[Free-sklyarov-uk] Corrupt CD's - Time for another protest/leafletingsession?

[Telsa Gwynne]

On Thu, Dec 06, 2001 at 09:59:34AM +0000 or thereabouts, Anton Chterenlikht wrote:
> Julian T J Midgley wrote:
> > On Thu, 6 Dec 2001, Anton Chterenlikht wrote:
> > >
> > > What is a legal status of FIPR or EFF? Maybe we can formulate CDR
> > > similar to EFF.
> > 
> > FIPR is a limited company currently in the process of applying for
> > charitable status.  Since it is quite strictly not a campaigning/lobbying
> > organisation, it can reasonably operate as a charity.
> 
> What exactly are the benefits of being a charity? Is it only a matter of
> taxes? If all we want (imagine) is a legal system for people to donate,
> maybe we can have a different status. I'm totally ignorant about this
> issue, but it seems very important.

Nod. Benefits involve tax benefits and the fact that both people
and companies are reassured by "registered charity number xxxxx"
and sometimes will fork over more money to a registered charity.

One thing that being a charity involves is an awful lot of accounts
and records-keeping. You have to have someone very good at that, or
pay someone to do it, since the Charity Commissioners can, as I 
recall, just turn up unannounced and check no-one put the money 
towards a winter holiday in the Bahamas or something.

I remember being part of at least one fund-raising organisation 
which looked at charitable status and decided it simply wasn't 
worth the effort.

There are lots of leaflets at http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/
of which these look useful:

CC2: Charities and the Charity Commission
CC8: Internal financial controls for charities
CC9: Political activities and campaigning by charities 
CC21: Registering as a charity

I suspect the most relevant is the third one, which says
(taken verbatim from it): "The law is clear that charities 
must not have political objects."

Which is probably the end of that idea :)

Telsa