Reporting survey money less than $600 for tax

[Nasamoon93]

How do I report all the earnings I made on survey site for taxes? Every panel I’m in I’ve earned less than $600 but if I combined all the panel earnings I made over $600 and they all go to my paypal. I want to report all my earnings even though they are less than $600 per panel  how do I do that? I just want to be safe. Or since I made less than $600 I don’t need to file taxes? 

[footfree]

I don't do my own taxes however I think it would be filed under "earned income". If memory serves right isn't there a part on the tax form that ask if you have received money from different entities like Social Security or Medicaid ?Wouldn't it be added  on to that part of the form?Then I think you should be able to Google the info to.

[neminem]

You do need to file taxes. You need to file taxes even if you only earned a dollar from survey sites, if you earned enough from other things. The $600 thing is that if you didn't earn at least $600 from a given single site, then that site doesn't have to report it (so they probably won't, because it'd be more work for them and they aren't required to), which means plenty of people also don't bother reporting it, because the chance of getting caught is negligible, but you are still absolutely supposed to. 

You'd file it as self-employment. I'm not a tax person, but I doubt the IRS really cares if you split it up into individual sites or not - you could probably just say it was self-employment, and the job was "taking surveys" or something. (But again, I'm not a tax expert.)

[Njsurveyman]

Line #21 on the official IRS 1040 Tax Form is where you would include the total amount of income earned combined across all survey companies and anywhere else, outside of your regular work. You simply write in the amount and say "online surveys" as description. You also have that option if you file online. 

However, if you earned over $600 from one particular company, they will send you a 1099 misc. in the mail. The bad thing about that is you have to actually pay extra money to file this particular type of income online (i.e. Turbo Tax).

[footfree]

Fun fact maybe- I was told if you buy something online from another state and they have a different tax amount then you are supposed to report the difference to the IRS and pay for the difference.I wonder how many people know about this?

 

Consumers May Be Required to Report and Pay Sales or Use Taxes

For consumers that order tax-free items online, but live in states that charge a sales tax, they are technically required to report that purchase to their state tax agency and pay the sales tax directly to the agency. When consumers are required to do so, it is often called a "use" tax.

The sole difference between a sales tax and a use tax is the person that ends up giving the money to the state government. When it is a sales tax, the retailer is the one handing over the money, while a use tax is handed over directly by the consumer. However, collecting use taxes on small purchases often costs more than simply letting the consumer not pay the use tax. Instead, state tax agencies try to focus more on collecting use taxes for big ticket items that are purchased online with no sales tax, such as cars and boats.

Be aware, there are a number of states that have stepped up their enforcement of their use tax laws and are now trying to make their state residents pay the taxes that should be paid.