Saving Those Receipts For Tax-Time: - Page 2

Even if you don't get a 1099 from them it's still a good idea to claim that income, especially if you are writing off expenses for gathering the stuff you turned into them. Also, if they get audited at some point your name and payout amount will be on a list that gets turned into the IRS and depending on that amount you might get flagged for a closer look. Closer look = fresh batteries in IRS's flashlight and you bending over...even if they come up with nothing, it's not going to feel good.

Guys and girls...I can't speak for ALL scrap yards, but for mine, they are classified in a way (can't remember which way), to where they don't do 1099's on us. It is OUR responsibility for filing or not to file our taxes.

Like I said, I have a wife and 2 small kids to think about, so any monies I get from work related situations gets reported, as well as all gas receipts, equipment/tool receipts, and anything else that I need to report or write off.

Last year, I simply told my H&R Block rep how much money I made, how many miles I drove, what items I wrote off, etc. She entered it all, informed me of how much I paid into social security for retirement (over $700) more than I ever made working for someone else (minus myself for other companies), how much we were getting back, etc.

They were also awesome enough, to take out our filing fees ( a couple hundred), and then told us how much to come back and get in a week and a half, almost $2,000.

If I have the options of filing my taxes, and getting any amount back, or breaking even, versus possibly dealing with the IRS and having them in MY BUSINESS, I will always choose to file taxes.

1099's actually come from the person that has paid you money for whatever reason, and then they file a copy of all the 1099's they issued with the IRS.

I, Like you MDG, don't necessarily consider myself a sub-contractor of the yards I go to. But if I were on the other side of the scale and had categorize the money I paid out to labor to get, process and ship scrap metal into one of two categories, the first would be employees I have full control of (hours, job description, set pay) and they would get a W-2 at the end of the year. The other category would be the randoms that I use through out the coarse of the year that offer a service my regular employees don't have the time to do, I don't have near the control over them as I do my employees other then to not use their product or service if I don't like it...those folks I would consider sub-contractors and issue them a 1099 at the end of the year.

Using the term "subcontractor" in this context is only confusing the issue and is irrelevant. For most of us, there is no contract involved; so no subcontract. We merely sell whatever we have whenever we want to the scrap yard. If we sell more than $600 to any one yard, that yard COULD issue a 1099 MISC. I get a 1099 from Exide every year for the batteries I sell them, but I don't get a 1099 from the scrap yard although I sell them more than $600 in metal. Regardless, I'm still required to report the income from ALL sources, whether they issue a 1099 or not. And there is no contract with any of them.

Originally Posted by Mick

Using the term "subcontractor" in this context is only confusing the issue and is irrelevant. For most of us, there is no contract involved; so no subcontract. We merely sell whatever we have whenever we want to the scrap yard. If we sell more than $600 to any one yard, that yard COULD issue a 1099 MISC. I get a 1099 from Exide every year for the batteries I sell them, but I don't get a 1099 from the scrap yard although I sell them more than $600 in metal. Regardless, I'm still required to report the income from ALL sources, whether they issue a 1099 or not. And there is no contract with any of them.

Without going into any debates, I will simply say well said. The last part, is what I have been trying to get through.