Is Buy Me a Coffee taxable income

Q: Does Buy Me a Coffee have fees?

Is there a fee to use Buy Me a Coffee? We dont charge a monthly fee. All features including publishing and emails are free for everyone. We charge a 5% transaction fee, and creators keep 95% of the earnings.

Written by Aleesha John
Updated over a week ago

If you can't find an answer that you're looking for, feel free to ask us in the live chat or via email. We're also active on Twitter @buymeacoffee.

Who uses Buy Me a Coffee?

Anyone with an audience. Youtubers, musicians, podcasters, writers, programmers, nonprofits, cosplayers, you name it. More than 300,000 creators and millions of their fans are on Buy Me a Coffee.

How do I get paid?

Payments are directly transferred to your Stripe or bank account. We do not hold your money, and there is no minimum to get paid. Buy Me a Coffee is an official partner Stripe.

How can my audience pay?

We accept all major Credit Cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, as well as local payment methods such as UPI in India.

Is there a fee to use Buy Me a Coffee?

We don't charge a monthly fee. All features including publishing and emails are free for everyone.

We charge a 5% transaction fee, and creators keep 95% of the earnings. We make money only when you do. We'll never show ads and we'll never sell your data.

Is Buy Me a Coffee safe and reliable?

We take security seriously. Here are some measures we’ve taken to protect your and your supporter’s data.

We don’t store credit card data on our servers. Payment processing is handled by and Stripe (PCI Compliance Level 1).
We run on the robust Amazon infrastructure. Cloudflare adds an additional layer of security. We also take periodic backups and force SSL encryption across the platform.
We have a bug bounty program to encourage responsible reporting of any security issues, and we’re quick to take action.

Do I have complete ownership of my supporters?

Yes, your supporters are strictly yours. We do not email them. You can export their list any time you like.

How is this different from other platforms for creators?

With Buy Me a Coffee, you get everything you need to run your creative business. You don't have to worry about paying for and stitching together a dozen services, from sending emails to charging for subscriptions.

Besides, your Buy Me a Coffee page is arguably the most delightful experience you can offer your audience. From the one-tap payment (look ma, no sign-ups required!) to the delightful little touches for your supporters, we’ve obsessed over every bit of detail.

Can I build a serious business using Buy Me a Coffee?

Yes, there are many creators earning a six-figure income on Buy Me a Coffee. We will grow with you.

Who are you folks?

Buy Me a Coffee is a company based in San Francisco. Read more about us and our guiding values.

You can email us at [email protected], or leave us a message on the Intercom chat. We also respond to every feature request submitted.

Terms of use

Welcome to Buy Me a Coffee, this page explains our terms of use. When you use Buy Me a Coffee, you’re agreeing to all the rules on this page. Some of them need to be expressed in legal language, but we’ve done our best to offer you clear and simple explanations of what everything means.

About Creating an Account

To sign up for a Buy Me a Coffee account, you need to be 18 or over. You’re responsible for your account and all the activity on it. You can browse Buy Me a Coffee without registering for an account. But to use some of our features, you’ll need to register, choose a username, and set a password. When you do that, the information you give us has to be accurate and complete. Don’t impersonate anyone else or choose names that are offensive or that violate anyone’s rights. If you don’t follow these rules, we may cancel your account.

You’re responsible for all the activity on your account, and for keeping your password confidential. If you find out that someone has used your account without your permission, you should report it to [email protected].

To sign up for an account, you need to be at least 18 years old, or old enough to form a binding contract where you live. If necessary, we may ask you for proof of age.

Things that are big no-no’s

Thousands of people use Buy Me a Coffee. We expect all of you to behave responsibly and help keep this a nice place. If you want be a part of this don’t do any of these things on our site:

- Don’t break the law. Don’t take any action that infringes or violates other people’s rights, violates the law, or breaches any contract or legal duty you have toward anyone.

- Don’t lie to people. Don’t post information you know is false, misleading, or inaccurate. Don’t do anything deceptive or fraudulent.

- Don’t offer prohibited items. Don’t offer any rewards that are illegal, violate any of Buy Me a Coffee's policies, rules, or guidelines, or violate any applicable law, statute, ordinance, or regulation.

- Don’t victimize anyone. Don’t do anything threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, libelous, tortious, obscene, profane, or invasive of another person’s privacy.

- Don’t spam. Don’t distribute unsolicited or unauthorized advertising or promotional material, or any junk mail, spam, or chain letters. Don’t run mail lists, listservs, or any kind of auto-responder or spam on or through the Site.

- Don’t harm anyone’s computer. Don’t distribute software viruses, or anything else (code, films, programs) designed to interfere with the proper function of any software, hardware, or equipment on the Site (whether it belongs to Buy Me a Coffee or another party).

- Don’t abuse other users’ personal information. When you use Buy Me a Coffee — and especially if you create a successful page — you may receive information about other users, including things like their names, email addresses, and postal addresses. This information is provided for the purpose of participating in Buy Me a Coffee: don’t use it for other purposes, and don’t abuse it.

- Don't post anything that is - is unlawful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, libelous, deceptive, fraudulent, invasive of another’s privacy, tortious, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, offensive, profane, contains or depicts nudity, contains or depicts sexual activity, or is otherwise inappropriate as determined by us in our sole discretion.

Things we don’t do and are not responsible for

Buy Me a Coffee is not and should not be held liable for any damages or losses related to your use of the Services. We don’t become involved in disputes between users, or between users and any third party relating to the use of the Services. We don’t oversee the performance or punctuality of pages and contents, and we don’t endorse any content users submit to the Site. When you use the Services, you release Buy Me a Coffee from claims, damages, and demands of every kind — known or unknown, suspected or unsuspected, disclosed or undisclosed — arising out of or in any way related to such disputes and the Services. All content you access through the Services is at your own risk. You’re solely responsible for any resulting damage or loss to any party.

About our fees

Creating an account on Buy Me a Coffee is free. If you create a page that is successfully supported, we (and our payment partners) collect fees. Our partners’ fees may vary slightly based on your location. Each payment provider is its own company, and Buy Me a Coffee isn’t responsible for its performance. You’re responsible for paying any additional fees or taxes associated with your use of Buy Me a Coffee.

About other websites and links

Buy Me a Coffee may contain links to other websites. (For instance, user websites pages, user profiles, and comments that may link to other sites.) When you access third-party websites, you do so at your own risk. We don’t control or endorse those sites.

Buy Me a Coffee partners with other companies (such as Stripe and PayPal) for payment processing. When you support or create a page, you’re also agreeing to the payment processor’s terms of service.

Our Intellectual Property

- Buy Me a Coffee’s services, content and Marks, are legally protected in a number of ways, including pursuant to copyright, trademark, service marks, patent, trade secrets, and other U.S. and international intellectual-property laws.

- You agree to respect all copyright and other legal notices, information, and restrictions contained in any Buy Me a Coffee Content, Services, or Marks accessed through the Site or the Services.

- You agree not to change, translate, or otherwise create derivative works of the Services.

- Buy Me a Coffee grants you a limited license (that is temporary, non-exclusive, non-sub-licensable, and non-Transferable) to access and use User Content and Buy Me a Coffee’s Content solely for use of the Services in accordance with these Terms.

- You may not reproduce, redistribute, transmit, assign, sell, broadcast, rent, share, lend, modify, adapt, edit, create derivative works of, license, or otherwise transfer or use any User Content or Buy Me a Coffee Content unless We give you express written permission to do so.

- We reserve the right to revoke this limited license to access and use User Content and Buy Me a Coffee Content at any time and in our sole discretion.

Your intellectual property

- Any royalties or licensing on your Content are your responsibility. You will pay all royalties and other amounts owed to any person or entity based on your Content, or on Buy Me a Coffee’s hosting of that Content.

- You’re responsible for the stuff you post. All information submitted to the Site, whether publicly posted or privately transmitted, is the sole responsibility of the person from whom that content originated.

- We’re not responsible for mistakes in your content. Buy Me a Coffee will not be liable for any errors or omissions in any content.

Account deletion

You may stop using our Service, by contacting Buy Me a Coffee at [email protected], and requesting account deletion. We may retain certain information as required by law or as necessary for our legitimate business purposes. All provisions of this agreement survive termination of an account, including our rights regarding any content you’ve already submitted to the Site. (For instance, if you’ve launched a page, deleting your account will not automatically remove the page from the Site.) If you have signed up for a membership, you can find information about your cancellation rights on our site. You will need to cancel your subscription in accordance with these cancellation rights to stop your recurring payments for the relevant subscription. Merely deleting your account without canceling your subscription will not stop these payments.

About indemnity

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Buy Me a Coffee, Our subsidiaries and affiliated companies, and Our officers, directors, employees, partners, contractors, representatives, agents, and third party providers from and against any and all claims, causes of action, damages, obligations, losses, liabilities, costs or debt, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees and costs) and all amounts paid in settlement arising from or relating to, breach of these Terms or violation of any applicable laws. We reserve the right, in Our sole discretion and at Our own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter for which you have agreed to indemnify us and you agree to assist and cooperate with us as reasonably required in the defense or settlement of any such matters.

About dispute resolution

We at Buy Me a Coffee encourage you to contact us if you’re having an issue, before resorting to the courts. In the unfortunate situation where legal action does arise, these Terms (and all other rules, policies, or guidelines incorporated by reference) will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the United States, without giving effect to any principles of conflicts of law, and without application of the Uniform Computer Information Transaction Act or the United Nations Convention of Controls for International Sale of Goods.

About copyright

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act lays out a system of legal requirements for dealing with allegations of copyright infringement. Buy Me a Coffee complies with the DMCA, and we respond to notices of alleged infringement if they comply with the law and the requirements set forth in our Copyright Policy. We reserve the right to delete or disable content alleged to be infringing, and to terminate accounts for repeat infringers. (We do this when appropriate and at our sole discretion.)

Agreement Between You and Us

These Terms are the entire agreement between You and Buy Me a Coffee with respect to the Services. They supersede all other communications and proposals (whether oral, written, or electronic) between you and Buy Me a Coffee with respect to the Services and govern our relationship. If any provision of these Terms are deemed invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, the invalidity of such provision shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions of this Agreement, which shall remain in full force and effect. Buy Me a Coffee's failure to assert any right or provision under this Agreement shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.

Miscellaneous

We may modify or discontinue the Services at any time, in our sole discretion. You agree that, except as otherwise expressly provided in these Terms, there shall be no third-party beneficiaries to these Terms. No waiver of any provision of these Terms shall be deemed a further or continuing waiver of such term or any other term, and Buy Me a Coffee’s failure to assert any right or provision under these Terms shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. You agree that regardless of any statute or law to the contrary, any claim arising out of or related to the Services must commence within one (1) year after the cause of action accrues. Otherwise, such cause of action is permanently barred.

Which is better patreon or Buy Me a Coffee?

Buy Me a Coffee is a better option for more flexible creators, allowing them to post at their own pace with less commitment. While Buy Me a Coffee still allows creators to earn an income, Patreon is often considered the better choice for creators who use these platforms as their primary source of income.

Is Buy Me a Coffee trustworthy?

It looks like, buymeacoffee is a technical scam website. First I initiated a payment withdrawal request, The request was remain processed for 10 days, and after that they said, We are unable to transfer funds to your local bank account, connect Payoneer account.

Does Buy Me a Coffee have fees?

Is there a fee to use Buy Me a Coffee? We don't charge a monthly fee. All features including publishing and emails are free for everyone. We charge a 5% transaction fee, and creators keep 95% of the earnings.