James R Gordon

Sandy, I am not sure that “the transfer is unrelated to business and therefore there are no taxes involved.“ That may be your view, I am not sure the IRS will see it that way. We rent this site from a commercial bussiness and we collect monies in order pay a subscription to that same business You say when a forum members send a donation to the forum owner's PayPal account, they should mark it as a "Personal" transfer because they are not buying anything from that person. But is it personal? The funds being raised are in order to pay a business its rent. Will the IRS see a point of interest in members labeling funds as personal when those same funds are specifically to pay the business from whom we rent this sit??? James.

Sandy, The references to the Paypal account was not the central point of my post. You announced to the forum that the new paypal would be desinated one for contributing funds to friends and family. Although I do not know all the details of US financial laws, I questioned that if the paypal account is a means to collect funds to pay a commercial organisation bills - and indeed we would link that account with that very commercial organisation whose bills we are paying - I am curious why the authorities would not question how such an account could be defined simply as a means to raise money for friends and family. James

Sandy said: “There is a new IRS rule (for 2022) that requires PayPal to notify the IRS if an account has collected more than $600 during the tax year. That's the bad news. The good news is that rule only applies to payments for goods and services that you are selling. When you send money to a PayPal account, you need to specify whether the money is for the purchase of goods and services, or if it is a personal payment to a family member or friend. The latter would be used in our case. In fact, it is common practice for a person who paid for dinner to ask friends to reimburse him through his PayPal account. “ Sandy I have nowhere near the understanding of IRS regulations as you do. If we are to use the Paypal account to collect monies to pay for a service - and the subscription is paying for a service from Invision. We are monthly paying Invision the cost of hosting the EF site - then I am puzzled how that would qualify as personal payment to family member or friend. You know the code far better than I. But the function of this account appears to run against what I imagine is implied in the meaning of personal payment to a family member or friend. By the way the jump from $70 to $120 is all about bandwidth: the number of users on line and posting and searching. As pointed out we are coming close to the $120 bandwidth. James

Yes there is a Paypal avvount attached to the EF, The account linked to Invision is actually a bank account. I use the paypal account as a collection account. No the name on the account foes not need to be the same. What is required is to link the new Paypal account with Invision. James

Chris, I am not sure I agree. But lets leave discussion until Friday August 12th. James

Sean, It is not Crazy. If permisable it is something we shou;d look into. James

Gil, I understand your point. It does have merit. I feel this is am issue for the mebership not the admin team. James

Jean Paul Ceulemans said I would, no matter what and in the future, review the current contract. I still find this contract rather expensive and insecure. 1) An entity on a tight budget looses all control in not knowing how much will be charged each month. I mean, in this contract it's either 70 or 120 their going to take, and there is nothing we can do about it.... One can only budget the WCS (120) and hope for the best ? No good to me... Invision have been in touch about purchasing Creator. As I recollect it is a cheaper option. It is a single yearly cost and we would only pay $1068. What is not clear is whether internet usage by members still applies. The two prices that have affected us is the 100 users per two days for which we are charged $ 70 per month or next stage which involves us $120 per month. And there are higher rates. Because our membership has reduced I am not convinced increased internet usage will affect our monthly costs. Jean Paul Ceulemans said 2) There is the user limit on posting media. There are ways around that, MOST other forums don't do it like this, they prefer doing it by using Postimages or another service alike. Yes, I agree, that will take a little more time posting a picture (10 seconds max....), but you do not have to worry about maxima... It seems THIS forum doesn't allow it in it's current form, I have tried it, but it doesn't work, I'll do some more testing because it is strange, could be I'm doing something wrong ! I’ll look into that and see if it can be further increased.

Gil, I hope you are not suggesting I insulted you. If I have I do apologise. The point I raised was the importance of John Simkin's heritage. For example the breadth of the EF. It was not my intention to suggest you were not interested in that? James

Looking at our donations - as they are at present - members have raised $162:60. Today 13 members have donated. The average sum donated is either $5 or $10. One, very generous member, donated $100. Aside from that very generous donation, we would only have raised $62.60. It is early days - a week has not yet gone by since members agreed to make donations. We have sufficient funds to make September’s payment and with the residue it will probability allow us to make October’s payment. The point that is worrying me is how many more members will be donating. In addition - but for that very generous donation - we would not have sufficient funds to even make September’s payment. There is a lot to be positive about, but there is also concern whether we can raise $840 to complete a years donations. Can we be sure we have sufficient membership to raise that kind of sum or might it require repeated donations from members in order to raise that figure? James.

Ron That figure is clearly the total of donations since the site began. With every donation it will increase. James.

Sean, On the funding thread I posted the following At present $154 have been raised. It is not for me to decide. but I feel a central fund [ like a paypal account ] is better. Especially when directly linked to our Invision account. I believe there ought to be a "keeper" for that account. I do get the names of all who donate as well as the amount they donate. I worry about whether we have sufficient active members to donate $840 per year and every year. Not to mention that our internet usage is getting us close to the next payment threshold of $120 per month. I am not in favour of payment in order to post, but I also worry whether those who do not want to donate will inhibit us reaching our donation targets. James

Mark, I have no idea what that figure relates to. At present $154 have been raised. It is not for me to decide. but I feel a central fund [ like a paypal account ] is better. Especially when directly linked to our Invision account. I believe there ought to be a "keeper" for that account. I do get the names of all who donate as well as the amount they donate. I worry about whether we have sufficient active members to donate $840 per year and every year. Not to mention that our internet usage is getting us close to the next payment threshold of $120 per month. I am not in favour of payment in order to post, but I also worry whether those who do not want to donate will inhibit us reaching our donation targets. James

Ty and Gil, Ty it is not clear how many active members we now have. Look back on Kathy’s post yesterday. It is a guess, but I would be surprised if the number of active members is above 50. But that is not the only problem. It is not clear even if we have 50 active members - that all those members would want to contribute. DVP posted yesterday he was unable to contribute and I suspect there will be others. The only reasonably reliable membership figure who would also want to donate is under 20 - from what I can see. Gil I am sympathetic to your point. But I feel Kathy speaks for a number of members that restricting posting rights to donations conflicts with the spirit of John Simpkin. The present admin team took over to preserve John’s heritage and this would be a backward move.

Do as you wish Ty. Certainly some of that money needs to pay September's bill. Should this matter be resolved before the October payment I pledge to transfer what remains in the account to whoever holds the EF Paypal account.

Having the admin staf choose the Paypal owner - especially Kathy who has an excellent knowledge of members - seems a good way forward. Because of currency transfer I agree the Paypal account owner needs to be American. It would seem logical if the account is also linked to Invision.

That would work Sandy. I suspect linking the Paypal account to Invision might be more complex than it first seems. Also that Paypal account cannot be mine for the reasons you have stated. That said we have an immanent payment to make. Do we stay with the present system to make that payment? James

Sandy, I do not envisage my account as a permanent solution. I accept all you say about currency transfer. In 27 days we have a payment to make to Invision. If we are not to use my account - in the short term - then what is your proposal? James.

I should have added, that on its own that is more than sufficient for the September payment. James

I confirm $103 is presently in the Paypal account. James

Sandy, That Paypal account was setup for collection. I agree a PayPal account based in the US and payments made from it would be preferable. For that to happen someone else will need to make payments to Invision as well as set up their Paypal account with them. Though my account is not ideal it is a workable solution in the short time. James.

I understand Sandy. However the Paypal account is based in the UK. Contributions from the USA are usually in dollars and I have no alternative but to exchange the funds into pounds. James

I am not able to pick up the September payment but I can make the payment on your behalf. As yet I have not informed Invision I am no longer the payee. My bank account is still linked to Invision. I am certain the donation link still operates for Paypal contributions. So I can make the payments on your behalf and I am willing to do so, The present payment - because of currency conversion -is now £60. That means you need to collect $80 [ not $ 70 ] to allow for the $ 60 payment. That is roughly $6 if 15 members are contributing. Membership is our problem but there appears sufficient membership to meet the $80 threshold. In the long run the EF has a serious funding problem. But if we can donate $80 each month [ and I pledge to transfer that payment to Invision on your behalf ] then the EF is still alive for the short term. James

Two Points:- Point 1 Thanks Ty your response was helpful even though I am not sure I fully understood it. Point 2 I have heard back from Invision about creating an account in Paypal and making payments from that account. Paypal can be used for our Account Credit feature, yes. That option would be on the checkout page of the feature, starting here: https://invisioncommunity.com/clientarea/credit/ Once the credit is applied, monthly payments would be drawn from that credit balance automatically. The other option is to manually use Paypal each month to pay the invoice when the renewal is due. James

TY, I have not read the document you refer to, I am not sure who have. If might help all if you clarify what ideas would qualify and what ideas would not. That would really help everyone James