The IRS position is that the account opening bonus is taxable. It’s treated as bonus interest. It can’t be a discount for using the card since you haven’t used the card when the bonus was promised and it’s too much money to be a discount of the merchant fees. Same with free money to open a stock trading account, cryptocurrency wallet and so on. Banks only have to issue a 1099-MISC if the amount is $600 or more so you may never see a form, and most people probably never report the small awards.
