Why are Rust Foundation execs paid via foreign entities, not directly? [Page 35] [pdf]
rustfoundation.org
rustfoundation.org
- The Executive Director was paid £261,151 GBP (~$332,445 USD).
- The Head of Finance & Funding received £113,977 GBP ($145,092 USD) + £10,362 GBP ($13,190 USD) in retirement benefits.
- These salaries weren’t paid directly by the Rust Foundation (a US nonprofit) but instead routed through a UK-based entity, Rust Inc Limited, which is labeled as a “foreign subsidiary.”
Why is a nonprofit paying six-figure salaries through foreign subsidiaries instead of directly?
Is this common among tech nonprofits, or is Rust Foundation’s approach unusual?
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I’m not accusing them of wrongdoing, but does this raises ̶s̶e̶r̶i̶o̶u̶s̶ some questions about nonprofit governance, transparency?
If anyone has insight into why this structure exists or how other open-source foundations handle executive pay, I’d love to hear your thoughts!
If you're Carlsberg and have one single salesperson in a country, these companies let you have a regular employment contact without your own subsidiary. Or you're the UN. Or...
Foundation's 990 (page 8) initially mentions paying 0 for full time work, only later to be explained in supplemental information page that there were in fact paid well high enough.
This could be simply payment structure like you said but their overal financial summary doesn't explain weather this was included in thecost of admin or not.
Page 7 of Form 990 asks for "highest paid employee." including other info where Rust foundation has reported 0 for most people.
It raises questions about transparency, and why a U.S. nonprofit is routing executive salaries through a foreign subsidiary instead of paying them directly.