I received an email from stubhub today stating that beginning in 2022, they will be required to report to the irs customers who have sales during the year greater than $600, so they asked me to provide a 1099. If I don’t provide a 1099, they will withhold payments on sales once the $600 threshold is exceeded. This will be very bad for stubhub and similar, and good (from an activity perspective) for informal sites like dawgtrade. It will also likely serve to reduce resale prices overall. I just hope the long time sec championship ticket holders get caught up in this. As for me, I will be selling extra season tickets on dawgtrade next year for quite a bit less than I did this year on stubhub.
Stubhub IRS
- Thread starter richb1
- Start date
81 million people wanted this.
She was singin'
Don't turn around, oh oh oh
Der Kommissar's in town, oh oh oh
You're in his eye and you'll know why
The more you live, the faster you will die
Alles Klar, Herr Kommissar?
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Just wait for all the folks who are going to get in very very hot water with the IRS for tax evasion on bitcoin
Yes, the IRS doesn't consider the Harman Fund "Fee" that is required to purchase the tickets to be a tax deductible donation. If you donate over and above what is required to buy the seats then that shouldn't be considered.
So is this for a total of sales over $600 throughout the year or for transactions over $600. Because I would easily surpass the former most years.
That was my general thought too. How the hell are we supposed to split the ticket cost and donation fee up by ticket unless uga offers that? My whole fee only went towards the tickets I sold. Haha.
you would think sec games are more but there isn’t a face on them and isn’t a donation cost specific to them vs out of conference games.
Correct. And having done some research, stubhub has been doing this since 2005 for its larger “clients”. My sales this year were probably over $5,000 so it triggered them to send me the 1099 for 2022. My hunch is their threshold is well over $600 so they are walking a fine line themselves as they know it is not great for their business so they are trying to be barely compliant. I had initially thought this was something new for 2022 but it was just new to me since I had larger than normal sales in 2021.
I didn’t realize that. I suppose if someone was particularly worried about this subject they could split the payments into smaller chunks that are under whatever the threshold might be?
No - the total for the year is what will trigger the reporting. So over $600 in non "personal" payments on Venmo.
Makes sense. So it really comes down to whether the buyer marks the transaction as goods and services…
Buyer gives up protections with Venmo (or whoever) when they do this. Not something I'd want to do with a stranger on Dawgtrade for tickets that are going to cost several hundred dollars.
So if I travel to a game to sell additional tickets, I report the ticket sales, I'd imagine I could report my travel expenses against those sales too. So hotel, gas/mileage, meals, etc.?
I think this is a lot of work for them and the IRS to end up with very little actual tax dollars from it.
I think this is a lot of work for them and the IRS to end up with very little actual tax dollars from it.
This isn’t even worth worrying about unless it’s a big chuck of your income. Estimate it and move on. It’s not going to trigger an audit unless you put down something outlandish. The IRS doesn’t have the man power to worry about stubhub sells.
Depends on the year/home schedule/whether or not you opt to use all of your tickets to the premiere home game on the schedule.
86,000 new IRS agents say Hold my beer..........
You still can’t be making much profit if you use stubhub. Unless the fees are reduced for people who sell a lot of tickets.
But if you are making a profit, why shouldn’t you pay taxes on it? Seems to be similar to selling stocks.
You cannot be serious, there are a lot of things that people receive and sell all the time for a profit and or a loss. If I buy tickets and sell them for less than I paid for them is the IRS going to let me write them off, no. These situations are not close to selling stocks.
First, let’s see if all the new agents get hired and what their roles are if they do. The IRS using fear to make people comply and that’s what those articles about changes coming do.
Currently if an IRS agent knocks on your door, 99% of the time they are looking at big dollar problems. I’m a CPA and that’s my experience at least.
It’s a business for the IRS. They lose money auditing a $5k problem. Their is no gain for them.
Crypto is going to be a huge focus. Lots of folks may be going to jail.
What assets are you talking about? Technically, you are suppose to report gains on most personal assets but that rarely happens. Losses, you have a point about but that’s the IRS for you.
But if I figure out how to flip tickets on stubhub and earn enough money to quit my job, should I pay taxes? When does a profitable hobby become a business?
Yeah, I think part of the reason crypto has taken off is the “untraceable” aspect people hear about. I can see the IRS wanting to prove that incorrect.
I don’t sell tickets on stubhub, but nobody is going to make enough money selling tickets on stubhub to make a living.
I agree that most people lose money selling tickets and we are worrying about nothing.
But if you can earn a profit on one transaction, why couldn’t you scale it?
Because you can only get so many tix at face value for a big game like Clemson, ND, Florida. Trying to buy low/sell high off of the secondary market will never be profitable with the current fee schedules.
Correct - it is pretty much a break even proposition if you look at it over a 5 year period. You might lose money one year and then make money the following if there is a marquee game like ND on the schedule.
Scalpers don’t make a profit?
Yes, it would be difficult but there is no limit on the amount of tickets you can acquire.
And I agree that people won’t make money on stubhub and we shouldn’t even worry about this 1099 thing. It’s all about nothing.
Not sure how scalpers are getting their tickets. Guessing they are either buying from non-tech savvy folks who don't want to bother with stubhub OR have software using stubhub APIs to constantly check for tickets below a certain value that they can quickly pounce on and buy - knowing that they can sell and overcome the fees.
One other way is the guys that promise seats in a general area (upper deck between the 20s) in the stadium and will sell those early and then fill them late when the ticket prices drop in the days before a game - this is a bit of a gamble and you are only buying on stubhub (and others) and can't sell the tickets this way as you don't yet have them in hand.
It will be the same for people whose sales of anything on ebay exceeded $600 for the year.
