[Foundation-l] [ANNOUNCEMENT] Greenspan illustration project

[Alison Wheeler]

On Sat, November 3, 2007 16:19, Thomas Dalton wrote:
> Hiring someone in another country means you are doing business in that
> country, and that business falls under that countries jurisdiction.
> Whether there are any jurisdictions that would require the WMF to do
> anything, I don't know, but I'm pretty sure it would be without the
> power of the government of that country.

Ignoring the subsequent thread of comments on this, a few points:

1. "Hiring someone"; that is unclear; the question is whether this is a
contract *of* hire or a contract *for* hire. In one you are getting the
person, in the other the result of their work, and in either case you can
structure it so that the finances happen where most advantageous to WMF
and the individual concerned.

2. "in another country means you are doing business in that country" is a
load of tosh; you are doing no such thing. You would only be "doing
business in that country" if you set up a legal entity in that other
country. The fact that you get someone somewhere to do a task and pay them
for it, and that multiple countries are involved, is immaterial and of no
effect.

3. The jurisdiction is, remains, and always shall be the jurisdiction
which applies to the *contract* between the parties, and would default to
that of the contracting party rather than that of the contracted party.
Ideally though the contract would set out the full details.

4. In every contract I've been a party to where different folk are in
different countries (negotiated from both sides, been on both sides) it is
all quite straightforward and if you work it all on a basis of a contract
for work then it is a purely business transaction with the recipient
responsible for their tax and the payee (WMF or Greenspan) paying a fixed
fee for a business service without any tax implications whatsoever.

5. btw. In the UK a tax audit will look at the last seven financial years
(an FY is April 6th to April 5th the next year, and is based on the
original first day of the year plus the 'missing' 12 days)

Alison