Hey guys,
I’ve been running a Minecraft server for a while now. And it’s come to a point where we are ready to release donation packages. But I’m concerned about the legal side of this. Are donations 100% legal? Could I get in any trouble? And what kind of info would I need to include on the Terms & Conditions etc.
Thanks.
It should be legal.
In my personal opinion. Don’t make it a pay to win thing. Donations should be there to help the server not make money for you.
in legal terms, it’s a donation and cannot be illegal.
in minecraft terms, it only states you are not allowed to sell tools/plugins for money etc. (haven’t seen anything regarding in-game perks, but someone may correct me on this.)
what you need to do: create a terms of usage page/rules/guidelines for donations. stating that if they break any rule blah blah, money is final and cannot be sent back. make sure they agree to all this crap before donating.
ask the user if they are of age or not, because they will need parental consent to pay, and you need to make sure you check that (in the terms as well)
record a log of every user that donates. if your profits are (believed 600$ and upwards in the us) you will need to file taxes under for that income.
Thanks very much, helped a lot. :3
[quote=“Vain_, post:3, topic:528734”]in legal terms, it’s a donation and cannot be illegal.
in minecraft terms, it only states you are not allowed to sell tools/plugins for money etc. (haven’t seen anything regarding in-game perks, but someone may correct me on this.)
what you need to do: create a terms of usage page/rules/guidelines for donations. stating that if they break any rule blah blah, money is final and cannot be sent back. make sure they agree to all this crap before donating.
ask the user if they are of age or not, because they will need parental consent to pay, and you need to make sure you check that (in the terms as well)
record a log of every user that donates. if your profits are (believed 600$ and upwards in the us) you will need to file taxes under for that income.[/quote]
I thought you could only be taxed if you were selling things. If you use PayPal, they go ahead and tax any sales, so you don’t have to worry about taxes if you use them for your money gateway.
any form of income must be filed for by the irs. it doesn’t matter whether it be donation, lottery, life insurance etc. if you make money, you are legally obligated to tell the IRS you got that money, how much you got, and where it came from. they will then tax it.
you arent taxed for using PayPal, PayPal takes a percentage as a service usage agreement cost. this has nothing to do with taxes in any way. just their terms.
Try to refrain from the “buying” aspect as much as you can. Remember that they are donations and not purchases. Usually adding what the donations will go to somewhere on the page helps out if any legal problems rise (for example: 80% of donations go to VPS and website costs.) Also, don’t use things like, “Buy donation package” or “Purchase donation package.” Even if a part of the donations are for personal use, some simple word play should keep out any legalities.
It is legal. I do it all the time. If you want a donation and vote system, get the enjin minecraft plugin or you can use buycraft which is what I prefer and see lots of big servers use.