hello all,
creating a "verein" is quite simple in german. you need 7 people, have a meeting with all of them to start the foundation of a "verein". after that you write a "satzung" (the articles of the association), and decide who of the 7 do what. (board of directors, finance, ....). with that paper, signed by all seven people, you go to you local authorities. after a while they get back to you and tel you either that something needs to get changed to become a "e.V." (incorporated society), or that everything is ok. as soon as you get the state of a "e.V.", you can receive funds, which in turn are fully tax detuctible. i have bioleplate templates for the articles of a society. after that you just need regular meeting with all of the 7 "founders", but as practice has shown, its enough to just write up the papers and have everyone agree on that, and doing the meeting only once a year.
its important to be a "e.V." for the people who fand to fund that one, because only as e.V. it is tax-deductible. (that is, the one who gives a grant gets that money deduced from the tax). when we had our club in duesseldorf, we got some funds from foreign people too, and those demanded a "invoice" for that to have that tax think working, so my guess is that as an e.v. in germany, grants are always tax-deductible, even for foreign "granters".
since im a member of the ccc (chaos computer club) im going to ask there how that does work on a international basis, if there is interrest.
after all, setting up an "e.V." is one of the easiest things to do.... there is a reason for the old saying "when two grmans with the same interrest meet, they set up a association" ;-)
greets,
chris