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Comment by roel_v | Hacker News Reader

"I couldn't accept it"

Why not?

Probably because its too much - I struggle to accept donations on my project as well, especially when theyre larger than price-of-a-coffee.

Accepting a large donation but then not having any free time to work on the project (eg. Due to family or other commitments) feels very dishonest.

So I only accept substantial donations if I'm very sure I'm going to be able to do a substantial amount of work on the project going forward.

I actually have different experience, I spend all my time on projects but see very few donations :) But thank you to all who donate to open source and other projects.

I once got an unsolicited donation that was larger than my lifetime earnings...

The sender didn't reply to messages.

I really wasn't sure what to do. And without a document saying it was a gift from the sender, I had to give half away as taxes, and then there was no possibility of returning it (I wouldn't be able to reclaim the taxes).

Yeah no such luck here ^_^ [1] But I like doing my projects so much that this is not discouraging me to continue. But it does motivate me more when I get donations.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34084960

You can accept the donation as a thank you for what you've already done. It should be motivation, not obligation.

For some jurisdictions like Germany, accepting "donations" - no matter if cash or in goods - is a nightmare tax-wise. Yes, you can just throw up a PayPal, but if some random troll wishes to cause you pain, all it takes is an e-mail to the tax office and they'll fleece and nail you.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com