Zhihua

I would like to build an website which provides information services.
There is no such convenient service for people who are from my country
and lives in USA
I would like to be able to receive donation from users to pay for the
hosting, equipment fee

But the thing is: I am on H1B visa with company A and I heard that I
cannot receive payment for working for another company.

So I want to ask, can I receive donation for building websites? Do I
have to file any tax form for that?

ian-mstm

As far as I know, a person with an H1B visa can not be self employed.

Ian

James

Thanks for the reply.

So, you mean, receiving donation is also considered working?

Bob

yup

ian-mstm

Will the donations be paid directly to the hosting service? No... the donations will be given to you... and you will pay the hosting service. In other words, the donations are offsetting the cost of you running the business. And you can not be self employed on an H1B.

Ian

-James

Thank you. I saw some website such as dreamhost.com provide donation
service where the donation can only go to the hosting fee. That's why I
thought it might be an exception.

Thanks.