New York bill proposes to offer tax credits to open source contributors

Over several years, the open source software community has given three distinct meanings to the term ‘free’. These are: Software that can be utilised or changed as per the user’s needs and wishes Software that is available at no cost Software that has no recurring costs However, the development of open source software does involve some costs. Many developers pay for extra hardware to test or host code, websites, etc. Currently, there is a bill under consideration with the New York Senate that offers to offset these costs, and is sponsored by Senator Daniel Squadron and co-sponsored by Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson.

The bill endeavours to offer a tax credit of 20 per cent of “expenses associated with the development of open source and free software” with an annual maximum limit of US$ 200. The bill is based on a report by the Centre for American Progress and is the first of its kind to be introduced to a state legislature. The bill aims at promoting innovation.

According to the GM of Open Source Initiative (OSI), Patrick Masson, the OSI offered guidance on factual matters relating to open source and free software. He said that the senators’ offices wished to ensure consistency in evaluation by government/state officials. This is in continuation to internationally recognised standards of the software industry, and to prevent ambiguity among projects that may call themselves open source but are not in compliance with the Open Source Definition.

There have been several variants of this bill which had been introduced previously and not been passed. Part of the challenge lies in getting a legislative body to understand technology issues.