I wouldn't use Fundable for the project as they take 10% off the top, although they do allow you to take pledges rather than hard donations (that is, no payment is extracted until the stated goal is reached). Probably the best bet is a dedicated web-page with a Paypal donate button, although you might want to see how that interfaces with South African bank fees. Probably the best bet is to set up a US bank account to operate through, and use that as a holding fund, and have Paypal deposit into that (US in order to minimise any currency transaction fees that will be charged to the majority of your potential subscribers by their credit card companies). Although I'd also add a "donate only" button, since, under most tax regimes this would be considered a non-taxable gift, whereas ransoming your work is probably taxable income (I'm not an accountant, but such things need to be considered). Of course, how you reward gifts is up to you, so if you just happen to publish a free chapter every so often... (again, I'm not a tax agent, so...).
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So noted... I know even less about the tax issues. Given the way my tax is structured here (the books belong to the family and thus the income is divided by them), my tax liability (unless we are talking really vast sums, ha ha) would be pretty small. I was a bit worried by fundable - and at 10% I see a problem! South African banks are some ofthe most expensive in the Universe, and not terribly reliable so I need to avoid them. I do have a UK account Baen pay me into - that might work.
Another angle to consider. PayPal also runs a money market fund, for money you leave with them. (If you think of it as a bank savings account, with an interest rate that varies, you're close enough.) While the interest rate isn't the greatest at the moment, it's always been more than my "real bank" offered. One downside, of course, is that I need to tell them to give me my money a week before I receive it, but that can be planned for.
I can't imagine this is a service only available to their US customers (and a quick skim of its prospectus doesn't show any clause to that effect). And I'm afraid I haven't been tracking international currency markets, so I don't know if you're best holding your money in US dollars until needed, or converting them to something else. But it's a literally zero-cost option, so should be worth at least pondering.
Comments 31
I wouldn't use Fundable for the project as they take 10% off the top, although they do allow you to take pledges rather than hard donations (that is, no payment is extracted until the stated goal is reached). Probably the best bet is a dedicated web-page with a Paypal donate button, although you might want to see how that interfaces with South African bank fees. Probably the best bet is to set up a US bank account to operate through, and use that as a holding fund, and have Paypal deposit into that (US in order to minimise any currency transaction fees that will be charged to the majority of your potential subscribers by their credit card companies).
Although I'd also add a "donate only" button, since, under most tax regimes this would be considered a non-taxable gift, whereas ransoming your work is probably taxable income (I'm not an accountant, but such things need to be considered). Of course, how you reward gifts is up to you, so if you just happen to publish a free chapter every so often... (again, I'm not a tax agent, so...).
( ... )
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I can't imagine this is a service only available to their US customers (and a quick skim of its prospectus doesn't show any clause to that effect). And I'm afraid I haven't been tracking international currency markets, so I don't know if you're best holding your money in US dollars until needed, or converting them to something else. But it's a literally zero-cost option, so should be worth at least pondering.
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