The Future of Libjpeg-Turbo(groups.google.com) |
The Future of Libjpeg-Turbo(groups.google.com) |
I no longer work for the company that would have used it, but I'd gently suggest that it would not be a good idea to let it die.
It's a shame he can't find support for this, because his projects truly are worth the effort for the niche they fill :(
Specifically, this part:
What is the difference between sponsoring and registering?
It has a different name. Use the term "registration"
if your boss doesn't like "sponsoring" or "donation".
The benefits are the same.
This is based on https://github.com/mozilla/mozjpeg, which is a patched version of https://github.com/libjpeg-turbo/libjpeg-turbo
patio11's comment is about donating vs. paying by a business entity. Something I hadn't considered is that a business (even if it's just a one-person developer who has incorporated) can pay for software tax-free to any org as long as it's an actual business expense, since businesses (at least in the US, and I assume in Japan as well) are taxed on their profits, not on their gross income.
Patrick's issue with donating as a business makes sense: the tax authorities will look at a donation and think it's a part of a tax-avoidance scheme, but if the business pays for a license to software (even the payment is essentially a part of a custom license, and the software is also available for free under the same or similar terms), and has that payment documented, it's fine.
This would be illegal in many countries. The business must behave in its best interests. If software is available for free, yet they choose to pay for it, they aren't acting in their own best interests in the eyes of the law....
Additionally, the email talks about funding in hours of development work, but doesn't mention what each hour costs... would be helpful information to have in order to size a donation.
https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2017/04/10/mozilla-awards-3650...
That said, given Mozilla's current financial troubles, it seems pretty unlikely they'd be in a position to hire.
This is libjpeg-turbo needing funding, the current title is clickbaity
I've seen a number of similar postings here, with similar titles.
I agree that it doesn't necessarily convey the stated goal of the posting, but I wouldn't call it "clickbaity."
I think that if the title actually mentioned the need for funding, it would get more relevant eyeballs.
I would prefer to buy a new car from a "tax exempt org" to maximise the "effectiveness to myself" of my purchase.. That's just not the way the world works though. libjpeg-turbo isn't developed by a tax exempt org, and nothing that _is_ developed by a tax exempt or is a practical replacement for it.
If you want lib-jpeg to survive/thrive, donating to The EFF or The Red Cross isn't going to help, no matter what your personal preference for donating is.
(You don't have to agree with the assumption that a single-developer open source software library should provide income to keep the developer's bills/rent paid. But you do not get to make demands about how that dev structures his personal finances either. If he says "no more work unless more money comes in", you can choose to send him some money to help, or to allow him to freeze/abandon the development. Arguing about his tax exempt status is just being dishonest about you choosing to not send him money. Not funding it is fine. Don't hide behind some meaningless 'effective "cost" to myself' excuse for not doing so. Not unless you're prepared to set up a tax exempt foundation and guarantee him a salary from it...)
> I would prefer to buy a new car from a "tax exempt org"
What does donating to an organization have to do with buying a car? (Hint: nothing, and you're arguing in bad faith.)
> But you do not get to make demands about how that dev structures his personal finances either.
Nowhere did I do that. All I'm saying is that I'd prefer to donate to projects backed by a tax-exempt org. If the developer can't/won't do that, that's their choice, as it is my choice to decide where my donation ollars go, based on whatever criteria I decide.
So Open Collective has another fiscal host for charities and those donations are tax deductible, and I'm now trying to figure out what the difference really is as I'd like to set up my own charitable organization to fund a farming robot I am developing.
Anyway I could almost just say Libjpeg-turbo could set up an opencollective as their whole mission is to solve the paperwork problem for open source projects, but for whatever reason their open source software donations aren't actually tax deductible...
Does anyone here know about this IRS issue?
This is correct AFAIK and Mozilla ran into the same thing years ago. Educational charities can be tax-exempt so you have to have an educational mission and develop software on the side. https://blogs.gnome.org/jnelson/2014/06/30/the-new-501c3-and...
Is there any sort of general purpose tax exempt org for funding free/open-source software development? Someone makes a tax-exempt donation to that org, earmarked for a particular project, the org forwards the donation to that project as a grant (minus a deduction for admin costs/etc). Then on-boarding a new project would mean just getting that project approved as a grant recipient with that org, which presumably would be a simpler process than setting up a tax-exempt org from scratch.
Note: tax-exempt status has become harder to obtain in recent years for open source projects.
Is that true? According to for example [0], a donation earmarked for a particular individual is not tax-deductible, but a donation earmarked for a particular purpose can be. I think a donation earmarked to an open source project sounds more like the second than the first – they are free to give the money to any developer they wish, so long as that developer is going to use that money to work on the earmarked project.
[0] https://charitylawyerblog.com/2015/07/02/donations-benefitin...