Pay tax for money online

[phamnguyen1525]

Hi all
Do you think  we have to pay tax if we make money online?  Like doing survey, and get paid through Paypal.

[cloudsoup]

i believe you only have to claim money earned online
if it's over a certain amount, which i've heard is either
$500 or $600. i could be wrong, but i've been seeing
this info online for awhile.

[raven1114]

i believe you only have to claim it if earnings are 600 or more.

[lvstephanie]

And I believe I also heard that it is $600 from one place. So if you made $300 from FC and then $100 at 3 other PTC sites, you wouldn't have to claim it.

[hawkeye3210]

You must report all income starting with the first $1 made.

The $600 figure is for 1099's and has nothing to do with what you are required to report.

[mawhite63]

You must report all income starting with the first $1 made.

The $600 figure is for 1099's and has nothing to do with what you are required to report.

This. You can claim your GPT money as a hobby rather than a business, but as far as I know then you can only claim deductions up to the amount you've earned. On the other hand, if you want to claim deductions such as web hosting, advertising, etc. then it needs to be filed as self-employed business (but the tax rate is higher). Finally I think if you turn a profit three out of five years, then it needs to be filed as self employed income. But that's just my very non-professional, limited understanding of it.

If you have any questions, you can get free tax help from someone much more qualified than me by searching below. You don't need to be an AARP member to get help from a Tax-Aide volunteer

http://www.aarp.org/applications/VMISLocator/searchTaxAideLocations.action

[kapeh12]

mawhite63 is correct - you are to report all earnings, regardless of amount.  The $600 threshold is an option for businesses to send a 1099 for payments made to an individual.  They have the option to not send a 1099 if the amount paid was under $600, but that doesn't mean the individual who received the money is not responsible for reporting the income.

For most of these survey sites, since the money earned is not the person's business, it's best to report it under the "hobby money" line item.  If you intend to make it more of a small business, it would be best to consult a tax accountant to determine if it would be to your advantage to report the money as self-employment (if you can get any advantages recording "losses" to your business like spending more on advertising than what you make), or continue to use the "hobby" line item.