Dealing with erratic income without being horribly screwed? Aka 'avoid being damned by suspicious solvency'.

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Sanshain

Sanshain

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kiwifarms.net
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May 3, 2015
I occasionally do commissioned work that doesn't involve contracts or anything like that. It can bring in a solid amount of money some months, but is pretty erratic overall. If I could take it purely as cash, I would, but that's not feasible. I was getting it paid straight into PayPal, but fees are currently an absolute ass, so the people I do regular work for prefer direct bank transfers. However, I'm also living in a country that is insanely suspicious of anyone who doesn't toe the party line and run a constant debt, so sudden and random influxes of cash into my account has a low but very much non-zero chance of screwing me over significantly in the long-run. Losing this income would not adversely affect my situation at all; I could still feed, clothe and lodge without it, so it really isn't worth the risk of being tangled up in the nightmarish web of paranoia and corruption that is my government's financial auditing system. My commissioners are open to being flexible regarding payment methods, and I don't care about having the money instantly available for personal use on payday. Therefore, I'm curious if anyone here can recommend alternate payment methods that are A) not a huge hassle for the payer, B) don't require the money to pass through my bank account first.

If there's nothing feasible that doesn't also break the law, I'm fine with just telling these people 'buy me something on my Amazon wish-list occasionally' or something similar, or even cutting off this source of awkwardness entirely and refocusing my efforts elsewhere. But I figure it's worth a try to ask. Even if the answer is 'you have no options, cut it off, I'll at least know for the future.

Edit: After looking at my options and seeing there's nothing that wouldn't be legally disingenuous, I'm just going to ask that what I earn be donated to charity instead. Thanks for the advice I got, and I appreciate the honesty people had.
 
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I don't know what country you're talking about, but it seems like you're trying to avoid paying taxes. This is probably why your federal government is hassling you.

You're also, in essence, asking Kiwifarms "how do I efficiently launder money" which I'm not confident anybody here can help with. Your only real option (since you can't hoard cash and quietly deposit it into a bank account 'in sensible amounts' every two weeks, making you look like an ordinary wage slave) is cryptocurrency. Funnel your money there, then quickly spend it on things that won't depreciate over time. I recommend gold, land and likely-to-be-banned firearms.
 
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Is it enough money to warrant setting up a (foreign) LLC? That would cost a few hundred dollars at most, and keep the money out of your personal account. Registering a small business and getting a separate bank account for it would do the same and probably cost less.
 
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Something I will say though, as an after thought:

Back when I used to do commissions I would always ask the client pay with the friends and family option because I sort of recall that it wouldn't charge you the fee? It's not exactly legal though, since like its basically asking the client to trust you enough to finish the commission and the other option is basically made so that if you were to fail in finishing the commission the client would be protected and reimbursed. I could be remembering wrong though cause it's been like many years since I used Paypal and many more since I took a commission.

A lot of artists in general who use Paypal to take art commissions ask that they pay in this manner. I still think they should just move to cryptocurrency, Paypal will absolutely never have your back, ever. You should try to be self-reliant and cryptocurrency is the way to do that.
 
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DumbDude42 said:
have you considered bitcoin? it solves your problem (institutions watching and recording your financial transactions) very thoroughly.

alternatively, you can ask them to send you cash via mail, old school. it's kinda slow but very much untrackable.
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I have strongly considered bitcoin, which is currently the direction I'm leaning towards.

Zodiac said:
I'm like 95% sure this person draws furry porn, cause this is a common complaint in the community especially with Paypal involved.
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Hahaha, no. You use Patreon for that. I do literary odd jobs, audio/video editing and simple research. The kind of necessary-but-boring work in fields where more dedicated people have better things to do, and are happy to out-source. My primary advantage stems from racism; nobody serious wants to use Fiverr or any other platform like that, because they're infested with zero-effort Indians operating borderline scams.

crocodilian said:
I don't know what country you're talking about, but it seems like you're trying to avoid paying taxes. This is probably why your federal government is hassling you.

You're also, in essence, asking Kiwifarms "how do I efficiently launder money" which I'm not confident anybody here can help with. Your only real option (since you can't hoard cash and quietly deposit it into a bank account 'in sensible amounts' every two weeks, making you look like an ordinary wage slave) is cryptocurrency. Funnel your money there, then quickly spend it on things that won't depreciate over time. I recommend gold, land and likely-to-be-banned firearms.
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I'm not being hassled, and probably won't be, with the amount I'm making (we're talking less than 1k a month at present, with the remote possibility of a raised average in future), I just don't want to run the risk of potential awkwardness further down the line. I'd actually be in a way better position if I was making a lot more from this, as I could just make it an actual job. But as it is, it's hovering on the line of 'too much of a legal annoyance for too little long-term gain'. If money-laundering is my only serious option, then I'm ready to just drop the whole thing. I figured it was at least worth asking about options before I make a decision.
 
I'm far from being any kind of expert at money laundering, but for not too huge amounts, might it be feasible for some clients to pay you by buying anonymous pre-paid credit cards and then transferring them to you?

Anyone more knowledgeable than me spot any glaringly obvious flaws in doing that?
 
Sgt. Pinback said:
I'm far from being any kind of expert at money laundering, but for not too huge amounts, might it be feasible for some clients to pay you by buying anonymous pre-paid credit cards and then transferring them to you?

Anyone more knowledgeable than me spot any glaringly obvious flaws in doing that?
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This was also something I considered, so I'd like to know as well.
 
Pre-paid cards across borders is a bigger red flag I’d think - if you can travel internationally could you setup an account tied to PayPal etc and then make the flow from that to yours be “regular”? It would depend omg the country I suppose.
 
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