We've been seeking official clarification from Google on this for over a month. That's what we're seeking here.

It's not clear given Google's policy wording and replies. We've removed the links, and can move forward once clarification has been provided.

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dataflow 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Their emails are confusing, but they came after the alleged violation in private communication, not what you were going from at the time of the alleged violation. If you ignore them momentarily (surely you understand they probably aren't as well-scrutinized by lawyers, which would explain why they appear to mistakenly refer to the tax status of the recipient rather than that of the donation), is anything else actually confusing or inconsistent? Their policies, the relevant laws, and what common sense would have you expect - they seem pretty cut and dried. Are they inconsistent with anything other than their emails, which came after the fact?

From another angle: why/how do you feel the tax-exempt-mess of the recipient itself could sensibly be the determining factor here, rather than the taxability of the transaction itself? Is there any law or precedent or anything outside their emails that would suggests a payment processor should look at the tax status of the recipient rather than that of a transaction?

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fwip 6 hours ago | parent [-]

Aren't donations untaxed?

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dataflow 6 hours ago | parent [-]

> Aren't donations untaxed?

I don't know every jurisdiction, but that's not the only relevant factor. If they are tax-deductible, they still introduce the need for paperwork etc. for the payment processor to let the payer deduct it from their own income. A 0% tax on some action doesn't imply you don't have to worry about tax law when performing said action.

Though I think you can just read the policy and take it at face value and not even have to know any of this beforehand.

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lokar 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That’s not true. If a donation is tax deductible that’s just between the IRS, the recipient and the donor. The payment processor, banks, etc don’t do anything special.

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thayne 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

But the complaint isn't that Google won't process the payment. It's that they won't allow them to link to an OpenCollective donation page, and presumably OpenCollective would handle anything like that.

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j16sdiz 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Google's policy wording is clear. It is just you don't like what is written.