Re: [Inpycon] Receiving funds from foreign sponsors
On Mon, 2011-03-14 at 18:05 +0530, Ramdas S wrote:
X is IPSS, Y is an Indian company, Z is foreign sponsor. Please note that I'm suggesting is 100% legal, to my best of knowledge. Y is facilitating a foreign collaborator to sponsor an Indian event, and for which Y will pay service tax, and since the service does not belong to any of the illegal services, and is accounted for, I do not see any issues.
it is violating the law in spirit if not in the letter. -- regards Kenneth Gonsalves http://lawgon.livejournal.com/
On Tue, Mar 15, 2011 at 01:46, Kenneth Gonsalves <lawgon@gmail.com> wrote:
On Mon, 2011-03-14 at 18:05 +0530, Ramdas S wrote:
X is IPSS, Y is an Indian company, Z is foreign sponsor. Please note that I'm suggesting is 100% legal, to my best of knowledge. Y is facilitating a foreign collaborator to sponsor an Indian event, and for which Y will pay service tax, and since the service does not belong to any of the illegal services, and is accounted for, I do not see any issues.
it is violating the law in spirit if not in the letter.
Agree, it does not sound legit when X routes funds through Y -- Extremely sticky ground for a non-profit org to be in. Isnt it easier if the guest speakers were paid in their own currency for travel/lodging and would not have to depend on IPSS or Indian companies to help with the event sponsorship. It seems to unnecessarily complicate matters. On a tangent, some mails seem to be missing -- only hit the list when Kenneth replies to them. Are they private mails hitting the list or was it meant for the list -- which means my email is borked (doubtful). A few weeks ago the list settings had been changed and I hope people note this before hitting on the reply button. -- vid ॥ http://svaksha.com ॥
On Mon, Mar 14 2011, ॥ स्वक्ष ॥ wrote: [...]
Agree, it does not sound legit when X routes funds through Y -- Extremely sticky ground for a non-profit org to be in. Isnt it easier if the guest speakers were paid in their own currency for travel/lodging and would not have to depend on IPSS or Indian companies to help with the event sponsorship. It seems to unnecessarily complicate matters.
[...] That would be nice but we'd sort of shift the responsibility of paying for the invited speakers to the sponsors and semi-wash our hands of it which might lead to complications later. --
On Tue, 2011-03-15 at 07:42 -0700, Noufal Ibrahim wrote:
companies to help with the event sponsorship. It seems to unnecessarily complicate matters.
[...]
That would be nice but we'd sort of shift the responsibility of paying for the invited speakers to the sponsors and semi-wash our hands of it which might lead to complications later.
the only thing we really need sponsorship for is in paying for the invited speakers. As for the rest, cash on hand with us is enough to pay for it assuming that we do not get local sponsors (and we are sure to get at least a few). -- regards Kenneth Gonsalves http://lawgon.livejournal.com/
On Tue, Mar 15 2011, Kenneth Gonsalves wrote: [...]
the only thing we really need sponsorship for is in paying for the invited speakers. As for the rest, cash on hand with us is enough to pay for it assuming that we do not get local sponsors (and we are sure to get at least a few).
Good point. --
On Tue, Mar 15, 2011 at 14:42, Noufal Ibrahim <noufal@gmail.com> wrote:
That would be nice but we'd sort of shift the responsibility of paying for the invited speakers to the sponsors and semi-wash our hands of it which might lead to complications later.
True that. Anyway, I asked and apparently a non-profit can open a separate bank account and maintain it ONLY for donations from foreign sponsors** with proper books of account. I'm not sure if this requires 80G status (or other formalities) so you may want to cross-check this with the bank/CA. ** I'm assuming its similar to the NRI accounts that individuals are allowed to open in Indian banks. -- vid ॥ http://svaksha.com ॥
On 16 March 2011 13:18, ॥ स्वक्ष ॥ <vid@svaksha.com> wrote:
True that. Anyway, I asked and apparently a non-profit can open a separate bank account and maintain it ONLY for donations from foreign sponsors** with proper books of account. I'm not sure if this requires 80G status (or other formalities) so you may want to cross-check this with the bank/CA.
This is true and mandatory. But can be done only after FCRA clearance or prior permission is received. - sree -- Sreekanth S Rameshaiah Executive Director Mahiti Infotech Pvt. Ltd. "OpenSpace", #583, Vyalikaval HBCS Layout, Nagawara, Veerannapalya, Bangalore, India - 560043 Phone: +91 80 4343 7373 Mobile: +91 98455 12611 www.mahiti.org
On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 1:23 PM, Sreekanth S Rameshaiah <sree@mahiti.org>wrote:
On 16 March 2011 13:18, ॥ स्वक्ष ॥ <vid@svaksha.com> wrote:
True that. Anyway, I asked and apparently a non-profit can open a separate bank account and maintain it ONLY for donations from foreign sponsors** with proper books of account. I'm not sure if this requires 80G status (or other formalities) so you may want to cross-check this with the bank/CA.
This is true and mandatory. But can be done only after FCRA clearance or prior permission is received.
Prior permission (PP) looks like the way out this according to my understanding one time clearance from Ministry of home affairs ( FCRA dept) this is a good thing to have have , when we apply for FCRA certificate in long run. for FCRA application we will be needing Balance sheets of last three years . please add if all the papers like articles of association or anything else i am missing .... let me know the consensus i can start work for both PP and FCRA certification process. -Satya
On Thu, 2011-03-17 at 13:25 +0530, satyaakam goswami wrote:
This is true and mandatory. But can be done only after FCRA clearance or prior permission is received.
Prior permission (PP) looks like the way out this according to my understanding one time clearance from Ministry of home affairs ( FCRA dept)
this is a good thing to have have , when we apply for FCRA certificate in long run.
for FCRA application we will be needing Balance sheets of last three years . please add if all the papers like articles of association or anything else i am missing ....
let me know the consensus i can start work for both PP and FCRA certification process.
and what do you think we have been doing all this time? This was discussed in the last AGM and in the IPSS list - that is the place to discuss this. Please take it there. -- regards Kenneth Gonsalves http://lawgon.livejournal.com/
I spoke with an IAS officer dealing with FCR Act implementation about the possibility of getting foreign funds. (see below for the actual conversation). In his opinion it is too tedious and time consuming to get prior approval. I think it will more convenient to make the foreign sponsors pay the travel expenses of the speaker. Anand ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Venugopal <...> Date: 2011/3/15 Subject: Re: Received the amount To: narayana sarma <...> Cc: anandology@gmail.com Dear Narayana and Anand, It is not a simple process for getting 'prior permission' under FCR Act for this kind of activities. The documentation and time involved would be formidable. But anyway, if you want to make an attempt, you are welcome. The Act can be seen at http://mha.nic.in/fcra.htm The present rules are at http://mha.nic.in/pdfs/fcra-rules.pdf Very soon the new Act is going to be notified. The new Act passed by Parliament can be seen at http://mha.nic.in/pdfs/FC-RegulationAct-2010-C.pdf The new rules are going to be notified soon. If you have any comments on the new rules, please take the trouble of going through them and suggesting improvements, of course, with the rider that the Rules cannot be inconsistent with the Act. http://mha.nic.in/pdfs/FC_Reg_2011Notice-210211.pdf http://mha.nic.in/pdfs/Draft-FC-rules-2011.pdf And remeber Khalil Gibran when he wrote about why we have the intricate web of laws? They are all there to catch small fish! Venu
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On Sat, Mar 12, 2011 at 8:33 PM, Anand Chitipothu <anandology@gmail.com> wrote:
Narayana,
Greetings from PyCon Atlanta.
I need a small favor from you.
We are thinking of getting some foreign sponsorship for running PyCon India conference. The sponsorship money is managed by a society. Can you ask your brother and find out what is involved in doing so? How to get permission and what can go wrong etc.
Anand
participants (6)
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Anand Chitipothu -
Kenneth Gonsalves -
Noufal Ibrahim -
satyaakam goswami -
Sreekanth S Rameshaiah -
॥ स्वक्ष ॥