Should Wyze be Non-Profit?

Most Wyze products are sold barely above cost. Wyze services are extremely cheap. Now Wyze has opened name-your-price person detection to all users with the option to have the service for free. These actions don’t seem to be motivated by maximizing profit. As such, it doesn’t seem like it makes sense to call Wyze a for-profit company.

Wyze provides the community with a much needed service. Most of these devices aren’t novelties, but necessary devices for our well being and security. They would qualify for 501(c)(3) exemption and having those tax benefits would make it easier for them to achieve their goal of providing affordable devices.

I think you must be joking.

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Not at all. Really the only requirements for an organization to qualify for 501(c)(3) exemption are that it is organizing to meet a public need and that they don’t seek to make a profit.

The mission for Wyze is to provide affordable devices. This is something that the public at large benefits from and it would assist them in meeting this goal if they didn’t have to worry about federal taxes. As such, the government has incentive to grant tax exempt status to Wyze.

They want to make LOTS of profit. They have big investors who are looking to make money. It’s a fine idea but I don’t know that the owners or investors would be interested.

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Interesting topic… will never happen:

To be tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, an organization must be organized and operated exclusively for exempt purposes set forth in section 501(c)(3), and none of its earnings may inure to any private shareholder or individual.

Ref: Exemption Requirements - 501(c)(3) Organizations

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This would effectively remove the possibility of ever being able to issue shares to shareholders, stock options to employees, an IPO or a buyout and exit. All of those are big incentives for a firm to innovate and grow. In sort, we don’t want this.