Would it still be completely legal if there was a more automatic and markety way of organizing this, such as certificates of impact? At what point does a system of exchange become too much like money and hence taxable?
I’m curious about the legality as well. Scaling up something like this as an online platform could have huge value, but I would also guess that governments wouldn’t like it. Maybe this is why such a service doesn’t appear to exist yet.
I’ve spoken to TIDES Canada about this at length, and they assured me that it’s definitely legal. TIDES is a large organisation, so this is good evidence. I’ve also taken a more cursory look at tax law and it didn’t appear to violate this. This makes sense when you think about it: donors are just donating to charities in their countries (which is perfectly legal), and coordinating doing this amongst themselves (discussion and coordination generally being legal except in a few explicitly carved out circumstances).
Would it still be completely legal if there was a more automatic and markety way of organizing this, such as certificates of impact? At what point does a system of exchange become too much like money and hence taxable?
I’m curious about the legality as well. Scaling up something like this as an online platform could have huge value, but I would also guess that governments wouldn’t like it. Maybe this is why such a service doesn’t appear to exist yet.
I’ve spoken to TIDES Canada about this at length, and they assured me that it’s definitely legal. TIDES is a large organisation, so this is good evidence. I’ve also taken a more cursory look at tax law and it didn’t appear to violate this. This makes sense when you think about it: donors are just donating to charities in their countries (which is perfectly legal), and coordinating doing this amongst themselves (discussion and coordination generally being legal except in a few explicitly carved out circumstances).