http://drupal.org/node/77562#comment-146207
i have a question about tax implications about giving money to the drupal project. is derek u.s. based? I also want to give some money to various Drupal developers in London (lm, who just released the lm_paypal modules including the long-awaited paid memberships and pay per listing modules at http://drupal.org/node/78002), Netherlands, Australia, and the U.S.
I have not read the U.S. tax law closely, but I believe this is what the tax guides say:
(A) I can give a supplier $25 as a gift. I can include it as a $25 expense. The supplier does not have to pay tax on it. I can give a supplier some some $x as a separate check from the gift. This check can be a bounty payment say of $x. I can include it as a $x expense. In the U.S., the supplier would have to treat $x as income and pay tax on it.
However, it is possible that the law says something different. I am not a lawyer and I would like to make sure
(b) the bounty payment of $x would be considered a gift rather than payment for services. And since I've already given the maximum gift allowed of $25, I cannot count $x as an expense.
I'm sure this affects others. if anyone can clarify the tax implications that would be very useful.
Comments
yes, i'm in the u.s.
for the part i know the answer to: yes, i'm in oakland, ca, u.s.a. ;)
however, i don't really know enough about the rest of your questions to be helpful. :( i was just planning to have to call all of the donations to this effort income and pay income tax on it. i have no idea if/how people who donate could attempt to write off their contributions as a buisness expense. probably depends more on where you are than u.s. tax laws, but i am neither a lawyer nor an accountant (thank god!). ;) i suppose i could generate paper receipts for folks who really need them (only if the donation is sizable -- i've gotten some $5 donations which are nice and all, but i'm not going to go through the trouble of sending a receipt for that). i'll try to talk to an accountant about this and find out if i don't have to pay income tax on contributions smaller than $25. that'd be nice, though i doubt that's how the laws work here. ;)
let me know if there's any other info i could provide about my situation.
otherwise, i'd love to hear from anyone who knows more about this stuff. ;)
thanks,
-derek
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3281d Consulting
Where are you?
The donor is affected by their own laws. If you use a system like http://donorge.org then the processor, which in that case is a nonprofit, can be count as the one receiving the payment and therefore it is a donation. I'm not sure how this impacts the person receiving the money, but the person making the "donation" can deduct it.
Donations to an individual on the other hand are never tax-deductible. Payments to an individual do not need to be reported by the payee as long as they are less than $600 in one fiscal year.
I'm a little confused by what exactly the question is, but this is some knowledge I have. However, I'm not a tax professional or accountant so do not construe this as professional advice (that's my little disclaimer).
What I can tell you is that individuals can never receive "donations," only gifts or payments. Any organization that is organized for a nonprofit purpose can receive tax-deductible donations, even if they don't have 501c(3) status yet. The status is simply an official recognition, but is not a requirement. In the US, individuals have some leeway on using their own judgement to decide if an organization they give money to is truly nonprofit or not.
$600 amount; fiscal & calendar years
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, tax professional, nor an accountant. Verify info on your own and do not rely on what I'm stating here. Furthermore, it applies only to individuals in the United States.
The $600 amount is correct at least for 2006, although an individual should find out if it's both fiscal AND calendar years. My DreamHost affiliate account states:
I hope that helps.
Walt Esquivel, MBA, MA
President, Wellness Corps; Captain, USMC (Veteran)
$50 Hosting Discount Helps Projects Needing Financing
gifts
thanks for the input
I just looked this up in the 2006 Lasser guide.
i think in this case, Derek will have to treat the money as income, since the work has not been performed.
there may be ways of giving the money to a non-profit (I think for drupal it's via a foundation associated with civicspace) so that the tax burden is reduced for the receiver.
However, money given to developers for work that has already been done, may possibly be a gift it seems. and the $25 limit does not apply it seems. the $25 limit is for customers, not suppliers. does not say giver cannot treat it as an expense, so it seems like it may be possible. as a gift, in the u.s. the receiver does not have to pay tax for a gift of less than $10,000 I think (by memory, I didn't see this in the book).
if anyone has a spouse/partner/friend who is an accountant, some professional advice would be useful.