[MD Expat in PA]

$1 transactions on credit cards or debit cards often raise red flags. This is because if a scammer/hacker/fraudster has stolen a person’s cc or debit number, they will often put through a $1 charge as a test to see if the number and account is still good, and anonymous transactions or transactions originating from overseas but on a US cc or bank, can raise even more red flags with banks and cc processors.

And believe it or not there are unscrupulous retailers and online businesses that are knowing participants in the fraud. Not saying that’s you, but a CC processor could and should become suspicious of any fraudulent or potentially fraudulent transactions. But I would hope they would let you know this.

We have a donation mechanism (connected to square credit card processing) that allows people to offer money if they found our service useful.

Are you a non-profit or a business? You accept “donations” but you also “sell” advertising, and your site is crammed full of advertising so I guess I’m confused. How do you book these donations on your financials and tax returns? Are the “donations” booked as income?

Of course, you don’t have to answer this but I’m curious as in all my years in accounting, I’ve never dealt with a for profit company accepting customer donations.

While a for profit enterprise can accept “donations” you may want to read this.

https://ccsklaw.com/finding-additional-funding-can-my-small-business-accept-donations/

“Despite the important tax distinctions between offering a donation to a non-profit and offering a gift to a business, there is still nothing stopping a for-profit business from receiving or even asking for gifts. However, it is important to clarify to any gift-givers that they will not be able to write off their gift. Not specifying this could lead to legal trouble later on. There are many instances of organizations passing themselves off as real charities in an effort to receive “charity money,” don’t give any false implications about where your organization stands.”

If your “donation” page does not make it clear that the doner cannot write off their donation as a tax-deductible charitable gift, that can get you in trouble and make cc processors leery.

And the shows you feature have links to YouTube and streaming services. Have there been any copywrite complaints against you for this? You are after all monetizing the YouTube videos and links to streaming services links. Just curious as to how this works from your perspective. I admit I’m no expert in this area.

[kellymcneill]

We are a for profit business and yes we are incorporated. Donation is a broad term largely associated with 5013c non profit but it doesn’t have to be nor does a donation as a term have to auto-imply an association with being tax deductible. The donation is can still be regarded as a donation if it’s perceived as payment for a service offered.

Perhaps we could be more clear on the donation page that donations are not tax deductible if only to appease the lawyers however I can’t imagine anyone would assume as much but legal experts can be a fickle bunch.

There’s no legal reason why someone should fear copyright concerns for simply linking to a youtube video. Someone **might** be able to make a case if we incorporated the content on our own youtube channel and tried to monetize it but we don’t do that. With that said, the whole purpose of those trailer videos is for this sort of thing anyways. They WANT people speading those videos far and wide.