Almost all succesful creators on Patreon give you benefits for subscribing (early access to content, behind the scenes, etc.), so I don't see how you could possibly convince the IRS that it's a gift.
I don't, not the slightest amount, and I still don't try to convince the IRS that my sole source of income is 'a gift'. (not counting the pathetically small YouTube revenue)
It doesn't ACT like 'a gift', it acts like a paycheck. If a guy gets paid by a car dealership because he's the owner's kid without having to do anything, the IRS doesn't care whether he has to work for real but it very much cares whether he pays his taxes on his income.
But we have a specific word, patronage, to describe a payment that is specifically NOT for work, and of course a platform named for that my might reasonable consider payments on it patronage not payment for work.
At EU there is a tax issue so you pay money + 23% VAT.
It isn't consider a gift as you a gaining something (access to page) so you need to pay tax on that.
This is one thing that bothers me with patronite and other platforms. I wish I could simply send a gift (without acces to anything) and not to pay another tax on already taxed money.
The flipside of that is that Patreon handles the ugly details of making sure the right amount of VAT / sales tax is paid on transactions - and from a creator's point of view this is a big part of their value proposition.
If creators had to administer that stuff on an individual basis they'd have no time left for creating.
VAT rate is EU state based (varies 16-25%), the VAT has to applied to the one's 'donating' the money state of residence, as long as there is more than 10k euro/year revenue.
Many EU states tax tips as well (all the way -> VAT/corporate/income/social tax)
