FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - E-rewards [Master Thread]
View Single Post
Old Feb 4, 2022 | 9:09 pm
  #4581  
bj2757
10 Countries Visited
20 Countries Visited
30 Countries Visited
15 Years on Site
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: San Antonio
Programs: AA, SWA, CO, UA, PC Plat, HH Gold, SPG
Posts: 855
Originally Posted by apeortdz
I received my 1099-NEC yesterday and I was pleased with the way they valued my rewards. Gift cards are valued 1:1, i.e. at $25 each mostly. Hotel points and Magazines are valued at a very low dollar amount...about 1/15th of the true value (if you actually use the points) as far as I can tell.
Do you have past experience with this? I got my first 1099-NEC today for $775 for the gift cards I redeemed for last year. Entering the form on TurboTax opened a few cans of worms. The first was what kind of employee was I. Instead of the default there was one choice that said the income was from what I considered a hobby or something I did occasionally (but was warned that response would get more scrutiny - even though I feel that's the right category). If I took the default a Schedule C was opened, I had to name my business, etc etc etc - had to pay self employment tax ($120) and the full 15% SS (I did see part of that was refunded on the form). But then I caught that I now had $755 in "earned income" - something I haven't had since 2006 :-) That immediately made me wonder about putting that money in my traditional IRA which it said I could do - and that cut the increase in my taxes from $240 to about $50. When I went back and checked the "hobby" block my $240 in increased tax dropped to about $120 (eliminated the self employment tax and SS I assume) - BUT it didn't classify the $775 as "earned income" but instead listed it as "additional income." So no IRA option...

Anyway I was hoping you or some of the other smart folks here might have been down this road before and could offer some advice :-)
bj2757 is offline