Petition: Open-source work should count as volunteer activity

Open-source developer Boris Hinzer has submitted a petition to the German Bundestag calling for voluntary work on open-source projects to be recognized as a public-benefit volunteer activity. Specifically, the aim is to achieve tax and subsidy law parity with traditional volunteer activities such as club work, youth support, or emergency services.

Currently, code contributions, documentation, bug fixes, or community management for open-source projects do not fall into the legal categories that the state considers when promoting voluntary engagement. Those who volunteer in sports clubs or at the fire department can benefit from regulations such as the volunteer allowance or the instructor allowance, but open-source developers cannot.

The German government's coalition agreement describes open-source software as an elementary building block for digital sovereignty; however, the work of thousands of volunteers who develop and maintain this software is not treated accordingly in legal terms. According to the petition, this leads to an imbalance between societal importance and a lack of recognition.

The petition's justification refers to the practical importance of open source for critical infrastructures: Internet protocols, security libraries, health IT, AI frameworks, or administrative software are often based on voluntary contributions. Security vulnerabilities such as Heartbleed or Log4Shell have shown how heavily the state, economy, and administration depend on the work of individual maintainers.

Tax relief and Legal Certainty

Legal recognition as a volunteer activity would have several practical consequences: expense allowances could be granted tax-free according to the volunteer allowance (840 euros annually) or the instructor allowance (3,000 euros annually). It would be easier for open-source projects to be classified as non-profit according to Section 52 of the Tax Code (Abgabenordnung), which facilitates donation receipts and grants.

In liability matters, developers could be better positioned, similar to board members of associations, according to Section 31a of the German Civil Code (BGB). Projects could reimburse costs legally without them being considered taxable income. The petition argues that this would create transparency, legal certainty, and sustainability in digital volunteer work.

International Funding Models as a Comparison

The petition points out that other countries already support open-source engagement through tax benefits, institutional funding, or recognition of non-profit software development. Germany risks falling behind in global competition if volunteer work in the digital space remains structurally disadvantaged.

The state invests billions in digitalization but ignores the people who voluntarily maintain the technological basis, the justification states. Recognition as a volunteer activity would be a cost-effective contribution to digital sovereignty, as volunteers perform work that companies would otherwise have to purchase at high hourly rates.

The petition is addressed to the Petitions Committee of the German Bundestag. Interested parties can sign the petition on the platform OpenPetition.

(fo)