tax receipts for sponsorships

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Would you contribute more to open-source if GitHub offered tax receipts for sponsorships?

[melau-eddy]

Hey there!

Great question! Tax receipts for sponsorships could definitely make a difference in how people support open-source. Here’s my take in a nutshell:

Why It Might Help
For Companies & Big Sponsors: Tax benefits could make it easier to justify funding OSS, especially if treated like charitable donations or R&D expenses.

For Maintainers: More structured financial support could help sustain critical projects.

For GitHub: It’d align with their goal of supporting open-source sustainability.

But There Are Hurdles
Legal Stuff: Tax rules vary globally—GitHub would need to navigate compliance (like 501(c)(3) in the U.S.).

Who’s Eligible? Would every repo qualify, or only nonprofits?

Extra Work: Issuing receipts at scale might mean fees or bureaucracy.

My Personal View
As a contributor, I’d love anything that helps open-source thrive! But I suspect this would matter most for larger sponsors rather than individual devs. A simpler start might be GitHub partnering with fiscal sponsors (like Open Collective) to handle the paperwork.

What about you? Would tax receipts make you more likely to sponsor projects?