Per IRS rules, all income an individual earns must be reported on their tax return (including things like tips). Evidence of earnings provided to the IRS from sources to whom you are a contractor (such as requesters on Mturk) come from entities from which paid out more than $600 to an individual. The form is a 1099 and is sent both to the contractor and the IRS. MTurk does not send out 1099s as it is just a conduit. Mikey is probably right about the block once you get to $600 from a given requester (anyone know this for sure? Of course you could just ask a requester if you thing you will get to that amount with them in a year). The tax rate on Mturk earnings would be the same for one's regular earnings (not dividends or capital gains). If the IRS does not get a 1099 from a source, they will not know (without an audit) that one was paid for services rendered.
It varies from person to person, day to day. Seems like to rhyme or reason...but I bet we haven't just figured their system out yet ;-)
Noah Stoffman hit's are up. Quick/Easy/Great TO. The last couple of days have sucked for batch hits! https://www.mturk.com/mturk/preview?groupId=2KGJ1XERSQV666AMB8K3NVWFZKN08A
It's also important to remember that the IRS is not a government agency they just collect the taxes for the government. No IRS employee has a Government ID. Here is the information. "* Your age (on 12/31/11): Under 65 (Gross income threshold: $9,500) * Your age: 65 or older (Gross income threshold: $20,950)" For single not married. Edit: bah deleted a paragraph. This information is for a single unmarried individual, so if you make below 9,500 you don't have to file in the year and there are no penalties.
With the talk of taxes. say I want to report my Mturk earnings. I have no other source of income. What forms do I need to file?
ugh i'm almost willing to sell my soul to oscar smith for the last 71 approvals i need to get to 5000
The Self-Employment Tax consists of Social Security and Medicare taxes primarily for individuals who work for themselves. For 2012, it is 15.3%. If you had a real job, your boss would pay half of this and the rest would be deducted from your paycheck. Since you are your own boss as a Turker, you pay both halves. The $600 figure people throw around is the threshold for sending the contractor a printed 1099 form. Whether you get a 1099 form or not, the income is still reported electronically and the IRS knows you earned the money. Income tax (FIT) is a whole different matter. On Topic: Consumer Behavior Study Requester: Caroline Roux Reward: $0.40 per HIT Qualifications Required: HIT approval rate (%) is not less than 95, Location is US https://www.mturk.com/mturk/preview?groupId=2CH5TVOK5UFJG3PO39FZKYRY5CY74X
Has anyone done Steve Murch "transcribe a recipe"? It pays .30 they say Take care, your work will be rejected for payment if it's not accurate and high quality, and you will be blocked from these high-paying transcription HITs if there are multiple obvious errors in your work. You can enlarge the image by clicking on it, and drag the window to the side of your screen. Payment will occur within 7 days That kinda worried me. Curious if anyone has done any of them I would like to try them.
I think these tax questions would be much better answered if people offered their experience with it. How many people here file their income from mturk as taxable income? Why or why not? Are their exceptions? Etc etc. I'm fairly new so I doubt I would make enough to care about filing but I'm curious what people 'actually' do, rather than what is considered the 'law' or 'facts'. Know what I mean?