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Somebody in the IRS must think that open source software is even icikier than the Tea Party. During the same period Tea Party applications appeared on BOLO lists and were held up interminably, the same thing was happening with applications from organizations developing open source software. Previously applications by open source organizations had sailed through. One of the better known open source organizations is The Linux Foundation which is exempt under 501(c)(6) like the NFL.

Many of the Tea Party applications ended up being approved, including that of the flagship Tea Party Patriots Inc, but the open source groups have not been having such luck. Another denial just came out in Private Letter Ruling 201507025. Private letter rulings are redacted, but one of my sources indicated that the group involved was the LEAP Encryption Access Project. LEAP Director Elijah Sparrow confirmed that the ruling related to LEAP.

What Is Open Source Software?

Ill have to do something of an idiots guide type of answer, with me being the idiot. Open source software isnt just free software, that you can use without paying anything. A million years ago when I learned about computer programming we would type instructions onto eighty column cards which we would hand to one of the great machines minions who would feed the cards into a card reader to compile the program we had written. Then they could feed in our data cards which would allow for output in the form of a printed reported. It was truly extraordinary when it worked the way it was supposed to.

Heres the thing, as best I can understand it, if somebody were to print out the compiled program, he would not be able to figure out what the program was supposed to be doing unless he was as smart as Grace Hooper. If you wanted to change the program, you needed to know what I had typed on the cards and then you could add, subtract or substitute some other cards and recompile the program. My cards were the source code.

So when a program is open source you not only get to use the working program, you also have the information that allows you to see how and why it works and you are able to make modifications which you can distribute. Open Source Initiative (a 501(c)(3)) organization) has a more detailed definition.

To the extent that I was at all aware of the open source concept, it struck me as something that would enchant hyper geeks who probably shouldnt be allowed anywhere near systems that I had to rely on to get work done. You have to understand that I am 63 years old and witnessed the computerization of my field of work. I had one of these visionary moments around 1983 as I was schlepping a 25 pound Kaypro around and I told one of my fellow senior accountants that in a few years there would be a machine like that on everybodys desk. He mocked me. The transformation of accounting was a painful process and for about fifteen years or so, the people responsible for making the machines work could be rather frustrating to deal with. They sometimes reminded me of the kids in gas stations who did not grasp that they had a job because of people like me who are not inclined to change their own oil.

At any rate, I knew that my hit on open source was probably wildly inaccurate. I asked software developer turned attorney Aaron Williamson, for an example of some open source software that I might have heard of. One example jumped up and smacked me on the side of the head WordPressThere is a WordPress Foundation 501(c)(3). Of course, this very tax blog is done on WordPress. So I have been relying on open source software for nearly four years.

The IRS And Open Source

I think it was worth getting into my mistaken impression of the open source movement, because it happens that I have the same basic education as an IRS agent. It requires a bachelors degree with 30 hours in accounting. On top of that their frustrations with computers are probably a lot worse than mine. I think that they have gone down the wrong path on evaluating open source not for profit applications because of a culture difference that is even wider than that between people working in the federal bureaucracy and the Tea Party. There is a big story there, which I have started working on, but for now I will just discuss the most recent written refusal to grant exempt status.

Read the original here:
IRS Grossly Unqualified To Make Determinations About Software Related Exempt Applications