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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[4Crawler]

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@brewhardware wrote:

I got forwarded to a guy named John, sorry I didn't get any other info on who he was but he seemed to care about getting it figured out. He actually called me back when he made more progress figuring it out. At the very least it seems there are a few people on the merchant support side that are competant. I called the same number everyone else calls.

I totally agree that they should provide better documentation. That's no question.

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Funny thing when I called, I was told numerous times that "you are the only merchant calling us about this 1099-k number" and that "you are killing us with these constant questions" (that is verbatim).  They made disparaging remarks about my business/accounting knowledge and that all the problems I was having was due to my lack of experience and knowledge.  My main contact was named Aaron as I recall.  I asked to speak to his manager/supervisor, was put on hold for a long time then Aaron got back on the line and said his supervisor was tied up on something else and I could not talk to her.  So if I was the only one calling them, why is the team's supervisor so busy that she can't take my call?

This whole thing must be costing Paypal huge amounts of money in terms of time their support folks are spending on the phone with every merchant that must be having the same questions (judging by this thread).  Why not have one or two of the support folks that know what the deal is, sit down and write up their knowledge and post it on the IRS help page frequently asked question section?  I would think that this qualifies as a Frequently Asked Question in my book. 

In my business, when I get the same question asked by customers a few times, I end up writing up the answer and posting the Q and A on my business web site.  Then potential customer's can either look up the information themselves, or if they contact us with that question, we can just point them to the answer already on-line.  Saves boat loads of time and money.

[rdwngsfn]

Here's the skinny on this mess. Your total on your 1099k includes as income, all moneys posted to your account

through paypal concerning any sale including, actual sale amount, taxes, shipping charges and fee's related to that sale

and who knows what else paypal deems as a fee. It will not match your year end financial statement from paypal no matter how hard you try.  After spending two hours with my accountant who has 20 years experience, she threw up her hands and

gave me back my paperwork and told me good luck, if I find the answer come back. So..I called paypal and I was

informed to used the 1099k reconciliation form.  This is supposed to tell you the extra fees that they charged per

transaction.  What a joke, I got a random list of dates and figures a mile long with no explanation......guess that's

for me to figure out.  Oh...and paypal informed me that the IRS requires them to report all of our fees included in

 the sales transactions as income.  Last I knew I wasn't selling the USPS, just my goods, but whatever.

So...called the IRS for help...again our Great Government at work here....they have NO INTENTION of using the

1099K's this year!!!!   So forget them...I was told to use MY OWN figures and forget the 1099K they are just

let's say...experimenting and planning on using it in the future should they ever figure out what they are doing.

So...in short....do your own math with your own paperwork to support your own figures.

I'm tired.....days and hours wasted. Good luck everyone!!!

[Smokymist]

How is this even possible ? what number did you call, as I would like to hear this  myself.

[brewhardware]

I'd be careful interpreting the statement that the IRS won't do anything with the 1099. The forms are not specifically setup to accept the figures found in box 1. That is true. However, if you get a 1099 with $80,000 on it and you only claim an income of $25,000, I wouldn't surprised if get a call from an auditor. In other words, don't assume that you're out of the paper trail and discount paypal processed income as under the table for another year.

[rdwngsfn]

Oh for sure, I am not going to dismiss the 1099K.  I keep better records than most I guess and yes, it's close but

with enough discrepencies in numbers to make me question where they get their figures.  I will no doubt get as close

as I can, I for one, won't mess with the IRS....with that said however, yes, I went to  IRS.gov and called and yes,

I have her name and CS number written down, with my phone on speaker for my adult daughter to hear, she did

in fact tell me that they were not putting any stock in the 1099K's, that they sent them out for us to get used them.

And to quote the agent, "Use your own records and figures to determine your taxes".  I can only imagine with all of

the problems, the have a lot of "tweeking" to do to get the whole system in sync. I'm one of those **bleep**, my check

book better balance to the "T" or I go nuts, so you can imagine the time I have spent trying to sort out all the crazy

figures they threw at me!!  Good luck to all...I'm taking a break from it for now.

[ssartery]

My paypal account has the wrong social security number ... I tried to update it in my settings and it said contact customer service to do this. I contacted customer service and they claim they can't change it. So, how do I get this changed ? AND how can I get my 1099-K document corrected ? I have found paypal's customer service to be very poor in the various tickets I have started. They either ignore your email or say they can't do anything about it . Its not much better when you call either !

[JJ1099]

      I receive the 1099-k form. Most of the payment received were for a third party that I okayed to to send payments to my account. He acknowledges this and has agreed to be entered as a "nominee" to my 1099-k. This nominee suggestion came from my tax advisor. I have tried to call Paypal customer service which told me they do not do this.

     What options are available if Patpal will not make the required change???

[Nate851]

I won't be going by the 1099-K form, the numbers are not accurate. Hundreds of dollars over each month compared to my monthly financial statements through PayPal, make no sense why these are not accurate? What a mess.

[Lamyu48198]

I do not konw if I am at the right place to post my question.

If I am wrong, please correct me. Thanks in advanced.

I have question regarding the tax return for year 2011.

I am foriegn student having F1 visa and I do not live in US for the whole year 2011.

Now, I have received the 1099K tax form, should I file the tax return for the year 2011, please?

If I should, what form(s) to use, please?

Thanks for the kind suggestions.

William

[loudcanvas]

I did NOT receive a Form 1099-K and thought I was supposed to. What should I do?

I know I crossed the 20k and 200 transactions threshold for reporting (I know this because I was emailed and told I did) -- but I did not receive a Form 1099-K from PayPal.

I DID log in to my PayPal account and clicked History. I selected Tax Documents from the drop-down. Nothing was there for 2011!

Online help says "If a Form 1099-K was issued for your account, it will be listed here and available to download or print. If a Form 1099-K is not listed, and you still feel like you should have one, contact PayPal for assistance."

I am now contacting you for assistance. How do I get my 1099-K form issued (either electronically or via mail)? Please advise.

P.S. Emailing Paypal is extremely difficult as the dropdowns for "Topic" and "Subtopic" are very limited; there is no appropriate categories for this question - which is why I'm posting in this community forum. 

Thanks anyone in advance,

SD