Matrix.org Foundation accounts filing overdue by three months

https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/issues/2378#issuecomment-766714945

by alohapersona • 5 years ago

68 34 5 years ago

The delay can result in a penalty of ~1000 USD, which probably would be paid with user donations as this is the main source of income for Matrix.org Foundation.

followthesmell2• 5 years ago

All charities will waste some of its donations. It's not ideal, but it's not unusual.

Let's not blow this out of proportion.

geofft2• 5 years ago

I would possibly argue it is ideal, even. The other two obvious alternatives is that the charity pays someone to deal with paperwork (which we wouldn't call "waste," but means even less of donations go towards the mission), or disorganized people just don't start charities and find for-profit jobs.

If you want a vibrant charitable ecosystem, letting people be imperfect about how they run their charities is a good thing.

johnchristopher2• 5 years ago

Are donations bringing in more money than Matrix's contract with gov. agencies and other clients ?

alohapersona5• 5 years ago

Contracts with govs involve the for-profit New Vector Ltd. / Element and not the not-for-profit Matrix.org Foundation.

throwaway2245• 5 years ago

It's possible that these are not overdue: there is (at least) a three month coronavirus extension available

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/companies-to-receive-3-mo...

alohapersona5• 5 years ago

Normally, when the deadline is extended, this is correctly reported on the Companies House website.

One has to apply for deadline extension before the deadline. Between 25 March 2020 and 25 June 2020, every application that mentions COVID-19 as a reason was accepted. Additionally, all companies with accounts due date between 26 March 2020 and 29 September 2020 automatically got an extension under the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill.

There are also all kinds of temporary changes to deadlines, the one that applies here is 1.4 from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-companies-etc... under which is exactly the 29 October 2020 listed on Companies House website.

secfirstmd• 5 years ago

This is a nothing burger.

dsr_• 5 years ago

This is the sort of thing that happens to most non-profits early in their lifetime. Procedures need to be set up and people need to understand what they need to do.

alohapersona5• 5 years ago

What bothers me most is that Matthew mentioned in that issue that they did the accounts on Oct 29 (perfectly in time for the deadline) and that they plan to publish them. Yet apparently they did neither file them officially nor publish them by now...

followthesmell2• 5 years ago

Sometimes things slip in organisations.

The bigger issue is that Matrix is not world leading.

Let Matthew decide priority on how to achieve that. Dealing with this post would be a distraction.

jcims2• 5 years ago

No shade here, just curious. You(?) created this issue for the 2019 financials and are circling back around for 2020. Is this something you do for other orgs/projects or is there something about matrix.org where you feel it is particularly important?

eznzt• 5 years ago

I am not going to jump to any conclusions until 'Arathorn posts here a 10-paragraph long comment explaining how this is expected and even good for Matrix.

Arathorn5• 5 years ago

Hi folks - we submitted The Matrix.org Foundation accounts via our accountants to UK Companies House several months ago. It's unclear why they're not showing on record; we initially understood it to be due to Covid delays, but we're now chasing the accountants to out find the specifics. If there turn out to be any fines due to late filing, these would not come out of donations, but whoever's fault it actually is for the delay (i.e. the accountants).

Sorry for the drama, but this is not reason for panic.

(Separately we need to publish a summary of the accounts for https://matrix.org/foundation, which we are indeed running late on: it's been hard to prioritise it when we're on fire trying to improve Matrix's mass-market usability, given stuff like https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25812536).

Arathorn5• 5 years ago

I've updated the Github issue with the last update from our accountants on this, after we already chased them in November: https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/issues/2378#issueco...

eganist4• 5 years ago

You're under a bright enough limelight as of late, and especially right now, that the administrative overcharge of a reputable accounting firm such as any of the Big 4 may be worth the returns in the form of improved accountability - heh - and donations.

It'd be nice if you could commit to this. If your accountants are lagging by almost 3 months without filing an extension, you owe it to your donors. Blaming the accountants is fine, but in the end, you picked them, and you chose to stay with them.

(The value in the overcharge is really just that you've got a big bullseye you can throw darts at when accountability is required. This doesn't resonate with most entrepreneurs e.g. here on HN - as the greyed out comment alludes :) - but it does with more established firms largely for this reason.)

fartcannon• 5 years ago

Man, ignore that guys ridiculous comment. If you fix that, he'll just find something else to whine about. It's like all the people bemoaning desktop Linux, when things like KDE have been providing (in my opinion) the best overall desktop experience for more than a decade.

I chose Matrix/Riot years ago over the other options for two reasons: 1) I could host my own if I wanted, and 2) It didn't require any identifying information like telephones.

Element's already great.

rschulman• 5 years ago

I am one of the other Guardians (aka Members of the Board of Directors) of the Matrix Foundation and I can confirm that we submitted the paperwork on time in October 2020. I remember because I had to go to some extra lengths for the process as a non-UK citizen.

I'm not surprised that Companies House is lagging behind right now. Basically everything is broken because of Covid, I can't imagine non-profit paperwork is at the top of the priority list. I will also say, as someone who has worked most of my professional life in non-profits, government paperwork is the bane of everyone's existence and having some sort of screw up (whether it is your fault or not) is practically a rite of passage.

As Arathorn mentioned in a sibling, we're chasing down our accountants to see if we can get this sorted out, but this isn't a sign of any larger trouble than a paperwork mixup.

Matrix.org Foundation accounts filing overdue by three months

Related Stories