Hello, new to the mturk thing. I called Amazon and asked if Mturk/Amazon sends out a 1099 for US workers who they pay and they said no. Does anyone file taxes on this?
It is not Amazon that sends out the 1099, it is the individual requesters that you work for. And yes, we pay taxes on our income. To do otherwise would be tax fraud. There is a lot of detailed information on this thread: http://mturkforum.com/showthread.php?4655-Tax-Information&highlight=taxes Also, stuff here: http://mturkforum.com/showthread.php?3811-Tax-Help...&highlight=taxes http://mturkforum.com/showthread.php?3712-Tax-Question&highlight=taxes http://mturkforum.com/showthread.php?3117-Taxes&highlight=taxes
I thought that this changed recently (like last month) http://mturkforum.com/showthread.php?5300-Tax-information-i-got-from-amazon!
I missed that, and you are right. Which conflicts with what Amazon told the OP, that they do not send out the 1099's. Or am I missing something else? Regardless, the onus is still on the worker to pay their taxes.
There appears to be some confusion on some of these threads as to when a 1099 is sent to you. I read on the IRS website that you don't have to file unless you make $600 or more. So, unless you earn that much from a requester. I don't think they will send a 1099, it has also been my experience that you would need to send them a W9 first as well. They should request a signed W9 form through something like EchoSign preferably, correct?
The IRS published new regulations under section 6050W. As a result of this change, Amazon Payments, as the third party payment network provider for Mechanical Turk transactions, is responsible for reporting transactions that meet the IRS thresholds via Form 1099-K, this reporting includes Worker earnings. As a result of this change, Mechanical Turk will no longer provide the Mechanical Turk tax report to Requesters. Read it amazon will no longer be giving requesters tax reports to file, only way you will receive anything is from amazon if you meet the 20k/200 threshold, it even states on the amazon aws forum site that requesters won't be doing any filing.
Can you link, please? Because no offense, but the tax code is so complex that the IRS does not make simple statements like that about whether you must file or not. There are almost always a whole bunch of what-ifs and except-ifs involved. No Mechanical Turk requesters have to send a 1099 for the 2012 tax year because of special regs now applying to Amazon Payments. However, they still may send 1099s anyway, if they have your tax info from previous years. They'd do this to cover their butts, because the new regs are so new that some are unsure of whether they have to or not. Some clearly are still operating on the old thresholds. EchoSign...preferably, perhaps, but they would be within their rights to send W9s through the mail, and some have done that. Again, though, they'd have to have your address from past years to do this. This is still the most important thing to keep in mind. It does not matter whether you physically receive a 1099 or not; you should keep in mind that you're getting a mailed copy, but the IRS can receive electronic copies. In other words, yours could just be lost on its way to you, so you shouldn't take for granted that no 1099 means the IRS doesn't know. After all, Amazon Payments has your social security number for a reason. If you want more details, I do have a post up on my blog that may help put all the thresholds in perspective. It may also explain the origin of the $600 figure.
After looking again at the IRS site, I can see why there is confusion, it's never a simple yes or no answer. The faq for the questions refers you to 1040 instructions. The 1040 refers you to charts that come in a "question and answer" type presentation in a pdf doc. I went further on to actually take a questionnaire that helps you determine. There are many exceptions that could require you to file regardless of the $400 self employed limit. I do think it's fair to say that under normal circumstances, you do not need to file for under $400.
Exactly---but that's $400 in self-employment income specifically. There are other floors for other types of income. They're tricky, that IRS. And that's why I think everyone needs to be taking that questionnaire if they aren't sure, because of all the different exceptions and circumstances that are possible.
If you're making less than a million dollars on mturk I wouldn't worry about paying taxes. The IRS is going after one-percenters now anyway.