In the crowdsourced world, I like to think that we evaluate ideas and programs based on their merits rather than who makes a decision. I grant that some heirarchy is good and necessary, and in this case the heirarchy made a reasoned decision to include Bitcoin in the donation options, and did so in a way that makes a lot of sense except that one of the primary attractions of Bitcoin, privacy, seems to have not been a priority. I'm asking about how this can be addressed. It's possible that WMF can't offer to accept anonymous bitcoin donations at all, but as an optimist I like to think that it can, and my experience with other nonprofits is that anonymous donations are possible.
Pine On Jul 30, 2014 2:26 PM, "Pete Forsyth" peteforsyth@gmail.com wrote:
Pine, I think Lisa already answered your question -- it's complicated. It's possible (based on my limited knowledge, anyway) that what you suggest is possible; but she never said it was impossible. She said it was the safest approach, given a complicated scenario. This is her professional expertise, so we have to assume a basic level of competence to make those judgment calls.
Don't we? Pete [[User:Peteforsyth]]
On Wed, Jul 30, 2014 at 2:14 PM, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Lisa,
Hm, that is different from my understanding of the IRC. You are required
to
offer a receipt, not to actually send one if the donor declines, right? Then you could have a checkbox to disable personal info and the receipt. You could also enable anonymous donations under $5000 or whatever the threshold is for reporting the donor's info to the IRS, right?
Pine On Jul 30, 2014 2:06 PM, "Lisa Gruwell" lgruwell@wikimedia.org wrote:
As Andrew said, it is complicated. We decided that asking for the information was the safest approach and best enables to comply with
U.S.
laws as well as laws in other countries. For example, we are required
to
send a receipt for tax purposes to U.S. donors who give over a certain amount and we have already today received gifts through bitcoin over
that
threshold.
On Wed, Jul 30, 2014 at 1:22 PM, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Nonprofits in the US are only required to report major donors AFAIK. Bitcoins aren't assets with more complicated transfer rules like
real
estate or stock shares. Simple property donations like a can of food
for
a
food bank don't require identification info. Pine On Jul 30, 2014 1:01 PM, "Andrew Gray" andrew.gray@dunelm.org.uk
wrote:
Hi Pine,
The IRS link includes the note that:
"A payment made using virtual currency is subject to information reporting to the same extent as any other payment made in
property."
- no expert, but I suspect this is the explanation. Because the IRS
treat bitcoin as "property" (like, eg, shares) rather than
currency,
it triggers different - and presumably more complex - reporting requirements.
Andrew.
On 30 July 2014 20:20, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
There is a post on the blog saying that bitcoin is accepted but
there
are
several questions about why WMF is asking for contact info. Is
that
an
IRS
requirement? Might want to post the reason in the blog entry.
AFAIK
with
the nonprofits I donate to none require personal info for small contributions.
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