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Old Feb 5, 2022 | 6:04 am
  #4585  
apeortdz
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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.
Originally Posted by bj2757
I received mine for the first time today. No information or means of figuring out how they came to that figure - $775. Can we deduct for the time involved??? :-)
You cannot deduct for your time. You probably got 31 gift cards of $25.

Originally Posted by bj2757
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 :-)
TurboTax handles the income correctly if you add it as 1099-NEC. You do have to pay SE tax on the earnings.

Originally Posted by beachmouse
I've put my cash earnings from other survey panels down as hobby income in previous years and never had an issue with it. It's typically been $3K or less.

For those who got a 1099-NEC did e-Rewards let you know it was coming or did it just show up? Haven't heard anything from e-Rewards about me getting one and I'd like to go ahead and deal with taxes but I obviously can't do that if I'm short a form.
They let you know a few months prior that your earnings exceed $600 and you have to fill out a W-4. So, if you did not hear anything, you are good.

Last edited by apeortdz; Feb 5, 2022 at 7:09 am
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