than
to enable the company to avoid UK corporation tax.
Googles reputation has been damaged by these revelations of aggressive
tax avoidance. That damage will not be repaired until the company arranges
to pay its fair share of tax in the country where it earns the profits
from the business it conducts."
So, the Wikimedia movement in general, through this donation to the WMF
can be seen as benefiting from Tax Avoidance.
Whilst I do not think WMUK's reputation is necessarily damaged by this
historic situation, I do feel that it would be helpful if staff, trustees
and members all had a certain sensitivity to this issue, as this still
remains a matter for public concern.
all the best
Fabian
User:Leutha
Date: Sun, 1 Dec 2013 03:01:07 +0000
From: Michael Maggs <Michael(a)maggs.name>
To: UK Wikimedia mailing list <wikimediauk-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Subject: Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Amazon Tax avoidance
Message-ID: <D7C05583-4632-4A3B-A144-21804C9F2209(a)maggs.name>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
On 30 Nov 2013, at 22:01, Charles Matthews
<charles.r.matthews(a)ntlworld.com> wrote:
Actually, I despair of the entire thread. There is all of £20 at stake
here. There is every reason to economise on staff time, on this scale.
The waste of volunteer time and good will that has been generated is
unconscionable. The object of the exercise has been completely
forgotten. The objects of the charity hardly enter.
Charles
Absolutely. After 43 emails all we have learned that the mailing list is
not a remotely efficient way of deciding how the charity should spend
£20. The staff have plenty to go on, and they should be perfectly able
to move ahead now without need for any further commentary.
I suggest that this thread should be treated as closed. Thank you for your
comments everybody.
Michael
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