Hello,
with this message, I’d like to inform the board and the community that we will soon start the formal vote for approval of the reserve building and 2025 budget.
The financial report must accurately report all accounting-relevant items and numbers, list profits and losses, and contains our closing ledger and the reserve building. It will be sent to the foundation authorities and the tax office. It will be made public on our website, alongside an English translated version. The financial report will be prepared and verified by our tax advisor based on their accounting.
The filing as prepared by our tax consultant has been shared now with the board (Nextcloud folder TDF Board → Budget 2025). The essence of the budget has been discussed and agreed before ([DECISION] 2025 budget), and is being executed. What happens now is the approval of the formal documents to be filed with the foundation authorities, the tax office and the auditor.
In total, four files are relevant for the budget:
- Our internal budget spreadsheet, as it was prepared, discussed and voted. This is the document that, in a redacted form, will also be made public.
- the 2024 annual closing ledger (“Kontennachweis zur Vermögensübersicht”, “Kontennachweis zur Überschussrechnung”)
- the reserve building (“Mittelverwendungsrechnung”, “Entwicklung der Rücklagen”)
- the accounting ledgers
To fully review the closing, I can provide access to the account statements, cashbox journals, PayPal and Stripe balance sheets, 2023 closing ledger (to compare numbers) and other data, just let me know.
I’ve also created non-binding DeepL translations for the board’s convenience for the 2024 annual closing ledger and the reserve building. The internal budget spreadsheet is bilingual already, and I did not translate the accounting ledgers, due to privacy concerns and as the line items are unlikely to be translatable.
The vote will be similar to what was done last year:
- approval of the reserve building and 2025 budget, in their binding German version
- authorize Florian to sign and send in the documents to the foundation authorities, the auditor, the accountant and the tax office, on behalf of the board
- authorize the tax advisor to file all of the above with the Berlin tax office, on behalf of TDF
- authorizes Florian to communicate this vote result, in case it is approved, to the tax advisor
When the vote is done, I will also prepare a German summary of this vote that has to be filed to Berlin.
I am still in the process of reviewing all the documents and am about halfway done, what is missing still is a review of the individual project creation, dissolving and the respective sums. For the board to familiarize themselves with the documents again, I’ll send this information already now.
When I am finished, I’ll report back here again, so we can eventually start the vote. When the vote starts, it will run for the usual 72h. I plan to start the vote in the next 1-2 weeks.
Florian