1099 K from Ticketmaster - true cost of tickets

[Anaical]

I would like to report the real cost of the NBA tickets sold via Ticketmaster instead of their face value

- Can we compute as cost the price paid for the entire 44 games of the season tickets when you sell several games (lest's say 15 games as an example) as we still have to pay for the entire season in order to sell several games. The real cost of the ticket is not the face value of the single ticket sold but the entire season tickets cost paid up front and in advance.

- how about the cost of the money paid in advance?

- Can we also include all the time, dedication, analysis and connectivity used to put the tickets for sale at Ticketmaster in the cost of tickets sold? i.e. an overhead %?

[Vanessa A]

No.  You cannot include the costs of the entire seasons worth of tickets to only a few tickets sold.  You would need to allocate the costs based on splitting them up into 44 units or if some games are more valuable than others then allocating it based on a percent of the amount paid.

No, you cannot include the cost of the money paid in advance

No, you cannot include any time, dedication, analysis or connectivity to put the tickets up for sale

If you incurred fees from Ticket Master, you CAN include those fees. 

If you are a business and selling tickets professionally as a side gig, then yes, you can claim your overhead like a home office or mileage to go purchase the tickets. 

[Anaical]

This is my first year receiving a 1099 K from Ticketmaster for selling my NBA season tickets and I realized that Ticketmaster is reporting in it a much higher amount than the actual amount transferred to me.

After checking via google, I found out that many people are facing the same problem. It seems that Ticketmaster reports the full amount that they charge to the buyer of the tickets including Ticketmaster's services fees charged to both seller and buyer, order processing fee and taxes and NOT THE ACTUAL AMOUNT TRANSFERRED TO THE SELLER recipient of their 1099-K. 

Although it is impossible to find out how they calculate their fees and taxes, the difference stands at around 40%. So the amount Ticketmaster reports in the 1099-K is overstated, wrong and affects our 1040 declaration.   I would appreciate any suggestion and recommendation on how to appropriately deal with this situation and how to report the actual income in our 1040.

[MarilynG1]

As @VanessaA stated, report your 1099-K Income as Self-Employment Income.  Then you can claim expenses to reduce the income.  This will be reported on Schedule C in your return.

Here's some info that may help you in Quick Links for Self-Employed and Gig Workers. 

@Anaical