1099 Question.
 

I am a little confused about taxes as this is my first year in porn.
I didn't make much, and only received a 1099 from Adult Friend Finder.
There are multiple companies with my social security number and that I made anywhere from $30 to $600 with.

If I didn't get a 1099 from these companies have they not reported my income?
What does everyone else do as an affiliate to many companies?

Any help would really be appreciated.

file all of it buddy.. just check how much REVENUE u made..

THEN SUBTRACT ALL COSTS.... hosting..domains..traffic..advertising..etc...

Then the rest left is income.. dude talk to a cpa.. H&R block or something

Hire an accountant.

Incoroprate

Track everything, deduct everything.

So i'm responsible for looking at my revenue? They don't have to send me a 1099?

I should assume any affiliate with my social security number is reporting my income?

And what about affiliates in which I made a sale, but have not yet been paid due to minimum payout amounts?

Its up to you to report all income you were paid during the year, weather or not it was reported by the other company or not.

No, if you did not get a check from someone, you didn't get paid yet, you don't report it.

Just get your bank statements for the year and look at all the deposits. As FHM said, incorporate, and get some financial software.

Hire an account unless of course this thread is meant to be a joke?:1orglaugh

I file for ALL income, even for companies that are lazy about 1099s or for seldom-promoted sponsors who don't send them because it's less than $600 for the year.

I'd suggest you do the same ... don't want to underfile, that's for sure.

Not a joke. I'm not worried about doing the taxes, just needed to know which income to be included. I think that does it for my questions thanks.

If you hire an accountant, you won't be worried.

US based companies are required to send out a 1099 for payments to individuals or companies over $600 in total in a calendar year to non-employees for 'contract type work' and for advertising (and a few other things). If payments total under $600 for an individual or company in that calendar year, they are not required to send a 1099.

Yes you and only you are responsible for tracking your income and expenses.

As far as sales that you haven't been paid on, it's likely easiest if you report your income on a cash basis (recording income when you receive payment) rather than an accrual basis (recording income at the time it happens). Therefore on a cash-basis if you didn't receive payment for it yet , it's not income yet.

you're going to get the shaft

Yup, this is what you need to do. Its what I do. Make sure to keep your paystubs. Don't count sales you haven't been paid for just total up actual stubs from checks/epassporte payments.

P.S. start spending money on your business.. it'll save you lol.

Is there a way to prove that I spent money? Or is this not necessary?

Claim all your income

I don't think i'll be able to file expenses will I? I'm not listed as a business, I have no business ID.

You can file expenses even if you're not a registered business.

Receipts. Go to Walmart and buy pens for writing business things, expense. Pay for hosting, expense. CCBill Processing/Transfer costs, expense.

Just don't go too crazy.

After a lot of research my main question is how do I prove my expenses?
I'm certain I have to file a Schedule C(sole proprietorship), but I don't really have receipts for things like Traffic, Advertising, Hosting, Design Work. How does everyone else file these?

Also, does anyone know what to call the "principal business or profession"? I just run a TGP is all. I'm having trouble finding the activity code.

Call it whatever you want. Internet marketing, Advertising, Affiliate Marketing, Development.

How do you not have a receipt? You get a confirmation email don't you? Print it out.

H&R block will cost you tons. You need to find a local real person who is trained. Cost you 100-300 to file your taxes but they'll help you. Bite the bullet this year then next year start sending in 1040-ES Payments (quarterly).

I have found a lot of companies just don't send out 1099s. Last year there were close to 20 companies that I should have gotten a 1099 from and I think I actually got 4 or 5 of them.

For me the easiest way to do is keep a spreadsheet. Every check you get (or payment via epass, wire or whatever) you log it into your spreadsheet. Then at the end of the year adding it up takes 5 minutes.

Make a second spreadsheet and keep track of every dollar you spend on business stuff. You can claim everything on your return, but if you ever get audited they will want to see some kind of receipt or proof that you spent that money so you will want to make sure to keep your receipts/invoices/credit card statements or whatever proof you have as the year goes by.

doesn't matter if they have your social security or not, you are obligated to declare all income from everywhere no matter what

and save all receipts you can, and print out online transactions... it helps to pay for things online with a credit card that you can use your own credit card statement as another record of a payment that was made

always assume that you will be audited and you will have to explain your return to an auditor some time in the future... in other words do not cheat/leave out/overstate etc.... you want it all to be legit and above board if you ever have to explain yourself


(just reread Kane's post and it looks like I pretty much echoed what he already said... good stuff)

This dude is either a kid or a very stupid adult, even more clueless than jon clark..:2 cents::1orglaugh

This dude is a kid, please don't insult me.
You've all been very helpful so far thank you.

I use quickbooks and balance to my business checking account. Of course I'm incorporated and also an accountant by trade (Before PK).

I'm sure you haven't paid for your business expenses with cash. I'd say go through your bank statements for Jan 1 to Dec 31, 2008 and look for any charges you know were for business expenses. Only place you might have a problem is if you had personal purchases on the same charge as business (say for example of you went to BestBuy and bought a mouse or something along with some DVDs or video games).. then you'd do best to have a receipt for it.

Starting now, keep track of it all.. even if it's just in a notepad somewhere. It will make next tax season alot easier.

As far as the business code, my CPA uses 541800 for mine which is a basic advertising code. I suppose 516110 could also be used which is for Internet Publishing & Broadcasting.

PK

Thanks for the business code. That's much appreciated.

I don't think it would be a good idea for me to incorporate right now though, or would it?
I own very few sites, have no employees, and have very little income.

get an accountant.

It's something to talk to an accountant about. I have very few sites and no employees..... incorporation as an S-corp was the best for me.

btw... your accounting fees would be a deductible expense.

Don't forget that if you're going to start itemizing your deductions not forget the personal ones either. Medical expenses are often over looked. Doesn't matter when the bill accrued only how much you've paid on it this tax year. Also needs to total 7.5% or higher of your adjusted income. And of course make a few donations.

Get an accountant for less headache on numbers or learn basic accounting/ double-entry accounting for yourself. Good luck!

Do what ever you feel comfortable with.

If you didn't get a 1099 chances are they don't know you made the money. However, if the 1099 got lost in the mail you are going to get audited. During the audit they may check into your banking accounts and see that you have wires or ACH deposits or just more deposits and income going through it than you said you had. Then things go south for you.

Yes, when you work for yourself you need to keep track of this stuff yourself.

Some will say that if you don't get a 1099 that the IRS won't know about the income, and while that is probably true you could be audited down the road. So by under-reporting you are gambling that you won't be audited in the next few years. If they do audit you, you'd have to pay back taxes plus heavy $ penalties.

No, but see what I said above. And that includes non-US sponsors. Naturally, they don't deal with the IRS at all, but an audit could turn up that income.

It isn't income until it is money in your hand.

Email these people and have them send you a receipt, even if it's just a line of text like "10,000 hits sold to John Doe on 1/1/09." If you paid with PayPal or ePass, there is also a record of the transfer there to go along with that.

I don't recall mine, but it's probably the same advertising code as PersianKitty's above.


Also...........

H&R Block and TurboTax both offer their online Federal system for free. Then you pay a fee that isn't bad for state taxes. This way it's all fill in the blank and you don't need to figure out what forms you need.

Haha .. for a bunch of years, I was paying in cash at tradeshows for things like content, hosting, applications, development, etc ... I had to get a ton of hand-written receipts. One is on a paper towel. I had to sit down with the DRS (like the IRS, but for the state) one time when they over charged me, and the guy wrote "paper towel" as the reference on the official transcript .. classic!! :1orglaugh

I have to stop paying in cash at some point (when the cash under the mattress runs out, probably), because it's a real pain to keep track of .. you're right, though. Receipts are KEY here.