A new legal framework for OuiShare
Flore Berlingen
Public
Seen by 19
Dear all,
This is to be discussed during the Summit, but since it is a bit technical, I would like to raise the topic here first :)
As you may now, OuiShare is a French registered Non-Profit (Association loi 1901), and currently has 2 sectors :
- one commercial (for activities that rely on sponsoring and ticketing revenues) => for this one we pay VAT and other taxes based on profits
- one non-commercial (for all the rest, especially community activities and projects like POC21 or OuiKit, that get public funding) => for this one we do not pay any taxes.
The condition for having 2 sectors is that the non-commercial sector should remain the main thing.
This can not work anymore, because we simply raise too much money through our commercial activities.
Also, this situation does not allow us to provide tax-deduction receipts for individuals as well as businesses (mécénat).
==> our proposal is to change that in 2016. But we need to anticipate of course :)
What we suggest is:
Creating a commercial entity, distinct from OuiShare Non-Profit, that would carry the Fest, and other sponsored/paying events. The brand would be used by this commercial entity through a license.
Keeping in OuiShare only the activities that are considered as "non-profit" and thus, can lead to tax-deduction receipts etc. --> and shift the global partnerships (Maif, SNCF) from sponsoring (what they currently are, fiscally speaking) to mécénat (tax-deductible patronage).
If we all agree on this scheme, we will need to answer 2 other questions:
1) What would the commercial entity be like? (who runs it? Who owns it? business or non-profit status? etc...)
2) What would be the relationship between the commercial entity (+ the potential others, such as the consulting arm cf. other loomio discussion) and the OuiShare Non-Profit entity?
Please share your thoughts :))
Flore, Julie, Francesca, Benjamin, Antonin, Edwin
Maud Tue 30 Jun 2015 9:32AM
Hello all, I guess we need to go back on this conversation as we couldn't go further on it during the summit. Did you already work on the different possible scenario or do we need to elaborate them together? Personaly I think the commercial entity should still reflect OuiShare Values, so I would rather go to something non-profit as far as I'm concerned.
Poll Created Wed 1 Jul 2015 10:57AM
Take out all commercial activities (incl. Fest) from OuiShare Non-Profit in 2016 Closed Wed 8 Jul 2015 9:07PM
In order to be able to provide tax-deduction receipts for donations (either from individuals or businesses, such as the Global Partners), we propose to take out all the so-called "Commercial activities" (including all events that get sponsoring or ticketing money) from the OuiShare Non-Profit.
Important: the main implication of this decision is delegating the organization (or at least the production) of the Fest to another entity (either an existing or new business or non-profit).
Results
| Results | Option | % of points | Voters | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Agree | 100.0% | 18 |
|
| Abstain | 0.0% | 0 | ||
| Disagree | 0.0% | 0 | ||
| Block | 0.0% | 0 | ||
| Undecided | 0% | 62 |
|
18 of 80 people have participated (22%)
Benjamin Tincq
Thu 2 Jul 2015 5:48AM
I think it's the only possible way to move forward in order to be able to provide tax deductions again. We can decide what is the structure of the event company managing the Fest in a second time / another Loomio discussion
Maud
Thu 2 Jul 2015 7:51AM
Ok with splitting the activities and having the discussion of the kind of commercial structure (and the question of its ownership, governance etc.) in a different loomio post
Albert Cañigueral
Fri 3 Jul 2015 2:34PM
Ideally also check if the same issues apply to non-french orgs (Spain, Germany, Italy, etc.)
Simone Cicero
Sat 4 Jul 2015 2:00PM
I explained in a comment.
=)
Myriam Bouré
Tue 7 Jul 2015 9:57AM
Thank you Flore :-) I understand that this option has been investigated, so I guess taking out the commercial activities is the only thing to do. Then of course we will have to discuss the form of incorporation and by-laws of the new entity.
Albert Cañigueral · Thu 25 Jun 2015 7:20AM
In Spain we have a non-profit and I don't think we have the same type of limitations at the moment. In any case I would say that the ideal is to have local non-profits + 1 global (EU wide at least) commercial activities branch.
Having local structures is needed in order to be eligible for some stuff (public administration related mainly) yet it is a pain in the ass to keep it and to be up to date with taxes, etc.