Crowdfunding Your Business Venture? Prepare for Taxes

Offering any sort of "reward" for donations could result in taxes ... but also credits and exemptions.

When Julie Uhrman, chief executive of gaming start-up Ouya Inc, went looking for funding to launch a new video gaming console, she turned to crowdfunding site Kickstarter Inc.

The goal: $950,000. Instead, when the campaign ended August 8, so many gamers and game developers had pledged $99 (or more) to get the new Android-based Ouya that the company raised $8.6 million, making it one of the biggest crowdfunding success stories ever.

"We've been in the public consciousness for only 30 days, and we sold over 60,000 boxes," Uhrman says. "There's a good audience (on Kickstarter) for the product we're trying to build, and it allowed us to move very quickly."

But one important thing has been overlooked: taxes.