They get to keep the whole amount.

Whoever donated it made a donation.

even gifts, should they exceed a certain amount, are taxable. Reading info on the IRS web site, it seems kind of murky but appears that they may not have to pay a tax on the first $14,000 or maybe all of it.

http://www.irs.com/articles/7-things-you-should-know-about-gift-tax

http://www.irs.com/articles/taxable-vs-non-taxable-income

http://www.irs.com/articles/windfalls-and-your-taxes

not to take or give financial advice on DU.

Don't make financial decisions based on what you read on DU. Finances are where DU shows itself at its weakest.

In this case, read number six of the seven things you should know.

on the interwebs that I would go to for financial advice... it's the last place I would look. Wonder where you got that from my comment. I already read all the content of the links I posted... to see if they had any info relative to the post I commented to.

If any individual gave more than $14000 then that individual may have to pay a gift tax on the amount over $14000. However there is a life time exclusion of several million dollars so in effect no one pays taxes no matter what. The OP is totally wrong.

Almost all the info on this thread is wrong.

As the guy above me said, don't take financial advice from the internet, especially DU. It seems to be our biggest weakness.

more than $20,000 in donations or more than 200 donors

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-rhode/crowdfunding-to-help-a-sick-friend-can-lead-to-a-big-tax-bill-for-you_b_6615616.html?

Recently Kate wrote to me and asked me a question about the 1099-K form she received after volunteering to raise money to help a sick friend. She was shocked by the big taxable income statement she received. Rightfully so.

This issue of raising funds via online sites like Kickstarter, GoFundMe, and others seems to create issues for successful fund raisers. Issues that the good samaritans are not aware of when just trying to do a good thing. Luckily I think I found a reasonable answer for her 1099-K crowdfunding dilemma.

Kate said, "My friend's mother was diagnosed with cancer and died within a few short months. As the end was nearing I started a GoFundMe page for my friend (age 24) who was to become the sole guardian of her TRIPLET siblings. Due to an amazing community effort, $36,000 was raised. All said it was a miracle...except when the 1099k came in my name and I was told to CLAIM the $36,000 as INCOME. I cannot do this!

I did not get one cent of this money and my student loans are income based, so if the family even (very kindly) paid the taxes on the money, my student loan payments would increase by $500 a month, something I just can't afford.

We are trying to transfer the account to her name but I am at a loss as what to do. I feel that she shouldn't have to pay taxes on this either, especially when fees were taken out and they netted $33,000, not $36,000. What do we do?"

These type of sites are new and there is little case law on it. But I personally don't think the IRS has a case.

for the gift exemption is so that you aren't taxing people Christmas morning and on their birthdays for presents and other similar things. It's not to keep a business afloat for controversial political views to the tune of $1 million.

You working, not someone else. The IRS will say alot of things, not all accurate under the law. We'll see what happens.

Someone being paid for a speech has contracted with those paying him. So yes that is work. Some reporter walking into your business and asking your views on a law is not working.

keeping a business open (and snubbing the opposition from attacking businesses that engage in similar acts. There is an expectation that memories pizza continue to hold this view as if they said "oh we just said this to see what would happen" the donors would want their money back. They wouldn't say it was a gift, keep it.

Gifts given with no expectation of action are not taxable. Gifts given with expectation of action (including sharing the same belief as initially espoused) are considered income.

Your tortured comments sound like you work for the IRS,

to think the legal definitions might lead to taxable amounts.

These are totally unconditional gifts, the key point being that whatever the recipient decides to do with the money, the gift-giver has zero legal recourse. Therefore, no tax due from the recipient.

Possibly spending their time going after broken families with each parent trying to claim the children as an exemption.

This is a gift not taxable

their grandma pay their car repair bill.

If you make over $20,000 gofundme sends a 1099-k

It looks like the people who receive the gift are not subject to taxation.

The DONOR is responsible for the gift tax, not the person receiving the gift. The limits that you italicize answer the question of "how much money can I give to each of my children", not the question of "how much money in gifts can my children receive from an arbitrary number of sources".

I'm pretty sure this is tax free (though individual donors who gave more than $14k could be on the hook).

Donors have to pay gift taxes if they gave over 14k but there is a life time exclusion of several million. So no one has to pay.

Recently Kate wrote to me and asked me a question about the 1099-K form she received after volunteering to raise money to help a sick friend. She was shocked by the big taxable income statement she received. Rightfully so.

This issue of raising funds via online sites like Kickstarter, GoFundMe, and others seems to create issues for successful fund raisers. Issues that the good samaritans are not aware of when just trying to do a good thing. Luckily I think I found a reasonable answer for her 1099-K crowdfunding dilemma.

Kate said, "My friend's mother was diagnosed with cancer and died within a few short months. As the end was nearing I started a GoFundMe page for my friend (age 24) who was to become the sole guardian of her TRIPLET siblings. Due to an amazing community effort, $36,000 was raised. All said it was a miracle...except when the 1099k came in my name and I was told to CLAIM the $36,000 as INCOME. I cannot do this!

I did not get one cent of this money and my student loans are income based, so if the family even (very kindly) paid the taxes on the money, my student loan payments would increase by $500 a month, something I just can't afford.

We are trying to transfer the account to her name but I am at a loss as what to do. I feel that she shouldn't have to pay taxes on this either, especially when fees were taken out and they netted $33,000, not $36,000. What do we do?"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-rhode/crowdfunding-to-help-a-sick-friend-can-lead-to-a-big-tax-bill-for-you_b_6615616.html?

I hope they help out the employees who lost an income when they closed

They should help out their employees

That's why I'm not always cheery when I read about owners being forced to close down
because they might have said something stupid.

The employees who relied on their job to keep a roof over their heads had nothing to do with it
but they paid the most in this not the owners.

But you never know.

The Gofundme website went live the day after they approached the media with the highly unlikely scenario that a gay couple would ever ask them to cater a wedding with pizza.

The whole thing was a carefully orchestrated scam.

if I don't serve lgbt, atheist, jews, and ugly people, will you send me
a few hundred thousand? Oh well, I don't even have a restaurant, I just want money and more of it. (Of course, I have no idea what I would do with it if I got it.
(old, retired, on SS, pensions, money in bank, etc...) Oh, I know, buy more Merlot?

This time next year they will most likely have blown through it all anyway.

some of the donors gave more it is tax free.

And even then, the giver pays the gift tax, not the recipient.

From the GoFundMe site, they take both a 5% cut for themselves along w/ a 3% "processing fee" - so 8% off the top.

While it's free to create and share your online fundraising campaign, GoFundMe will deduct a 5% fee from each donation that you receive. Since our fee is deducted automatically, you'll never need to worry about being billed or owing us any money. A small processing fee of about 3% will also be deducted from each donation. Please see Pricing & Fees for more info.

Unfortunately, we're unable to provide specific tax advice since everyone's situation is different. While this is no means a guarantee, most donations on GoFundMe are simply considered to be 'personal gifts' which are not taxed as income in the US.

I try to keep up on the news and heard about OMG! Some law in IN! But you know what? I have become very suspicious of any "news" story that goes from zero to 80 in outrage in a short period of time. There are so many issues that directly affect us that some of these other ones seem like a distraction. And from what someone told me, IN already has gay marriage! So it's not that they are totally disenfranchisng others. Therefore it looked like utter bullying and drew sympathy. So it had the very opposite effect from what they wanted. I hope that this can be a teachable moment. It is possible to fight for what's right without trying to destroy businesses.

Asked if they would make said food for their gay wedding. Most said sure. These guys said no and then the story began after the reporter reported it. They really should donate the money.

See, I suspect that this was a religious objection to making food for a GAY marriage. Now you and I may think that marriage equality is the only way but some people feel that it goes against their religion. They may even support civil unions but mention marriage and they get nervous and refuse to comply. The 1st Amendment comes into play here. I think all of it is an illusion anyway but I understand where they are coming from. This is what I wish for the LGBT community: more understanding and less reactionary, harsh rhetoric. It's clearly not working and counterproductive. It is possible to understand another person and yet not agree with them.

and there is the court of public opinion. I kept hearing people suggest that this was bullying by the gay community. So it reflected poorly on LGBT. Just like Chick-Fil-Let (however it's spelled).

I think trying to destroy a business is not cool. I think there are ways to get what you want without going that far.

And Fast 7 is about to start and I have to shut off the cell phone. Happy Easter!

Things like this sway public opinion. People will forget this pizza parlor, but they will remember the attempt to discriminate againsts gays forever. People under 50 are more supportive of gay rights than ever. The future is on OUR side and we will mold it to be what WE want, not what the relics of the past want to force upon the people of the future.

and while civil rights should always be promoted, it's HOW we do it that matters. MLK was not nasty about it. If I am not mistaken, he followed Thoreau's model of civil disobedience. Gandhi, too, I am sure.

The Bus boycotts? Marches? People forget that MLK was no all peace on earthy. There were worksops that taugh how to deal with violence without returning violence, but the undercurrent of the movement was 'give us our right's now, or else'. Or else we won't support you businesses. Or else we will come into your shops uninvited and AGAINST THE LAW and DEMAND to be served or else we won'r leave. Then there was Malcolm X running around saying 'By any means necessary!" The establishment had no choice but to go Martin's way, else they might have to deal with Malcolm's way. The struggle continues. It was nasty as fuck and still is.
Basically you want gays and their supporters to be nice to bigots and not try to boycott them. The very idea pisses me off. So what they get donations from tired ass bigots? Bigots have been supporting bigots since the first humaniod stepped outta the trees. They stick together, so I know my place. Away from them. With my type of people.

LOL. In any case, I generally agree with you. I think MLK was starting to get a bit more like Malcolm and that led to his demise. I am glad he did things the way he did, though. It underscored the hate that much more. It showed him to be a higher being.

I'm 59 years old and if you asked me 40 years ago I would have said let them marry it's none of my business
to stand in their way.

but now in the just the last few years it has become vogue to support
gay marriage . Obama , Hillary etc.. when before they didn't or were silent about it.

you go out on a limb for it, regardless of the blowback. Seems pretty craven to be on the fence and then at the 11th hour to suddenly support it but whatever. I just don't know why LGBT was so accepting of that "come to Dorothy" moment. I don't know Hillary's position on all this. Never heard her talk about gay marriage.

I haven't seen that. I saw this woman go on the evening news all on her own, volunteering the info that she and her daddy would never serve pizza at a gay wedding. This got the expected response on Yelp. The next day the business "closed" and there was a well-designed Gofundme site going live. In 24 hours.

M'kay.

This whole thing was planned.

military spending, domestic spying, the PIC, militarized police, debt service for bank bailouts and rent-seeking corporations?

How much actually lands in the hands of families in distress?

Since most likely there will be no taxes paid on this money.

Gofundme sends a 1099-k if there is more than $20,000 worth of donations

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-rhode/crowdfunding-to-help-a-sick-friend-can-lead-to-a-big-tax-bill-for-you_b_6615616.html?

Recently Kate wrote to me and asked me a question about the 1099-K form she received after volunteering to raise money to help a sick friend. She was shocked by the big taxable income statement she received. Rightfully so.

This issue of raising funds via online sites like Kickstarter, GoFundMe, and others seems to create issues for successful fund raisers. Issues that the good samaritans are not aware of when just trying to do a good thing. Luckily I think I found a reasonable answer for her 1099-K crowdfunding dilemma.

Kate said, "My friend's mother was diagnosed with cancer and died within a few short months. As the end was nearing I started a GoFundMe page for my friend (age 24) who was to become the sole guardian of her TRIPLET siblings. Due to an amazing community effort, $36,000 was raised. All said it was a miracle...except when the 1099k came in my name and I was told to CLAIM the $36,000 as INCOME. I cannot do this!

I did not get one cent of this money and my student loans are income based, so if the family even (very kindly) paid the taxes on the money, my student loan payments would increase by $500 a month, something I just can't afford.

We are trying to transfer the account to her name but I am at a loss as what to do. I feel that she shouldn't have to pay taxes on this either, especially when fees were taken out and they netted $33,000, not $36,000. What do we do?"

It is merely reporting the amount of funds received. And in cases like this one, where the funds come from gifts where nothing was received in return, no tax is owed by the recipient.

I'm amazed at how many DUers are saying things like they will be interested to see how the IRS rules. Guess what, you don't need to wait. Beyond any shadow of a doubt these are gifts, not taxable to the recipient.

to the IRS with that form but they do send it to the recipient of said "gifts" where they do not send it to someone who received less than that?

Because it is debatable that it is gift or not and to the point where the IRS might care enough to look (again, if someone receives $236 and it is questionable whether it is a gift or not, the IRS is not going to bother). I've read many posts on this from experts who say that unless it is clearly marked as a gift it should be sent to the IRS.

Any business that uses funds from gofundme or kickstarter should report it as should anyone who uses it for their source of basic income. Someone who uses it to fund raise for a family member's health problems is more questionable.

just in case it is taxable income. But in this case it is a gift and is not taxable income.

See this IRS link which explains the 1099k. Nowhere do they say that payments appearing on this form are automatically taxable income:

http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Understanding-Your-1099-K

Everything there pertains to fundraising by nonprofit organizations, which makes hella sense because most of the people who ask for contributions are nonprofits.

This pizza house is, or at least is intended to be, a profit-generating enterprise. So MY feeling is the IRS will consider any contributions to the joint to be ordinary income.

Giving to some random person may subject yourself to a gift tax.

This is the gofundme page for Memories Pizza:

http://www.gofundme.com/MemoriesPizza

It's clear this is a business. It's equally clear the people who donated all that money were donating it to a business. I think the IRS will consider these contributions to be "business transactions." (If they didn't, there'd be ten thousand teabaggers selling "business tax relief" scams in which the customer would make a "gift" through GoFundMe to the company in the amount of the purchase price, and receive a "gift" of the merchandise in return. Because gifts are tax free, right?)

it may be argued it wasn't. What do the givers to the memories pizza fund get in return?

The issue is somewhat complicated by the fact that memories pizza didn't start the gofundme, it was
started by a third party

Did the Glenn Beck employees just act completely independently of the pizza shop ones?

Did they call the pizza guy up and say something like, "we'd like to help you out in these trying times, would you mind if we set up a little fundraiser for you?"

Or did the pizza guy sit down with the Beck people and collaborate on this thing?

I figure come next April we'll be hearing all over the Liberal Media about how the evil Kenyan Muslim guy in the White House stole half the $800k generous Christians donated to a honest, hard-working small businessman to save him from the Gay Mafia. Because Benghazi, or something.

That also may come into play here. I can see it being treated one way if they set up the fundraising themselves as a business, another way if someone else set it up with intent to donate the funds.

Hate was so profitable?