Quick Update [Admin, Patreon]

[siderea]

Thought I'd give you a quick update re Patreon: I'm fine, at least for now.

For those of you not aware of what's going on with Patreon, the Apple Tax started. Author Catherynne Valente posted earlier today that "I woke up to my income slashed by 28% despite no change in patrons" and "It also seems iOS subscriptions are subject to a 75 DAY hold, which is truly beyond any normal processing time".

My own Patreon income is down not at all. When I check to see which patrons of mine subscribed through the Patreon Apple app, it comes up none. I don't know if that's actually true, or a technical glitch they'll be getting around to fixing, or a deliberate artifact of phased roll-out. I am cautiously optimistic that it's actually true.

I'm still up against the November deadline for when Patreon turns off my business model. But in the meanwhile, the Apple Tax hasn't hit me and Patreon's latest shenanigans haven't impacted me.

Edit: it's now been over 24 hours, and I haven't heard from a single other creator that they're seeing what Catherynne Valente reports. Additionally, it seems that the Apple Tax is only supposed to be applied to new subscribers going forward? So maybe she's caught in some other Patreon glitch, distinct from the Apple Tax.

Comments

[wobblegong]

Small mercies! I still want to throw the whole situation into a trash heap but if you get at least a few more months of Patreon income without nonsense nibbling it away, I'm glad for that much.

(And I can personally confirm Apple is not involved in my Patreon anythings, so that would make me one head out of however many that is accurately reflected.)

[sleeperchance]

I'm glad you haven't yet been hit by the Apple Tax, and hope that continues. Are you still casting about for Patreon replacements?

[siderea]

Yeah. A lot of things that look like they might plausibly, with enough work, be made into something usable turn out to just integrate with Stripe for payment processing. Stripe doesn't support pen names. It supports corporate names, so maybe if I incorporate.

[sleeperchance]

If you're not already an LLC for professional purposes, I can tell you (what one website says) about incorporating and maintaining an LLC in MA.

[sleeperchance]

Huh. Well, if you don't already know about incorporating as an LLC, I can tell you (what one website says) about its costs in MA.

[siderea]

I'm familiar. It's a big chunk of change and I am not thrilled at the idea of BOI filing.

[mindways]

Not sure if this is what you meant by "pen names", but does Stripe support DBA (doing business as) names? IANAL, but I've seen indications that one can use a DBA even if not formally incorporated: this article, and I recall that when I registered as a household employer[*] with MA, the documentation suggested it would be best to do so as something like "$MY_NAME HOUSEHOLD", which implies that doing so is not required.

(I'm guessing you're already incorporated for professional stuff so won't tangent off into single-member LLC stuff, but if I'm wrong, and you're looking for info/experiences, I'm happy to share.)

[*] = For paying an ongoing/long-term sitter. (Which was an unpleasant adventure; anyone giving people flak for paying nannies off the books should try complying with those laws themselves while scattered and sleep-deprived.)

[siderea]

> Not sure if this is what you meant by "pen names", but does Stripe support DBA (doing business as) names?

It does not!! I am still so pissed about this. That would be a reasonable solution if they did, but, no, they require incorporation as at least an LLC or better, i.e. your state's Dept of State needs to be involved.

(I have a Stripe account for cc processing for my psychotherapy practice, and I have a DBA, and they won't use it. I tried.)

> I'm guessing you're already incorporated for professional stuff

I'm not, but I'm pretty well acquainted with it, because I was this >< close to pulling the trigger on an LLC for my practice when the Federal BOI filing rules went into effect, and I was all, Mmmmm, maybe registering my business with the Feds isn't something I want to do?

Basically, the BOI filing rules are an end-run around using a Registered Agent. That is, like, their whole point. I'm not trying to conceal my being the beneficial owner of my business from the feds, or any government, but I am trying to conceal my home location from the general public, because therapists are supposed to try to keep themselves hard to stalk. FinCen requires home addresses and swears they'll keep them confidential, but given what happened with the NPI database, I'm not feeling super confident in how seriously our federal government in general takes data security.

[ckd]

I suspect the business model is why you haven't been hit with the Apple Tax, since IIUC the reason Patreon is deprecating the per-item model is because it doesn't work with Apple's subscription model.

[moodsong]

I saw somebody else complaining about this last night but I can't remember who now.