Id like to offer friends of mine a referral bonus for referring wedding clients to me but have just read alot of mixed words on this matter. Im sure there would have to be alot of fine print but I think it would be a great way to drive in business. Im assuming I would have to pay them by check and it would have to be claimed as income on thier part but other than that, I dont see why this would be considered a bad thing. Especially with facebook. I can post a not and let all my friends share it and can hit a massive number of potential clients.

What are some of all your thoughts here?

Your referral bonus could also be valued at $50 for services you offer. So prints, sitting fees, etc..

I'm no tax expert and I wouldn't want to tell you how to advise those who received the bonus (if you offer cash) except to say "you're responsible for any tax liabilities and any questions should be referred to your tax professional." or something like that.

Originally Posted by Bryans12v Id like to offer friends of mine a referral bonus for referring wedding clients to me but have just read alot of mixed words on this matter. Im sure there would have to be alot of fine print but I think it would be a great way to drive in business. Im assuming I would have to pay them by check and it would have to be claimed as income on thier part but other than that, I dont see why this would be considered a bad thing. Especially with facebook. I can post a not and let all my friends share it and can hit a massive number of potential clients. What are some of all your thoughts here?

Bryan,

My take on this is no. You can thank your friends or people giving you a lead that books with you on an unofficial after the fact basis. Buy them a bottle of wine, a pizza, dinner etc. But the recommendation should come from your good work not because it will affect their pocketbook.

Besides after looking at your pricing it doesn't look like you have an extra $5.00 in your packages much less $50.00.

Sam

Originally Posted by Sam Bryan, My take on this is no. You can thank your friends or people giving you a lead that books with you on an unofficial after the fact basis. Buy them a bottle of wine, a pizza, dinner etc. But the recommendation should come from your good work not because it will affect their pocketbook. Besides after looking at your pricing it doesn't look like you have an extra $5.00 in your packages much less $50.00. Sam

Why not offer them 10% of the sale, it will encourage people to find you the bigger spenders. If they go for a $2000 portrait package, they will make $200! :)

I generally offer 10% in print credit, with a limit of 1/3 of the purchase total. :) Say they refer me someone that spends $500, they get a $50 studio credit and have to spend at least $150 to redeem it. For commercial friends, they would get 10% in studio credit or 5% in cash.

You guys are seriously worrying about tax liabilities for a $50 Referal?

Are you just being overly pedantic or is everyone in the US that uptight?

If the thought even crosses your mind it would seem to me you are getting stupid advise or you are far too worried about the pennies to be making any real $$ in business.

Thank God we are not that Uptight and Politically correct in Oz. Nothing would ever get done nor any business make a quid.

From my own experience that kind of stuff just doesn't bring in any business. Maybe someone out there has a huge success story to tell about how it did work for them????

Originally Posted by Glort You guys are seriously worrying about tax liabilities for a $50 Referal? Are you just being overly pedantic or is everyone in the US that uptight? If the thought even crosses your mind it would seem to me you are getting stupid advise or you are far too worried about the pennies to be making any real $$ in business. Thank God we are not that Uptight and Politically correct in Oz. Nothing would ever get done nor any business make a quid.

Glort,

Just to clarify, here in The US our government routinely refuses to apprehend, prosecute or incarcerate many criminals. Many criminals are let loose as soon as possible. The government tells us not to take justice into our own hands yet can not protect us or our property.

BUT! If a normal US citizen fails to fill out or pay what they think is owned in taxes they will follow you to your grave. Dealing with the IRS is reminiscent to dealing with the Nazi SS.

So yes many are uptight about it.

As for the rest of your post....................yes we are coming to a halt, political correctness and bureaucracy is building an impenetrable wall to success.

Sam

Originally Posted by Sam Glort, Just to clarify, here in The US our government routinely refuses to apprehend, prosecute or incarcerate many criminals. Many criminals are let loose as soon as possible. The government tells us not to take justice into our own hands yet can not protect us or our property. BUT! If a normal US citizen fails to fill out or pay what they think is owned in taxes they will follow you to your grave. Dealing with the IRS is reminiscent to dealing with the Nazi SS. So yes many are uptight about it. As for the rest of your post....................yes we are coming to a halt, political correctness and bureaucracy is building an impenetrable wall to success. Sam

word

Originally Posted by Sam Glort, Just to clarify, here in The US our government routinely refuses to apprehend, prosecute or incarcerate many criminals. Many criminals are let loose as soon as possible. The government tells us not to take justice into our own hands yet can not protect us or our property. BUT! If a normal US citizen fails to fill out or pay what they think is owned in taxes they will follow you to your grave. Dealing with the IRS is reminiscent to dealing with the Nazi SS. So yes many are uptight about it. As for the rest of your post....................yes we are coming to a halt, political correctness and bureaucracy is building an impenetrable wall to success. Sam

Things are not that Different here in the US of Australia. A guy I know quite well and talk to regularly is a seriously hard arse bikie that has been shot, stabbed ( both numerous times) and rubs shoulders with some of the biggest heavies in the Country. Despite that he's a bloody nice guy and a very loyal, thoughtful and giving of himself to help people type friend.

It never fails to amaze me though how he is seriously afraid of nothing, but is openly terrified of the tax department. He had a relatively Minor run in with them when he was much younger but the experience has certainly put more than the fear of god into the guy.

He too says once they have you on their radar, they never leave you alone till you are dead and then they are going to be all over your beneficiary's anyway. He also says if you want to take out some competition or someone is hassling you, there are ways and means but you can't send the boys round to sort out the leader of the tax department or threaten them with anything like you can another gang.

It's pretty funny to look at this guy and then have the mental picture of him not being the least concerned about a mob of guys with guns and knives, but seriously shaking at his boots when Mr Peabody from the tax department wants to have a chat.


That said, no one here would even have tax issues for a $50 kickback cross their mind. I have never heard of the tax department showing any concern for something so small and difficult to prove. Their mentality is their time is far better spent chasing the people putting effort into hiding millions than someone not declaring even a couple of grand a year. If you are blatently ripping them off, look out but they do no go hassling people for what is going t make them a few bucks at best.

There are a number of well known loopholes people get away with like tax on goods bought overseas such as with ebay escaping sales tax. Their public stance is even though they are loosing tens of Millions a year it will cost more to collect the tax by going through the 200,000 items a day or whatever it is than what the returns earnt would be ,so they are not interested.

Funnily enough, of all the gubbermint departments that exist, the tax department has about the best reputation for being helpful, offering good service, being fair, easy to deal with and generally being what you wish every other gubbermint department was like on a customer service basis. You don't cross them but they are not known as being in anyway unreasonable or going after people for petty sums.
If the IRS are the opposite, perhaps that could be one reason your economy is in the less than perfect state it is in.

At least here they make taking your money as pleasant an experience as it can possibly be.

Originally Posted by zoomer From my own experience that kind of stuff just doesn't bring in any business. Maybe someone out there has a huge success story to tell about how it did work for them????

I used to offer wedding reception places, cake decorators, bridal shops etc, $200 for every referal I booked. I had cards I printed myself with the name of the refering business and made it as a "thank you for being our client ( wheter they used them or not) heres a gift to you from us" type thing where they got an extra wall print or whatever.

I promoted it to the other vendors as the ability to make money from people they spent their time talking to but may not have booked as well as a way to increase the value of the sales they did make for doing nothing.

This did bring me in a substantial amount of work and was very worth while. It's much cheaper to pay $200 for every booking you do get than $2000 upfront for a magazine ad that has no gaurantee of success what so ever!

IF you have 10 people refering you and they only refer you one lead you book every 2 months, you still have better than one wedding a week.
That's pretty damn good in my book.

Especially my bank book.