# [OmniOS-discuss] Legal next steps

Tobi Oetiker tobi at oetiker.ch
Tue May 16 14:19:40 UTC 2017

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    In switzerland, any three people
    can found an association by stating that they do so and creating a bylaws document. no fees. no official registration necessary. only if substantial money is handled or if there is profit, the association has to talk to the swiss irs.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_association

    I'll be glad to help :)

    cheers
    tobi

    Tobias Oetiker
    tobi at oetiker.ch
    062 775 9902

    > On 16 May 2017, at 15:47, Doug Hughes <doug at will.to> wrote:
    >
    > Having done this once before, if done in the USA, NJ and DE are somewhat preferred states for ease of such 501c3 incorporation. lowest fees, smallest hurdles, etc.
    >
    > If NJ.US is acceptable/chosen I'm very proximate to Trenton and could facilitate any in-person matters.
    >
    >> On 5/16/2017 9:22 AM, Theo Schlossnagle wrote:
    >> My experience here is limited to the United States for approaching these problems.  I don't mean to indicate that it is the right solution, but I can only speak of what I know.
    >>
    >> A legal entity must hold the assets. That can be a person, or a trust, or an corporation or a community*, etc.  Community here is defined in such a way by the IRS that I don't believe we would ever quality (and it's never worth arguing). Given the history of "things" I would steer away from an individual and I feel that given unknown nature of assets required to operate and our weak starting point that a trust is likely not self-sustaining.
    >>
    >> What I would suggest is us setting up an corporation here in the US, setting a purpose and a missions statement (that includes education and science as we do those and they are eligible for non-profit status), elect 5-7 board members (who will be legally responsible for the entity) come up with a small operating budget (< $10k USD) and apply for non-profit (501(3)c).  This process would take a few hundreds of dollars.
    >>
    >> Then we request that OmniTI donate the appropriate assets related to OmniOS.  This organization can take donations (from basically anywhere) and apply them to operational costs to forward its mission.  There is a chance that this organization could be denied non-profit status as the IRS is (sadly) a bit odd when it comes to approving that for initiatives for the public good if their around open source software.  I don't see that as a specific risk, it only means that donations made are not tax-deductible.
    >>
    >> The gating factors here is can we get 5-7 people willing to participate as legally responsible board members (I am             not a lawyer, but the risk is very lower here as there is very little money involved).
    >>
    >> Back to my first point, if there is a better avenue outside the United States for this, I would love to be educated about it.
    >>
    >> Best regards,
    >>
    >> Theo
    >>
    >> --
    >> Theo Schlossnagle
    >>
    >> http://omniti.com/is/theo-schlossnagle
    >>
    >>
    >>
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    >
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