We have never received a donation via PayPal - but we do take event registrations that way We report the amount of the payment as income and the paypal fee as an expense. I would think that would be more important on donations because the donor can claim the entire amount on their taxes - it would be nice if it matched what we have recorded Mac ________________________________ From: David Chandler <chandler.dr(a)gmail.com> To: A list for dance organizers <organizers(a)sharedweight.net> Sent: Monday, April 15, 2013 11:48 PM Subject: Re: [Organizers] PayPal and donations? Our group uses PayPal as well. I claim no special expertise but I think there are at least two ways to account for donations through PayPal. The simplest, which is what our current Treasurer does, is to just record as donations the amount that gets deposited in our checking account (i.e., donation minus fees). That answers the central question - how much did we receive in donations this year that we can spend?  I think that is all the detail our board is interested in. A second approach would be to list a summary of donations and a summary of fees, so that those interested can judge whether the use of PayPal makes sense (increased donations from ease of donating (one hopes) vs. lost income from PayPal fees). I think of the PayPal fee as basically similar to fees for an ATM - paying for ease of access. Another concern might be how to report the fees on the Form 990 (nonprofit tax form). Unless you are getting a lot more donations that we are I don't expect it matters - the amount taken in fees is minimal. It could be reported with other bank fees under miscellaneous expenses. Does the treasurer have more specific concerns? David On Mon, Apr 15, 2013 at 8:18 PM, Meg Dedolph <meg.dedolph(a)gmail.com> wrote: _______________________________________________ Organizers mailing list Organizers(a)sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/organizers