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by lokar 1502 days ago
I could imagine:

"In order to raise money to protect free software we have to transfer this one license to Oracle"

1 comments

yes, that might be a danger given the context. agree. I would like an opinion about transfer of assets from 501(c)x to a (edit) for-profit corporation though.. some of these statements are just not true in the articles of non-profit taxation, last I looked into it.
> I would like an opinion about transfer of assets from 501(c)x to a corporation though

Most 501c entities are corporations.

You probably mean “to a business entity that is not itself a 501c”, but generally a 501c is free to sell assets to other entities without regard to form or (absence of) nonprofit status, though there are other restrictions that might come into play.

people here do not understand that a for-profit company seeks to avoid or minimize tax, and that simple flipping of (appreciating) assets from a non-profit and back could be used extensively to avoid tax ? and that the IRS specifically precludes that, in the articles of non-profit incorporation? not "selling t-shirts or anything else in line with the mission" but held assets? there is some term I am missing, and I think Commonwealth countries are also taking turns here.. there is too much distance in the points of view .. there have to be some assumptions unsaid
You're the one confused here. You're making a standard programmer bug of reading IRS pages like computer code.

If you'd like an example of a sale, look at the sale of edX to 2U. A for-profit got:

- Courses from partner universities, developed believing they were contributing to a non-profit

- Data from millions of students, who believed they were entrusting it to MIT and Harvard

Foundations, individuals, etc. who had supported edX financially found their donations commercialized too.

MIT/Harvard got $800M. MIT decision-makers got cushy jobs at 2U.

> look at the sale of edX to 2U

yes, that would be interesting to see the details, like the specific tax+governance documents for whatever specifically got those assets from the non-profit, as you point out. IANL