IRS says it will delay requirement to report $600 in gig work on taxes

The IRS stated it’s delaying a controversial requirement by one yr that will have led to extra on-line sellers and gig staff having revenue reported to the nation’s tax company.

The rule change would have required fee platforms resembling Venmo, Paypal or Money App to ship tax varieties referred to as 1099-Ks to anybody receiving over $600. Beforehand, such fee companies solely needed to report customers’ revenue to the IRS if they’d at the very least 200 transactions and $20,000 of income.

On-line promoting platforms together with eBay, Etsy and Poshmark had pushed again laborious in opposition to the proposal to decrease the reporting restrict to $600, claiming it will create confusion, whereas Republican members of Congress stated the plan was an instance of presidency overreach that will ensnare folks utilizing apps to ship cash amongst mates. 

“The IRS and Treasury heard plenty of issues” in regards to the modifications, performing IRS Commissioner Doug O’Donnell stated in a Friday assertion. “To assist clean the transition and guarantee readability for taxpayers, tax professionals and trade, the IRS will delay implementation” of the brand new rule, the assertion stated.

“The extra time will assist scale back confusion throughout the upcoming 2023 tax submitting season and supply extra time for taxpayers to arrange and perceive the brand new reporting necessities,” he added.

Switch greater than $20,000? You may nonetheless get a type.

Regardless that the delay implies that folks throughout the 2023 tax season will solely get tax varieties in the event that they meet the sooner pointers of promoting greater than $20,000 and making greater than 200 transactions in a yr, anybody who makes a revenue from any form of revenue is legally required to pay tax on that cash. 

Meaning even when folks do not obtain a tax type, they’re nonetheless required to report the revenue and pay tax on it. Nonetheless, the IRS underscored that private transactions, resembling repaying a pal for a shared meal, aren’t meant to be tracked by the now-delayed rule on reporting $600 in side-gig revenue.

“The legislation will not be supposed to trace private transactions resembling sharing the price of a automobile journey or meal, birthday or vacation items, or paying a member of the family or one other for a family invoice,” the IRS emphasised Friday.

Some tax professionals had additionally warned that individuals who use apps for enterprise in addition to private transactions could possibly be confused by the brand new varieties, and probably wind up paying greater than they should in taxes or must spend hours untangling their funds. 

It is also probably that many on-line sellers who promote solely small quantities as a interest aren’t conserving observe of their precise revenue and bills associated to their on-line endeavors, consultants say.

It is a growing story.