Yes, even with an accountant, everyone should understand what is going on with their taxes. 1099s are not required for total yearly payments to a contractor of less than $600 (this is considered casual labor) but this money is still reportable as income by the recipient.

Jenny

Tammy,
I would also suggest that you hire an accoutant or educated tax preparer (and not one of those tax time only places since they hire off the street and train based on their software programs).

W-2's are issued by employeers and taxes and other employee items are deducted thereby giving you a net pay. These are reported on 1040 forms. 1099's are issued by your clients and no taxes are deducted. 1099 payment are income and reported on schedule C and taxes are reported on schedule SE.

Like Rebecka said information can be found on the IRS website. It is best to gather all receipts, paypal reports, accounting software records and any other records that you have to take to your preparer. They can help you decide what is allowable.

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Lee Drozak

1099s are only required when you earn more than $600 in a year from a given entity, but that doesn't mean you're not still obligated to report the income.

If you are ever audited and they look at your bank records and the numbers don't match what you've reported... they're going to get you, and it may not be pretty.

Plus, it's important to know that the IRS looks much closer at home-based businesses so the odds that you'll be audited tend to be higher.

Also something else to remember is that for some occupations, you can take a self-employment credit. This may not apply to most of you here, but notaries, for example, earn a credit against SE tax for notarial fees. HOWEVER.... a credit to SE tax means a reduction in contributions to Social Security, so if you don't have a solid method of retirement or fallback in case of disability, you do NOT want to take that credit.

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Marian Harmon, Certified Virtual Assistant
www.crossmydesk.com

All good and informative stuff. Question, if someone does pay you more than $600 and does not provide you with a 1099, don't THEY get in trouble when you report it on your return?

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Derek Brodka
Orion Business Ventures

Originally Posted by obvusa

All good and informative stuff. Question, if someone does pay you more than $600 and does not provide you with a 1099, don't THEY get in trouble when you report it on your return?

Maybe, maybe not. Because you didn't get a 1099 from them, you'll simply be reporting it as business income, which you don't list the specific source for. For instance, I only had one client that paid me over $600, so just one 1099. But that was only a portion of my income. The rest was various payments for smaller projects throughout the year. I didn't itemize that income, I just put XX dollars on the Schedule C, business income. So there's no real way for the IRS to even know where that income came from, unless they audit me and request to see my books. Which is unlikely, as my less than 10K income isn't worth it for the IRS to have fits about!

However, the person paying you more than $600 could get in trouble if they are unable to account for where the money went, and they try to deduct it as a business expense.

It wouldn't be your return that alerted the IRS to that, though. It would be the return of the person paying you.

That makes sense... Thank you! It was one of those questions that just "hangs around" in my head.

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Derek Brodka
Orion Business Ventures

It's a good question, though! Mt FT job (for now) is shared with a bunch of accountants and I see auditors here on a regular basis and overhear all kinds of things. I just asked one of them about this and he said that if the IRS audits a company who paid you more than $600 and failed to issue a 1099... it's likely the IRS could pull your file. They may just issue you a letter notifying you of the discrepancy and advise you to amend your return if you need to.... but even if you didn't get a 1099, you should have reported the income anyway so the letter is nothing more than a perfunctory issue to be filed away with that year's return.

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Marian Harmon, Certified Virtual Assistant
www.crossmydesk.com

Thanks Marian, good to know. I'm sure, we all like our friends at the IRS.:prrr: Who's for FairTax?

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Derek Brodka
Orion Business Ventures