Our recent article on the pending implementation of a lower tax threshold on cash applications such as PayPal and CashApp has brought about a realization that turning to GoFundMe may be a way for auditors (and others) to avoid paying taxes on contributions from their followers.

Currently, in the United States unless a GoFundMe campaign offers goods or services in exchange for donations, the money brought in by the campaign is generally considered to be “personal gifts.” It is not considered earned income and is not tax deductible for doners.

Our On-going expenses campaign, for example, which took Sunday with a $100.00 donation and was the only active campaign for the day, does not promise anything in return for donations.

We clearly state that the donations go to a basic supplement of our living and working expenses as we produce the paper. Which is true, we use the money earned to supplement the money we make as an “independent contractor for Google” (thank you Denver Metro Audits for the job description), in order to provide you both the paper and the newscast each day without having to work a full-time job.

There’s not much more to it than that, you contribute a gift donation, we keep eating and having electricity and generally stave off homelessness for another month.

That’s usually how these things work. You’re giving a gift to someone (a reporter, an auditor, a person in need) and you don’t expect anything of value in return. Things get more complicated when there’s an expectation of a return for your investment.

One of Jose “Chille” DeCastro’s last campaigns, for example, promised to invite everyone who contributed to the fund a hotel room in Las Vegas and an invitation to a grand party celebrating all things Chille DeCastro for donating.

He added a big bunch of caveats, of course: The campaign must have achieved its enough money to fund his lawsuit, he must win his lawsuit against whomever he would be suing (presumed to be Justice of the Peace Ann Zimmerman at this time), and he must have received a “seven figure award” from the State of Nevada and he would only expend the amount of money he took in to fund the party.

Technically, it is a promise of something for donating and may be a problem at tax time even though he’s suspended the campaign after taking in $4,678.00. Out of the $55,135.00 he made in GoFundMe contributions this year, he can probably afford to pay taxes on nearly $5,000.00 of it, since he’d still effectively have $50,000.00 to work with that is essentially considered tax free gifts.

SeanPaul “Long Island Audit” Reyes is another who has greatly benefited from GoFundMe over the past two years. He’s currently taken in $110,828.00 over seven active campaigns in the last two years. He makes no promises whatsoever in giving anything back to his fans and for the most part, he’s banked over $100,000.00 without having to pay taxes on it.

So, will all auditors suddenly switch over to GoFundMe since the money is essentially tax free? Nope. A GoFundMe campaign takes time, and it takes effort, and it takes a dedicated fan base or some sort of national exposure to get regular funding. That means work, that means promotion, that means begging at times for your campaign to meet its goals.

Every one of these columns ends with an advertisement for our own campaign, and even then, we only survive with the help of our hate watcher, who expects a regular column about the market every day JUST TO TORTURE US.

For the average auditor, sending someone to a GoFundMe for support doesn’t offer the instant gratification that CashApp and PayPal offer as it takes a day or two to get a payout from GoFundMe. GoFundMe also takes a cut of the money donated that’s similar to the cut taken by PayPal on a business account.

Is that cut enough to turn someone off from putting any effort into their campaign? Well, these are auditors, and auditors, like most people, tend to like instant gratification and money and… oh hell to the yes. Even if it means a bit of worry at tax time… the trade off of instant gratification and the full amount donated going into their pocket will always pose a problem for GoFundMe to truly be an alternative.

That said, if you like what we do here and you’d like to keep us around, you can donate to our campaign at https://gofund.me/76d87459.