Originally Posted by
philemer
My guess is no. Why? They may value the pts at 0.01 each so at $500 they wouldn't have to issue a 1099. Pure speculation on my part.
Your speculation is wrong. You may be thinking about the AA miles Citi Offer. Miles have no fixed value, quite different from the UR pts. Citi sends out 1099 on TYP bonus earned from opening banking accounts IIRC.
All bonuses earned from banking side that can have a fixed valuation method are taxable.
Chase routinely sends out / put it online, banking account opening bonuses. We do the Saving account each year, depositing 10K for $150 or $15K for $200 depending on the offer - never failed to get a 1099. In fact on the docs you get when opening the account, the 1099 is specifically mentioned.
This offer is an effective 2% APY given the duration to earn the bonus is 3 months.