I was reading the license for some free-to-use code libraries and I came across the license section and read that it's free as long there's no revenue collected either directly or indirectly. I was wondering if I made a free game and I put up a donation page or something if it's technically (indirect) revenue.

I looked for an answer and couldn't find what I'm looking for.

manny

Are donations to a free game revenue?

Yes.

From a financial reporting standard (GAAP) it would always be classified as revenue.

From a licensing perspective, it almost certainly would be seen as revenue, consult a lawyer!

It would be worth emailing the people who hold the license, and perhaps ask for direct permission, let them know your position, and see what they have to say.

From a tax perspective, it varies a lot. I only know about UK tax, where it would be counted as income, or revenue if you're a company. And subject to income/corporation tax. And "possibly" subject to VAT, Consult an accountant, or send me a PM if you're UK based.

In a lot of jurisdictions, donations like that are actually pretty illegal -- giving monetary 'gifts' to companies is seen as tax fraud. You would have to report it as income, as a transaction involving trading your software for money, to not get done over by the tax man.

Thank you. This was very helpful in clearing up this confusion. I wasn't in any kind of trouble , just asking for future reference.