Etymonline is back "on a solid footing"
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Dear Friends of Etymonline,
At last I can send a message to you who were helpful to this website during last year's IRS battle. My apologies for not doing this sooner, but I wanted to wait till there was a resolution to report. And with bureaucracy, that can take time.
As expected, I lost the fight to be kept from being defined by the government as a "business." However, aided by a capable professional person (reference available on request) who is also a fan of the site, I filed to incorporate etymonline, and did it honestly here in Pennsylvania instead of pretending to be from Delaware to save money, as some corporations do.
Then, again with the help of our accounting volunteer, my wife and I refiled our taxes for the year in question, with apporpriate deductions, and managed to erase the bulk of the debt. They even sent us back a check for about $20 in interest. I cherish that like a bartender who gets a dime tip from Scrooge. If this was a shop, that bill would be framed and on the wall.
All this should put the site on a solid footing. The non-profit option was tempting, but it turned out to be just not feasible in the current situation. The contributions from supporters got us over the hump.
So, etymonline is in business now. That shouldn't make a difference in the site. I anticipate continuing the Google ads, which, though they led me into this mess, generate sufficient steady income and require no extra work.
The next step will be some updating to the mechanics of the site. With a guaranteed income, I can now devote money to paying a professional web designer (who is working at a discount, as a frequent user of the site) to tweak the "search" function, make etymonline more friendly to the hand-held devices, and otherwise bring its functionality up to date.
Again, thank you personally for your help in getting the site through a trying time.
Best wishes, Doug Harper