Hi Lisa,
I admit I am not an expert in U.S. tax law, so I could be entirely
misinterpreting it. But my read of the IRS instructions are that donors
who donate more than $5000 in one year must be reported, *except* that
any single donation of less than $1000 may be discounted when
calculating this total. This seems to be a provision to reduce
compliance costs, so small donations don't have to be tracked when
determining when a donor has donated more than $5000 in a year.
Does that mean Wikimedia could accept donations of less than $1000
without asking for personal information?
Best,
Mark
On 7/31/14, 12:15 AM, Lisa Gruwell wrote:
Hi Pine-
The threshold is an aggregate limit in a calendar year. If we were to
limit the donation amount to under $5000, a person could give several
donations that totaled over $5000 in a single year (which happens) and then
we would not be compliance. Instead of trying to create a spike for every
scenario like this, we find it safest just to ask for the information.
Best,
Lisa
On Wed, Jul 30, 2014 at 2:57 PM, Pine W <wiki.p...@gmail.com> wrote:
Heh. If this discussion gets too technical we can move it off-list. At the
moment if Fundraising just wants to say "we'll work on this for future
improvenents to the Bitcoin donation system" and posting that statement in
the blog entry and the donation screen would be ok IMO.
I am rarely satisfied with "it's complicated" as an answer to anything. (:
Pine
On Jul 30, 2014 2:47 PM, "Pete Forsyth" <petefors...@gmail.com> wrote:
Sure -- I think it's a perfectly legitimate question to ask, and
reasonable
discussion to have. It just appeared to me that you were expecting a
detailed explanation from the chief revenue officer, which didn't seem
like
a reasonable expectation. Maybe I was wrong though. If others want to use
this list to debate the finer points of US tax law and effective privacy
practices for donations, I won't be the one standing in the way :)
Pete
On Wed, Jul 30, 2014 at 2:39 PM, Pine W <wiki.p...@gmail.com> wrote:
In the crowdsourced world, I like to think that we evaluate ideas and
programs based on their merits rather than who makes a decision. I
grant
that some heirarchy is good and necessary, and in this case the
heirarchy
made a reasoned decision to include Bitcoin in the donation options,
and
did so in a way that makes a lot of sense except that one of the
primary
attractions of Bitcoin, privacy, seems to have not been a priority. I'm
asking about how this can be addressed. It's possible that WMF can't
offer
to accept anonymous bitcoin donations at all, but as an optimist I like
to
think that it can, and my experience with other nonprofits is that
anonymous donations are possible.
Pine
On Jul 30, 2014 2:26 PM, "Pete Forsyth" <petefors...@gmail.com> wrote:
Pine, I think Lisa already answered your question -- it's
complicated.
It's
possible (based on my limited knowledge, anyway) that what you
suggest
is
possible; but she never said it was impossible. She said it was the
safest
approach, given a complicated scenario. This is her professional
expertise,
so we have to assume a basic level of competence to make those
judgment
calls.
Don't we?
Pete
[[User:Peteforsyth]]
On Wed, Jul 30, 2014 at 2:14 PM, Pine W <wiki.p...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Lisa,
Hm, that is different from my understanding of the IRC. You are
required
to
offer a receipt, not to actually send one if the donor declines,
right?
Then you could have a checkbox to disable personal info and the
receipt.
You could also enable anonymous donations under $5000 or whatever
the
threshold is for reporting the donor's info to the IRS, right?
Pine
On Jul 30, 2014 2:06 PM, "Lisa Gruwell" <lgruw...@wikimedia.org>
wrote:
As Andrew said, it is complicated. We decided that asking for
the
information was the safest approach and best enables to comply
with
U.S.
laws as well as laws in other countries. For example, we are
required
to
send a receipt for tax purposes to U.S. donors who give over a
certain
amount and we have already today received gifts through bitcoin
over
that
threshold.
On Wed, Jul 30, 2014 at 1:22 PM, Pine W <wiki.p...@gmail.com>
wrote:
Nonprofits in the US are only required to report major donors
AFAIK.
Bitcoins aren't assets with more complicated transfer rules
like
real
estate or stock shares. Simple property donations like a can of
food
for
a
food bank don't require identification info.
Pine
On Jul 30, 2014 1:01 PM, "Andrew Gray" <
andrew.g...@dunelm.org.uk>
wrote:
Hi Pine,
The IRS link includes the note that:
"A payment made using virtual currency is subject to
information
reporting to the same extent as any other payment made in
property."
- no expert, but I suspect this is the explanation. Because
the
IRS
treat bitcoin as "property" (like, eg, shares) rather than
currency,
it triggers different - and presumably more complex -
reporting
requirements.
Andrew.
On 30 July 2014 20:20, Pine W <wiki.p...@gmail.com> wrote:
There is a post on the blog saying that bitcoin is accepted
but
there
are
several questions about why WMF is asking for contact info.
Is
that
an
IRS
requirement? Might want to post the reason in the blog
entry.
AFAIK
with
the nonprofits I donate to none require personal info for
small
contributions.
Thanks,
Pine
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