Here’s an insanely difficult geocache in
my area. My brother-in-law and I joke
about having 6 months of free time to
solve it.

Read the whole description and warnings
if you’re up for a chuckle.

-FF

Here’s an example of my interptation of the IRS code on giving to an individual and as to how wording and intent work hand in hand:

I give $50 to Jane Doe who writes a blog about cookies, I do so voluntarily just to help her out with expenses and maybe keep the blog going. What she does with the money I have no control over, I am just personally expecting her to use the money for what I think she needed the money for. I record this $50.00 in my personal finance records as ‘Gift’ to Jane Doe 07/20/2009.

Tax Time: I as the donor, do not list that $50 anywhere on any tax forms, because I don’t need to. One, Jane Doe is not a charible organization, so my $50 is not deductible under that classifcation and Two,the $50 is well under the yearly gift tax guidelines.

Jane Doe – being the recipient of the $50 as an individual has the responiblity by legal IRS statue to report it as income, IF there was no wording attached as to how that $50 was given.

If I attach a letter stating the $50 is a gift to her to be use as she wishes or I just write ‘GIFT’ in the memo space on check – then Jane Doe does not have to report it as income.

If I attach a letter stating the $50 is a contribution to her blog work or I write ‘blog contribution’ in check memo box than she has to declare it as income. If she does or doesn’t that is up to her and/or financial advisors.

Do people ‘donate/contribute’ or do they make a ‘gift’ to you?

It has nothing to do with blogging, you are considered just an individual in the eyes of the IRS. Blogging could actually be considered just an electronic version of a written letter to family and friends.

People who ‘donate/contribute’ money,property,etc. and list said doing as such in their records to you CANNOT deduct it off their taxes, but you on the other hand would have a legal responibility to record and list all donations/contributions as income to the IRS and if so be pay taxes on it.

If people ‘gift’ money to you and list said doing as such in their records, they still CANNOT take that off their income but if under the $13,000/$26,000 limit then they are not libel for the gift taxes either. You also DO-NOT have to report it as income if the gift falls under the #1 IRS exception standard, which is: Gifts that are not more than the annual exclusion for the calendar year.

Also that gift would have to be given as an ‘present interest’ gift and used by you as such. ‘Present interests’ means items that can be used, possessed, and enjoyed presently. Examples of a ‘present interest’ gift includes gifts of money, holiday presents, etc.

So as I said earlier the key to everything is “WORDING”

This is clearly a grey area, so a blogger doing something like this has some potential exposure if examined by the IRS. I wonder what the “standard treatment” of this kind of income is by bloggers? Jacob, perhaps you could do an informal twitter poll and post the results…anonymous if necessary.

Your SMI website is interesting, your team has an impressive set of credentials! I went ahead and ordered a couple of the books listed under ‘Planetary Ecology’ to try and give myself at least a basic education on the issues you are looking at.

One question, what does this mean in your bio?
“cand.scient”

How does it feel?

Also, I think there is a limit as to how mach you can give someone in one year. I doubt any of us are going to go over that. I think it’s something like $11,000.

Better call the IRS or a qualified tax person. I’m not an expert on this.

http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2009/04/im-just-sayin.html