When 88-year-old Army veteran Ed Bambas broke down crying at a supermarket checkout in Brighton, Michigan, it was after a stranger handed him a $400 tip. Within days, that moment became a viral video and a GoFundMe campaign worth about $1.93 million.
His story has struck people who know how hard it can be to keep up with rent, medical bills, and the weekly grocery run on a fixed income. It has also sparked a practical question: after fees and taxes, how much of that money will Bambas really keep?
From viral video to seven figure fund
Bambas served in the Army and then spent decades at General Motors, retiring in 1999 with what he thought was a safe pension. When the company went bankrupt in 2012, he says his pension and health coverage disappeared just as his wife’s illness drove medical costs higher, forcing him to sell his house and drain savings.
To stay afloat, he went back to work, taking a full time cashier job at a Meijer store and working five days a week at age 88. Australian content creator Sam Weidenhofer met him at the checkout, filmed the emotional moment as he gave Bambas $400, and later launched a GoFundMe campaign that quickly blew past its original one million dollar target to reach almost two million dollars.
The slice taken by GoFundMe fees
GoFundMe does not charge to open a personal fundraiser in the United States. Instead it takes a payment processing fee from each donation of 2.9 percent plus 30 cents, which covers credit card and banking costs while donors can also leave an optional tip to the company.
On a pot of roughly $1.93 million, that percentage works out to around $56,000. Adding about $20,000 in flat per donation charges based on the number of gifts listed on the page brings total processing costs close to $76,000, leaving Bambas with around $1.85 million before taxes or other expenses.
Will the IRS tax Bambas’s windfall?
Under federal rules, money received as a true gift is generally not taxed as income for the person who receives it, and the IRS says crowdfunding money can count as gifts when it comes from detached generosity and donors get nothing in return. Guidance from GoFundMe likewise tells organizers that personal fundraisers are usually treated as collections of personal gifts rather than taxable income, although special situations can be different.
Because strangers are simply giving Bambas money to help him retire, and not buying products or rewards, tax specialists say most or all of the campaign is likely to be treated as non-taxable gifts to him.
Even so, crowdfunding platforms often send recipients a Form 1099-K when large sums are raised, so he and his advisors will still need to document that the donations were gifts and keep careful records in case questions come up later.
What donors should know
For donors, the rules look a little different. The IRS allows anyone to give up to $19,000 to another person in 2025 without filing a federal gift tax return, thanks to the annual gift tax exclusion that is adjusted regularly for inflation.
Someone who gave more than that amount to Bambas this year would usually have to report it, but that still does not mean they will owe federal gift tax. Because the lifetime gift and estate tax exemption is set at about $13.99 million per person in 2025, only very wealthy donors ever reach the point where tax is actually due.
For almost everyone who chipped in smaller amounts, the key point is simpler: their contributions are not tax deductible, since Bambas is an individual rather than a registered charity, but there is no extra tax bill tied to a $20, $50, or $100 online gift.
A rare safety net in an uncertain retirement
Managing a late life windfall is not easy, so the supermarket chain has arranged lifelong, no cost financial planning support for Bambas through a local advisory firm, according to a local news story.
Advisors in cases like his often urge clients to clear debts, secure steady income for housing and groceries, and plan for medical needs before thinking about extras.
For Bambas, those extras may mean modest things like visiting his wife’s grave more often and no longer standing at a cash register for eight hours at a time. His story has highlighted how fragile retirement can be for older workers and veterans whose pensions vanish, but it has also shown how quickly ordinary people can build a safety net when they move together.
In the end, almost all of the money donated looks set to reach him, turning a $400 act of kindness into real financial security. The main fundraiser and official information about Bambas’s case have been published on GoFundMe.
