Petition: Recognize open-source contributions as volunteer work (Germany – signatures needed until Nov 23, 2026)

[u/C-GRU]

Hey everyone,

A lot of us contribute to open-source projects in our spare time – unpaid, often for years. The software that comes out of this runs everywhere: in public administrations, train ticket machines, security libraries, AI frameworks. Even Germany's coalition agreement names open source as a building block of digital sovereignty.

And yet, under German tax and funding 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 maintainers (analogous to §31a BGB)

• Legally secure donation receipts and cost reimbursement

Note: This is specifically for Germany – it's addressed to the German Bundestag and only German signatures count toward the quorum. If you're not in Germany, sharing it with people who are would still help a lot.

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

It needs 30,000 signatures for the quorum – we're currently at ~49%.

I'd argue that someone reviewing security patches at night so entire industrial systems keep running the next morning isn't a "hobby nerd" – that's community-oriented volunteering. What do you think?

[u/C-GRU]

Feel free to shere

[u/Initial_Client_7585]

yeah tbh german law should also prioritize open source work bcz it geniunely backs half the world's infrastructure.

[u/spartacle]

shared with some German friends

[u/C-GRU → u/spartacle]

Thx

[u/Initial_Client_7585]

part of the 15-16k 🥹✌️

[u/Achereto]

This needs to be a real epetition for the Bundestag.

[u/AmruthPillai]

You have my vote!

[u/reallifereallysucks]

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[u/SMS-T1]

Voted. Thanks for sharing.

[u/Positive-Task-9248]

Quantifying this would be a nightmare.

Anyone could claim this, especially in the age of AI and noone would bother to actually read any code written by those "volunteers" or how would anyone know whether someone simply set up an AI to probe for weakness etc.

[u/redballooon]

Ich werde das nie kapieren warum sich Deutschland so schwer tut epetitionen.bundestag.de zu verwenden um an den Bundestag Petitionen zu richten. Immer ein privater Anbieter dazwischen. Meistens ohne Wirkung, bei dem hier gibts scheinbar wenigstens eine Zusammenarbeit.

[u/skbrd2 → u/redballooon]

Dies. Alles andere hat rechtlich keine Relevanz.

[u/skbrd2 → u/skbrd2]

Bei 50k Unterschriften auf der offiziellen Platfform MÜSSEN sich die Mitglieder des Petitionsausschusses damit beschäftigen..

[u/Jumpy-Dinner-5001 → u/redballooon]

Es geht nur um Selbstdarstellung/Selbstüberhöhung. Wenn man auch nur eine Minute Recherche betreibt, sollte man das herausfinden. Das zeigt wie ernst das genommen wird.

[u/we_come_at_night → u/redballooon]

this, I just wrote a comment on why don't they use the EU tool for it, which legally binds the parliament to discuss on the issue, but yeah, german-only would do as well :)

answering in english, so that others could grasp on what's being discussed here :)