Is 'PayPal Donate' for personal blog legal in Finland?

[The_Mikko]

Hei everyone,
Is it legal to have paypal in personal blog? Im thinking to start my personal blog (not at all related to Finland) but as I live here do I need to go through some formalities or regulations? Just want to add PayPal Donate button so that if someone is happy with my work they can just help me.

Thanks in advance

[Jukka Aho]

Is it legal to have paypal in personal blog? Im thinking to start my personal blog (not at all related to Finland) but as I live here do I need to go through some formalities or regulations? Just want to add PayPal Donate button so that if someone is happy with my work they can just help me.

The situation is legally unclear. According to the law (Rahankeräyslaki), arranging fundraisers (by appealing to the general public so that they would donate in the understanding they are not being compensated for their troubles or expenses with any particular service or product) is only allowed for charitable reasons — for the greater public good, such as for advancing social, educational or ideological causes — and then only for non-profit registered organizations or foundations which have specifically applied for a fundraising permit and been granted it.

This means that private persons (or companies) cannot arrange fundraisers or accept donations by appealing to the general public. The law does allow for some exceptions, such as fundraisers for class trips, or publicly accepting monetary donations as birthday presents, or helping an individual or a family in economical distress, but nothing that would directly apply to keeping a blog.

An individual is free to receive gifts from other individuals, though, but it’s the “appealing to the general public” part that separates a fundraiser from just receiving some random gifts. Also, gifts over a certain monetary value are subject to the gift tax (lahjavero, see Perintö- ja lahjaverolaki, Chapter 3, Section 16).

The situation changes if it is not a donation or a gift but a product or service that you’re selling for a fee. Then you’re free to collect money as you wish as long as you pay the applicable income taxes and provide the advertised service to your customers.

It seems people who are subjects of Finnish jurisdiction and keep those PayPal “Donate” buttons in their blogs are trusting that they would either not be “appealing to the general public” by posting that button or that their identity or status as subjects of Finnish jurisdiction remains sufficiently unclear and under-the-radar to the potentially interested authorities, due to using foreign blog hosting companies and posting under a pseudonym. But as long as the law is not amended in some way to make the situation clearer and there are no such cases in court, you’re taking your chances. There are already some cases where organized crowdfunding has lead to legal troubles (see here for some links), so sooner or later the laws need to be updated to address these new, Internet-based forms of fundraising.

See the following blog post for some more discussion (in Finnish):

• Lahjoita (Oikeus ja kohtuus - kaikessa ...)

[AldenG]

That's one of the strangest legal factoids I've ever learned about Finland, right up there with Helsinki University's statutory monopoly on printing calendars, which lasted hundreds of years right up until Finland joined the EU.

[Jukka Aho]

That's one of the strangest legal factoids I've ever learned about Finland

The stated intent of the fundraising act is to allow the funding of non-profit, charitable organizations by donations while simultaneously preventing abuses by establishing a certain trust in that such fundraisers have been checked and approved by the relevant authorities so that the money is really going to the stated purpose. (Though abuses have occurred even under this law.)

But it’s a bit of a mystery why an individual couldn’t appeal to the general public in order to collect donations only to his own benefit, for whatever reason, if he states the intent as such up front. Maybe the idea doesn’t fit the purported Finnish “protestant working ethos”, or some such... or maybe it has been thought that an individual could come up with some heart-wrecking sob story about himself which is all lies but entices the gullible audience to donate. Or maybe it has been seen as a possible device for laundering money or evading taxes unless there’s also a strict bookkeeping requirement, difficult to endorse and monitor with individuals.

[Jukka Aho]

Paypal operates through Ireland and your euro transaction can be anywhere from Eurozone, so, open a bank account in Monaco and enjoy your vacation in Laos...

It’s not likely that the Finnish authorities would have any interest in actively hunting down individual bloggers accepting PayPal donations — at least unless you’re very famous and public about it and raking in significant amounts of money — but technically anything you do on the Internet that is in conflict with the Finnish law is charged according to your whereabouts and legal status when you commenced the act. (So the registered location of the sites and services you use has no relevance, other than that if they’re foreign, it’s harder for the Finnish authorities to gain information and evidence about whatever it is you did. But depending on the country, not necessarily impossible, due to international treaties and organizations such as the Europol.)

[Adrian42]

But it’s a bit of a mystery why an individual couldn’t appeal to the general public in order to collect donations only to his own benefit, for whatever reason, if he states the intent as such up front. Maybe the idea doesn’t fit the purported Finnish “protestant working ethos”, or some such... or maybe it has been thought that an individual could come up with some heart-wrecking sob story about himself which is all lies but entices the gullible audience to donate. Or maybe it has been seen as a possible device for laundering money or evading taxes unless there’s also a strict bookkeeping requirement, difficult to endorse and monitor with individuals.

Wanting to treat that as donations sounds odd to me.

The obvious real-life equivalent to a blog with a PayPal "Donate" button is a guy standing on the street playing his guitar with a hat in front of him where people give coins when they like his music.

How is that legally treated in Finland? As a normal business, and the money in the hat is taxable income?

[AldenG]

The obvious real-life equivalent to a blog with a PayPal "Donate" button is a guy standing on the street playing his guitar with a hat in front of him where people give coins when they like his music.

How is that legally treated in Finland? As a normal business, and the money in the hat is taxable income?

That gives me the idea to wonder if a street performer could put a cell number or PayPal Id or something similar on a poster and accept real-time e-payments. Has anybody seen that anywhere in Europe?

[geek5354]

Wanting to treat that as donations sounds odd to me.

The obvious real-life equivalent to a blog with a PayPal "Donate" button is a guy standing on the street playing his guitar with a hat in front of him where people give coins when they like his music.

How is that legally treated in Finland? As a normal business, and the money in the hat is taxable income?

That's an interesting question. If it's taxable income, then I can ask for a receipt next time I tossed a coin into the hat for services rendered, right?

[Jukka Aho]

The obvious real-life equivalent to a blog with a PayPal "Donate" button is a guy standing on the street playing his guitar with a hat in front of him where people give coins when they like his music.

How is that legally treated in Finland? As a normal business, and the money in the hat is taxable income?

According to this thesis — and contrary to the common “wisdom” on the street — street musicians’ income is taxable. The author of the paper appears to have asked a clarification about this from the Tax Administration in 2010 (p. 8). But in the same breath, he admits street musicians seldom report their earnings to the tax man.

Similarly, it appears there’s no special exemption for street musicians concerning the fees that should be paid to Teosto and Gramex, the Finnish music copyrights management organizations comparable with RIAA, ASCAP, etc. Yet, I doubt they inform these organizations about their performances, either.

So it seems the tax man considers playing music on the streets, for money, a direct service for which the listeners are paying right there and then. In one of the forum discussions I found someone said it should be reported to the Tax Administration as a (voluntary) palveluraha (lit. “service money/fee”), a taxed income category used for tips left in restaurants etc.

That's an interesting question. If it's taxable income, then I can ask for a receipt next time I tossed a coin into the hat for services rendered, right? :lol:

Currently — perhaps somewhat surprisingly — there is no general obligation to hand out receipts to customers in Finland, but a customer can demand an itemized receipt for “services... which comprise of a set task or other kind of [work] performance concerning movable property, a building or other kind of construction, or fixed tangible property” (source which refers to Kuluttajansuojalaki (the Consumer Protection Act)). So I guess that means work done by plumbers, electricians, car mechanics, TV repairmen, and such.

[geek5354]

Currently — perhaps somewhat surprisingly — there is no general obligation to hand out receipts to customers in Finland, but a customer can demand an itemized receipt for “services... which comprise of a set task or other kind of [work] performance concerning movable property, a building or other kind of construction, or fixed tangible property” (source which refers to Kuluttajansuojalaki (the Consumer Protection Act)). So I guess that means work done by plumbers, electricians, car mechanics, TV repairmen, and such.

Ah...so the long arm of the law has not caught up with the intangible digital world yet. There is room for creative thinking still.

[jahasjahas]

Also, if you collect empty bottles on the street and return them to the store, the money you get is taxable income.

[The_Mikko]

Thanks everyone for your inputs.

[Jukka Aho]

I’m not sure if PayPal was used in this one, but regardless:

• Facebookissa kerättiin luvattomasti rahaa koiran leikkaukseen

[Upphew]

I’m not sure if PayPal was used in this one, but regardless:

• Facebookissa kerättiin luvattomasti rahaa koiran leikkaukseen

"Poliisi muistuttaa, että kaikki rahankeräys, oli se sitten Facebookissa tai muuten tapahtuvaa, tarvitsee luvan. Sen voi hakea paikalliselta poliisilaitokselta tai Poliisihallitukselta."

Great example how bureaucrats work in Finland: you can apply for permit... but if you are person you shall be denied. Latter part is of course left unsaid and people will fill applications and pay fees for nothing.