DawnC0
Intuit Alumni

Get your taxes done using TurboTax

Although you technically do not have a business, you will still need to report that income on a Schedule C because you received that 1099-K.  However, since you did not net any real income, you can still report it with zero profit and no tax consequences. In order to do this, you will need to have the Self-Employed version of TurboTax as this is the only version that will handle business expenses.  

Under the Federal Taxes tab at the top, the first section is titled SELF-EMPLOYMENT INCOME/EXPENSES.       

In this section you can report the 1099-K 'income'.   You can call your self-employment income ''collecting'', ''facilitating'', ''middle manning'', or whatever you like; it really doesn't matter.   Report the 1099-K under ''Additional Income''.   The description doesn't matter here either.    Go through the business info screens; you can use code 999999 for business code. 

Answer, 'I did this work all year' and 'None of these apply' to the last questions in the business setup section. 

Once you have done that, you will be prompted to enter your expenses.  Report the amount you 'funneled' as business expenses.  You can use miscellaneous or commissions as the expense category.   As long as you expense the amount you received, you will avoid any self-employment taxes and still comply with the IRS's rules and regulations.  And always be sure to keep detailed records.

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