Germans are great. Especially when they do nice things.

A lot of German people contribute to open-source projects in their spare time – unpaid, often for years. And yet, under Germany’s tax law, this work is not recognized as volunteer work (Ehrenamt) – unlike club work, youth work, or emergency services.

A petition to the German Bundestag’s petitions committee is calling for equal treatment.

Concretely, this would mean:

🔴 Tax-free expense allowances (Ehrenamts-/Übungsleiterpauschale)

⚪ Easier non-profit status (§52 AO) for open-source projects

🟢 Better liability protection for open source maintainers (analogous to §31a BGB)

🔵 Legally secure donation receipts and cost reimbursement

This would be a huge boost to the open source community.

Petition: https://www.openpetition.de/petition/online/anerkennung-von-open-source-arbeit-als-ehrenamt-in-deutschland

Please sign it. It only takes 2 minutes.

If you’re not in Germany, sharing it with people who are would still help a lot.

Thank you 🙏