Would accepting CC payments increase business?

[+ TylerandAce]

Love it, actually!! Would be a fitting tribute to my disdain for the IRS

[Kuriousity]

Love it, actually!! Would be a fitting tribute to my disdain for the IRS

 

And, from a legal perspective, you are not technically escorting. You are fundraisers meeting with perspective donors.

[Kuriousity]

To give you an idea, you could set up an annual $1000.00 scholarship for veterans. That would qualify under charitable actions for a calendar year.

[rvwnsd]

...Interesting how what starts out as “protecting people from terrorism” morphs into investigating people any kind of “suspicious” cash withdrawals. Still, the reporting threshold is currently $10,000, so most folks who want to avoid leaving an electronic trail can probably still use cash (unless of course they have a very expensive meeting planned).

 

Actually, the Currency Transaction Report made its debut in 1986 with the passage of the Money Laundering Control Act, long before the word "terrorism" was part of our daily lexicon. It was designed to detect instances of money laundering and fraud.

 

The Suspicious Activity Report (which a financial institution files when a transaction appears to be suspicious) was created in 1996, also before "terrorist financing" was something we thought much about. The purpose of a SAR is to provide financial institutions with a way to report transactions that are suspicious. Typically, they are transactions that seem out of the ordinary for a particular client based on the type of client (individual vs business, for example), type of business (think of a pizza parlor that receives hundreds of thousands of dollars in wire transfers per day and wires the funds to a foreign bank), or the client's ordinary transaction pattern. As someone else mentioned, SARs can (and have) been used to report perpetrators of elder abuse.

 

All that being said, withdrawing $500 or $1,000 is not going to raise alarms at your bank.

[LADoug1]

Suze Orman always says "People first, then money, then things."

+1

[Bargara Leatherboy]

Credit is King in my world. I withdraw maybe $400 a month, most of that goes to my landscaper/Gardner who negotiated a cash rate with me.

I only pay cash at the bread shop and the takeaway across from work.

 

I have paid cash and card for escorts, prefer card. For me that extra step of getting to an ATM and having cash is just an unnecessary extra.

 

I have not really taken note of the merchant name but Cameron's Executive Service was one of them.

 

Cash is often used to hide criminology and welfare Cheats, so I am a fan of cashless society.

 

Prostitution is not illegal in my country. But understand it can be an issue in other places.

[mattr]

Have you considered setting up a non-profit charitable foundation? I recall years ago Tyler doing some work with Playgirl, and he filmed a little video vignette where he mentioned he had been prior service Air Force (not sure if that was true or bullshit the magazine made up for him to say). You could set up a foundation that helps military veterans. There is no legal minimum that charitable foundation HAS to give as long as they do disburse SOME funds each calendar year. You two could set it up with you two & maybe one or two other people as nominee directors, and then revenues (minus what is actually used for charitable purposes) could be used for "operating expenses", not unlike what the ASPCA does--very little of what is given to the national organization is actually used for charity work, but rather overhead & PR. In that situation, you could take checks, and provide the check writer a receipt they could use for tax purposes---since I am guessing you would get clients on the higher end of the financial scale due to your joint rate. As a non-profit, you would not pay tax on what you took in.

 

Just a thought...

 

I have to say that I find the idea of hiding income behind an in-name-only charitable foundation distasteful. This is what Mark Zuckerberg has done which, in his case, I find disgusting. I am 100% OK with using cash as much as possible to keep money out of the hands of the IRS but it bothers me when a phony "foundation" is set up to disguise income. It becomes even more distasteful when the foundation is purportedly to benefit military personnel and their families who have sacrificed so much for us. Please find another way to legitimize/hide your income.

[+ quoththeraven]

I am neither in favor of phony charitable foundations nor in using cash as an excuse not to report income to the IRS. People who do that are freeloading off people who pay the tax they owe. That includes the vast majority of an escort's clients.

 

When I was with the IRS, I sometimes wanted to suggest to the tax protestor types whose cases I wound up handling that they stop using any good or service paid for by the taxes they were trying to avoid, like public roads/highways, and see how their life was affected. Oliver Wendell Holmes once said taxes are the price we pay for civilized society. I have a copy of a George Will column in which he says the same thing.

 

Escorts who can't make ends meet if they pay tax on their income are either spending too much on personal items, doing a poor job tracking business expenses, are not charging enough, or are in the wrong business.

[+ WilliamM]

I am neither in favor of phony charitable foundations nor in using cash as an excuse not to report income to the IRS. People who do that are freeloading off people who pay the tax they owe. That includes the vast majority of an escort's clients.

 

 

Thanks for wording it so strongly. I did not mind when an eascort I knew well talked about avoiding taxes.

Looking back, it was a big mistake on my part.

 

I know my comments will not be popular here amongst escorts and many clients.

[+ DERRIK]

It's one thing how I deal with the IRS but entirely different for me to ask another person to participate with me.

 

I would never ask anyone to provide me an SS# for 1099 unless it was completely on the up and up.

 

Paying an escort for his time falls into the leisure category

[+ quoththeraven]

Thanks for wording it so strongly. I did not mind when an eascort I knew well talked about avoiding taxes.

Looking back, it was a big mistake on my part.

 

I know my comments will not be popular here amongst escorts and many clients.

 

There's legitimate tax planning/tax avoidance and then there's tax evasion. One is legal, the other isn't. There is also an ethical/fairness component here that far exceeds, say, whether it is unethical for an escort to see other clients after having traveled to a location at a specific client's expense, which was the subject of a couple of handwringing threads. It won't close the deficit, but tax evasion shifts the tax burden unfairly.

 

Remember: Al Capone was jailed and convicted of income tax charges, not organized crime charges. Just because you are paid in cash doesn't make your income impossible to prove.

[rvwnsd]

Have you considered setting up a non-profit charitable foundation? I recall years ago Tyler doing some work with Playgirl, and he filmed a little video vignette where he mentioned he had been prior service Air Force (not sure if that was true or bullshit the magazine made up for him to say). You could set up a foundation that helps military veterans. There is no legal minimum that charitable foundation HAS to give as long as they do disburse SOME funds each calendar year. You two could set it up with you two & maybe one or two other people as nominee directors, and then revenues (minus what is actually used for charitable purposes) could be used for "operating expenses", not unlike what the ASPCA does--very little of what is given to the national organization is actually used for charity work, but rather overhead & PR. In that situation, you could take checks, and provide the check writer a receipt they could use for tax purposes---since I am guessing you would get clients on the higher end of the financial scale due to your joint rate. As a non-profit, you would not pay tax on what you took in.

 

Just a thought...

While it is true that many not-for-profits spend an inordinate proportion of their revenues on administrative expenses, the ASPCA is not the best example to illustrate the point. According to Charity Navigator, 61.3% of ASPCA's revenues are spent on program expenses. Program expenses are defined as "Percent of the charity’s total expenses spent on the programs and services it delivers" Here is the complete breakdown:

 

Program Expenses: 61.3%

Administrative Expenses 5.8%

Fundraising Expenses 32.8%

 

As you can see, their administrative expenses are 5.8% of their total revenues. That's better than most for-profit businesses.

 

Here's a link to ASPCA's Charity Navigator page:

 

http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3286#.VpPUvJMrLUo

 

 

I have to say that I find the idea of hiding income behind an in-name-only charitable foundation distasteful. This is what Mark Zuckerberg has done which, in his case, I find disgusting. I am 100% OK with using cash as much as possible to keep money out of the hands of the IRS but it bothers me when a phony "foundation" is set up to disguise income. It becomes even more distasteful when the foundation is purportedly to benefit military personnel and their families who have sacrificed so much for us. Please find another way to legitimize/hide your income.

 

I recognize the suggestion about setting up a foundation was made in jest, but I agree with mattr 's position on setting up a sham foundation and doing so in the name of helping veterans. What is being suggested here is called hiding income and money laundering, both of which are illegal. That is a VERY bad idea. I'd suggest simply paying taxes on the income derived from the entertainment business (that's what it is, after all). Much easier than trying to set up a sham charity and paying the price for doing so later.

 

I am neither in favor of phony charitable foundations nor in using cash as an excuse not to report income to the IRS. People who do that are freeloading off people who pay the tax they owe. That includes the vast majority of an escort's clients.

 

When I was with the IRS, I sometimes wanted to suggest to the tax protestor types whose cases I wound up handling that they stop using any good or service paid for by the taxes they were trying to avoid, like public roads/highways, and see how their life was affected. Oliver Wendell Holmes once said taxes are the price we pay for civilized society. I have a copy of a George Will column in which he says the same thing.

 

Escorts who can't make ends meet if they pay tax on their income are either spending too much on personal items, doing a poor job tracking business expenses, are not charging enough, or are in the wrong business.

 

QTR, you took the words right out of my mouth! Thank you!!!

 

I'd suggest donating a portion of your earnings to the Supporters Unite fundraising effort on behalf of the Rentboy Legal Defense Fund. While not a charity, it is funding the defense of former Rentboy employees. Defending them against this ridiculous waste of resources is a first step towards de-stigmatizing and de-criminalizing the industry. You can read more about it here:

 

http://www.companyofmen.org/threads/heres-a-way-to-voice-your-outrage-over-the-shutdown-of-the-rentboy-website.109618/

 

and donate here:

 

http://rentboyfund.org/supporters-unite.

[+ TylerandAce]

Thanks!

While the idea of all the charitable facade is entertaining, I think decorum mandates some respect for institutions of service. That's not what we are about.

[rvwnsd]

Thanks!

While the idea of all the charitable facade is entertaining, I think decorum mandates some respect for institutions of service. That's not what we are about.

It is great to hear you say that. Honestly, that's what I expected to hear you say. Although I never had the pleasure to correspond with the Tyler half of TylerandAce, I did correspond with Ace one-on-one (never had the chance to hire, though) and via the forum and he strikes me as a very upstanding guy. Upstanding guys tend to attract like-minded individuals, so it is natural that Tyler would feel the same way.

[Kuriousity]

Look...I was just providing a suggestion....some of you need to calm the fuck down,

 

On the upside, I know now which commentors to avoid like Marburg Virus....and for that, thanks

 

http://gph.is/1ejp9wi

[MikeyGMin]

[seaboy4hire]

I have relationships with 4 banks. Hate 'em all. No good bankers......

 

Anonymity is gone. Anyone who wants to know what we are doing, knows what we are doing. I envision cash will be regulated out of the economy. Either outlawed or taxed for using it and making its use undesirable.

 

Did you borrow @jackjackjacks tin foil hat? :rolleyes:

 

Hugs,

Greg

[+ TylerandAce]

All God's children. As I tell my employees, there are no bad ideas, just bad execution. I appreciate all the suggestions, opinions, experiences, and outside-the-box thinking. Means a lot to have a place to openly discuss ideas.

[+ TylerandAce]

Now back to our original discussion

 

Cash is king and is obviously preferred. I do allow regular clients to utilize checks or Square Cash. The full blown Square product is nice but for my infrequent use of it, it is overkill. Square Cash is their scaled down product and makes sense for my use case. Any pre-payments that need to occur ( such as flight expense, deposits, etc. ) are done solely through Square Cash. Paypal is great and all but I still don't trust them for accepting payments. I will utilize them for deposits because they make it dead simple for refunding, etc.

Great advice...thanks much!

[jackjackjack]

Did you borrow @jackjackjacks tin foil hat? :rolleyes:

 

Hugs,

Greg

 

Hey! I wear my tin foil hat with pride and dignity.

[seaboy4hire]

Hey! I wear my tin foil hat with pride and dignity.

 

May i borrow it sometime?

 

Hugs,

Greg

[jackjackjack]

May i borrow it sometime?

 

Hugs,

Greg

 

Of course! And I think you have something I'd like to borrow. In fact, I know you have.

[seaboy4hire]

Of course! And I think you have something I'd like to borrow. In fact, I know you have.

 

Ooooh i dont think you want to give it back. At least you didnt last time.

 

Hugs,

Greg

[jackjackjack]

Ooooh i dont think you want to give it back. At least you didnt last time.

 

Hugs,

Greg

 

If you're thinking what I'm thinking, hell no, not giving it back. . More please.

[seaboy4hire]

If you're thinking what I'm thinking, hell no, not giving it back. . More please.

 

Name the time and place. You know how to reach me lol.

 

Hugs,

Greg