[steering] evolt banking - we may have a solution. Approval needed.

[Martin Burns]

If you recall, one of the problems we've had getting an evolt bank 
account is that accounts in the US seem to be one of:

1) Personal (the individual in question gets hit for taxes and it all 
gets mixed up)
2) Business (need a real business which is a pain)
3) Formal non-profit org (also a pain)

However, we think we've got a solution.

There is (apparently) a 4th type of account, designed for 
unincorporated clubs - like Scout troops, PTAs and kids' baseball teams 
- to keep their cash in. It's also used for local chapters of national 
organisations. This is *exactly* what we need.

Now, these accounts do require an individual (typically a treasurer) to 
be the main account holder, and for that person to have a US tax ID. We 
already have this situation with Marlene using her personal account, so 
we're no worse off on that score.

These accounts can also have non-US officers/co-signers (see below for 
'The Tax Bit')

The best bit is that we can get cheques and visa debit cards on the 
account, so paying stuff either by cheque or PayPal will be just fine.

THE TAX BIT
~~~~~~~~~~
To get this, evolt.org would need a tax ID (EIN) to create a 
tax-reporting entity, so that if, in the future, we earn taxable money, 
the IRS knows that evolt.org exists and with evolt, not whoever's the 
officer(s) named on the account. However,  all we have to do is fill in 
one form and call the IRS' 800 number to get issued with one.

Similarly, any non-US officers named on the account will also need to 
be issued with a Tax ID (nb not the same thing as being a US tax-payer 
- this is just a "so the IRS knows about you and doesn't think evolt's 
laundering money" ID).

WE NEED THIS BECAUSE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
a) it makes a clear separation between evolt's money and that of the 
treasurer
b) it lets us pay in cheques made payable to evolt.org (we have about 
$500 waiting)
c) it lets us pay for things as evolt.org, not as an individual (who 
claims it back) on behalf of evolt

YOUR APPROVAL PLEASE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Finance's proposal is that we go ahead and get one of these to run as 
evolt's main bank account, with the following people as named 
officers/co-signers:
a) Marlene
b) Elfur
c) Dave Kaufman

Marlene and Elfur should be obvious. Dave because he did *all* the work 
finding all the above, plus he's proven trustworthy with the cafepress 
money and work. Dave also gave the following statement (wthout 
prompting which impressed the hell out of me):
> So, in the spirit of full disclosure, you're all more than welcome to
> peruse my resume (see first deprecated sig, below) and even harass
> my current and former clients and employers that i've been giving as
> references, at or about here: http://clicksql.com/dk/references.txt
...
> $migrant{Web}->Worker(
>     Resume_HTML => q{ http://clicksql.com/dk/resume.html },
>     Resume_Text => q{ http://clicksql.com/dk/resume.txt  },
> );

If you want to play along at home, following the detail, it's all in 
the Finance archive, starting:
http://lists.evolt.org/financearchive/2003-August/000262.html

As this is about money, can we please do this formally and get +/-1 
votes? Votes by noon UK time on Friday, please.

Cheers
Martin
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