Have Tax Information questions? Post here!

[PayPal_Adrian]

Welcome to the Tax Information thread!

Should I post my question here?

Starting in 2011, all U.S. payment providers, including PayPal will be required by the IRS to report sales information about merchants who exceed $20,000 and 200 transactions to the IRS. If your question is related to this topic, please reply with a question or to assist another member.

We will  be merging existing questions in the Community into this board.  More information will be made available later.  Until an update is provided, please check out the previous IRS Workshop and www.paypal.com/irs. 

What questions don't go here?

All other tax-related questions, such as Profile settings for Tax, adding tax to invoices, adding tax to payments, whether or not you should charge your buyers tax, what tax rates to charge, are considered Off Topic and will be moved.  These questions are better placed in the About Business board instead.

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[TimPCCI]

thanks vm for your post!

[ber]

Hello,

Can anyone tell me how to get my 1099k? I checked under the history, tax documents, and there is nothing. I have not received anything from paypal in the mail. How do I know what was reported?

[MisterEd]

Just like any bank they have until Jan 31st to "SEND IT OUT."  It's not there yet because it's not Jan 31st.  If they want, they can extend that date by 30 days by contacting the IRS and asking for an extension.

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@ber wrote:

Hello,

Can anyone tell me how to get my 1099k? I checked under the history, tax documents, and there is nothing. I have not received anything from paypal in the mail. How do I know what was reported?

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[4Crawler]

For merchants that file CA state sales tax forms, those need to be into (postmarked the state board or equalization by 1/31/2012.  So if I do not see my reported 1099k gross sales figure until after that date, how can I be sure that the gross sales I am reporting to the state for sale tax purposes will match the gross sales numbers for state and federal income tax purposes. 

Yes I am aware that Paypal is not sending the 1099k forms to the state sales tax folks, but they do send them to the IRS and apparently to the California Franchise Tax Board.  And if I have different numbers on the sales tax forms than on the income tax forms, bad things start to happen. 

So can someone from Paypal post a method by which I, as a merchant, can duplicate the numbers on my 1099k forms with information I can access in my account's "Reports" section?  For example, is the total gross sales on the 1099k form going to be equal to the "Payments Received" line on the 2011 Financial Statement report I can access from my account Reports menu?  Or is it some other number?  It is not like the way in which Paypal gets the data that makes up the numbers that go onto the 1099k form is some trade secret.  In this day and age of financial transparency, why can't us sellers know what data will be reported in this form 1099k?  As it is, there is no way I can even check the validity of the number Paypal reports, since I have no idea how they come up with the data.  So I am pretty much stuck having to live with that reported data, whatever it is, and I have to report something by the end of business on 1/31 !!!!!

[Deboray]

I am in the same boat with my state.  Still waiting.....and since I can't file my state sales tax because I didn't get the 1099k..now I have to pay a fine for being late paying these taxes due today! I have no choice because these figures must agree for the federal forms.  Still waiting and wondering how long it will be???? I have never been late paying my taxes EVER! This is stressful not knowing what to do....if these are sent out late then why are we not notified? If anyone knows when we are to expect these forms, I would sure appreciate knowing so I can file the taxes required of me.

[4Crawler]

After long hours on the phone with some Paypal folks, it seems that if you print out/download the 2011 Financial Summary report and look under the "Sales Activity" section.  The "Payments Received" line should be what goes into the 1099-K form line 1.  Only difference would be if you have personal payments in there, not sure if there is a separate total with and without personal payments (I don't have any on my summary), but you want the total payments received less any personal payments. So hope that information helps out someone, I asked those I spoke with to post that basic information on-line, but all you get in response is "Paypal can't give tax advice".

Since I had to file my Calif. sales tax return today, I needed a total sales figure that will jive with what Paypal will be reporting on the 1099-k form.  Yes, I know that form is not sent to the Calif, Board of Equalizarion (sales tax folks), but it is sent to the IRS and according to the Paypal.com/irs page to the CA Franchise Tax Board and the sales tax folks talk to the income tax folks, so the total sales on my state sales and income tax forms should match.  THus the reason any CA merchant needs to have the total sales number that Paypal will be reporting before 1/31. 

Sure, Paypal is meeting the bare minimum IRS regs by sending out the forms postmarked on 1/31, but since all the folks getting those forms are merchants and since they should all be filing sales tax returns in their various states, one would think that Paypal could go a little above and beyond the minimum IRS regs and get us the 1099-k data a few days before the end of the month. It seems that they are unaware of who is getting these 1099-k forms and what all other entities aside from who they "officially" send them to.  Supposedly they start sending out the electronic forms on 1/29 but can only send out so many a day for some unknown reason and it'll take several weeks for those to go out (I've not seen mine yet in spite of letting everyone that would listen that I need mine as early as possible).  Maybe we can all chip in and buy the guy sending those out a faster modem or something 🙂

Not sure is CA is unique in filing on 1/31, but there is also no filing extension mechanism that I can see, if that is your date, you file on that date, period.

[OneEyedWilly]

Totally agree with you here about getting the 1099K to us a little earlier.  However, I must admit that as a business owner I should be responsible for keeping track of my income and should at any time of the year have an almost perfect record of how much revenue I have generated and my expenses.  It is not the responsibility of Pay Pal to be my accountant.  Maybe we are being a little to dependent on others to do our work for us.  I can pretty much guarantee you this is how "The Man"  see's it. 

[4Crawler]

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@OneEyedWilly wrote:

Totally agree with you here about getting the 1099K to us a little earlier.  However, I must admit that as a business owner I should be responsible for keeping track of my income and should at any time of the year have an almost perfect record of how much revenue I have generated and my expenses.  It is not the responsibility of Pay Pal to be my accountant.  Maybe we are being a little to dependent on others to do our work for us.  I can pretty much guarantee you this is how "The Man"  see's it. 

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Yes, I do keep books that are up to date during the year.  I add every transaction as they come in and add expenses every week or so and things like Paypal fees every month when I get the monthly tally from the reports menu.  However, the issue I have is that I can't match Paypal's gross payments received total.  I'm within a few percent, but without knowing exactly how they are calculating that number, I am left in the dard until I get my paper 1099-k.  Problem is that document comes to me 4 days after I need the information that is on it.  How am I supposed to reconcile my books on 1/31/12 to file my state sales taxes to a number I don't know and will be responsible for paying taxes based off that unknown number than I don't know until 2/3/12???

If I report a number on the state sales tax that is less than what I report on my state and federal income tax, the state comes after me for the extra and if I report more on the sales tax than on the income tax, then the income tax folks start asking why.  So I need to know the number earlier or not at all.  I hope that the proposed legislation working through the Congres passes to stop this lunacy.  Or else at least Paypal could do like Amazon and post the e-forms on-line by 1/26:

- http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/cab/abn/y12/m01/i30/s01

I still can't understand how I can get a paper form and still not see the electronic form.  I mean the USPS can move information faster than the speed of light.  First neutrinos and now the USPS, what is this world coming to???

And when it comes to April 15th when I have to sign my 1040 form, I have to vouch for every number on that return but I don't know what is in that 1099-k form number.  If I can't duplicate it with my data, how can I sign the return and say I stand by all the information on that return? 

[fdavidm]

I mistakenly asked about accessing a 1099-RW when I really meant to ask about accessing my 1099-K for 2011. I'm sure I satisfied the threshold and nothing is listed under the Tax Return tab. the customer support person I spoke to was totally clueless about this. Are they being sent out by mail or must we print them on-line?

[sweetmelissa43]

I'd really like to know myself.  I keep waiting and waiting with all my other tax documents in hand.  Everyday I check the tab to see if today's the day I get to get my taxes in the works.