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Title: Bitcoin as a tax exempt charity Post by: BenRayfield on June 25, 2011, 07:36:07 PM An organization which runs, uses, promotes, helps others learn, offers access to for no profit, and generally tries to advance Bitcoin, maybe could be classified as a tax exempt charity.
Its non-profit, is not classified as a business, has zero buildings, zero expenses since all computers and cpu time are donated by users (unless you want to count the electricity they're using, but you could also say that is their donation to the charity), has no resources. Not much laws apply. But if we wanted to be more official about it, could we get such a group of people classified as a tax-exempt charity? There has never been anything like a bank thats also a charity, but Bitcoin fits the description. Its creator doesn't profit from it any more than others do, except by people knowing he has programming skill. The central banks would certainly try to get Bitcoin shut down after it becomes popular enough, but how would people react to that if they were trying to shut down an official charity? All donations would go toward advancing Bitcoin so more people/organizations can get zero-profit banking-like services, like only the cost of running the computers and electricity, and none of the patent claims or other fees you normally find in banks. Just the service of adding and subtracting numbers, which is all money really is. Computers are good at numbers, and we don't see why people should be involved. Could Bitcoin be a tax exempt charity? Title: Re: Bitcoin as a tax exempt charity Post by: em3rgentOrdr on June 25, 2011, 11:13:10 PM be careful, the IRS has recently started cracking down on charities...
Title: Re: Bitcoin as a tax exempt charity Post by: BenRayfield on July 13, 2011, 02:04:04 AM So their next move would be to start burning down churches?
Title: Re: Bitcoin as a tax exempt charity Post by: myrkul on July 13, 2011, 02:27:59 AM So their next move would be to start burning down churches? Unless you plan on praying to the market, and even Rothbard wasn't that bad...Title: Re: Bitcoin as a tax exempt charity Post by: BenRayfield on July 13, 2011, 04:07:54 AM No, I'll leave the worship of money to the banks and their followers.
I didn't mean that this charity would have to accept money (but maybe?), just that its providing a service for free (adding and subtracting numbers), and some users of Bitcoin may find being associated with a legal charity (if one existed) to be a good legal defense if the rich and powerful elite try to destroy it. Title: Re: Bitcoin as a tax exempt charity Post by: em3rgentOrdr on July 13, 2011, 01:48:14 PM No, I'll leave the worship of money to the banks and their followers. I didn't mean that this charity would have to accept money (but maybe?), just that its providing a service for free (adding and subtracting numbers), and some users of Bitcoin may find being associated with a legal charity (if one existed) to be a good legal defense if the rich and powerful elite try to destroy it. Well there was an electronic civil liberties defense organisation EFF which used to accept bitcoin donations but stopped out of fear: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/06/eff-and-bitcoin (https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/06/eff-and-bitcoin) |