Referral Fee vs. Donation

[Tara Nagelhout]

I am so badly trying to work out a program in which the basis is I will donate half my commission from a transaction (less direct expenses...blah blah ) to the client's charity of choice. I am being met with issues of paying a referral fee to an unlicensed person. I think this would be a great thing to do and I am so eager, but keep getting the red light! I am thinking if I advertise it as half my "profit" on a per transaction basis this might be okay. Any thoughts?

[Joseph Ferrara]

This is a wonderful idea. As I see it, your income is your income and you can choose to do what you like with it. I am an attorney in NY, if I can help Call me at 646-714-2720.

If you do this, I would like to write a post about your efforts and success:

http://goodsamrealestate.com/

[Bill Wendel]

Joe,

Anything new happening with Good Sam Real Estate? If nothing is in the pipeline, I'd live to share an idea or two. One of my clients is prepared to donate $1,000 from their rebate, and I'd like to multiply that 10 fold in the short-term and ultimately, 100 fold.

Bill

[Steve Mattison]

I was asked to address this scenario and to the best of my ability I must put it this way as I am NOT a lawyer. Churches are primarily God's representation and based on the example of Elijah and his servant, do not accept payment for doing God's will. There are exceptions and they eventually are going to be dealt with by the IRS and others, personal donations to those entities are not being addressed but paymnent for any service rendered only.