I am in the amazon vine voice program and I have spoken to the irs about this issue which they are on my side but cant provide advice when it comes to filing taxes. We in the vine voice program receive items in the hopes we would leave a review for them. My question is how is reviewing "promotional offers" considered taxable when you arent receiving any income from these items or reselling them to receive any income? This doesnt make any sense especially since amazon doesnt own these products. 3rd party sellers give these free items to amazon voice members. Also in the FAQs they state "We do not require that you write a review" which means there is no service being provided. Also no where in the agreement does it mention that anyone in the program is to perform a service, mention that anyone in this program is an independent contractor or mention these promotional offers as a form of income. Here is the exact wording from the agreement
"Products enrolled in the Program (“Vine Products”) may be provided by third-party suppliers
and made available to you through the Program (“Third-Party Products”) or manufactured by
or on behalf of Amazon or its affiliates (“Amazon Products”). You acknowledge and agree that all Vine Products are:
promotional offers to you and are not sold to you, and
provided to you on an "as is" basis – Amazon makes no product warranties to you, and
accepts no responsibility for return, repair, refund or replacement. Amazon will only
deliver Vine Products selected by you to the primary US delivery address associated with
your customer account. Your ongoing right to participate in the program and your
eligibility to receive Vine Products is at Amazon's sole discretion"
My second question is how can I zero out this "taxable income" from the 1099nec and add a note explaining the reasoning for this which I mentioned about to the irs? The IRS told me if I move forward with this that they will follow up with a report to amazon. Thank you for your time
