Amazon Vine 1099nec

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
August 31, 2023
1 reply
61 views

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

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Real DealAuthor

Level 2

I also want to mention that im not the only person that spoke to the irs about this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWiIiqOVBFg&list=LL&index=14&t=622s&ab_channel=MoneyStruggleSuccess

NCperson

Level 15

@Real Deal - could you resell these items? does anything preclude you from doing so?

what types of items are you receiving?

Before agreeing to be part of this program, what did Amazon disclose about taxable income to you?

Let's say a 3rd party seller provided Amazon with a Tesla that Amazon gave you, expecting you to write a review. If you turned around and sold the Tesla OR just kept it., would you be arguing that you should not be receiving the 1099NEC?. Why or why not?

Real DealAuthor

Level 2

To answer your question if a company gave you a free car to do as you please you can use it to drive which doesnt mean you have to pay taxes on it because it was a gift. Unless you decide to sell it for a profit and at that case you would have to report it because its a sale. I am not required to sell an item if it was given to me as a promotion and if I did sell any item then I would of course pay taxes on whatever item I sold. I didnt get invited into the program to make it a business. My intention isnt to get items to sell them, I was invited because I always leave reviews for many years and they saw it possibly made an impact on there sales or conversions so they invited me. I dont mind receiving free items just like anyone else wouldnt mind receiving free anything. This is equivalent to someone who always uses uber or lyft and they provide them with promotional free rides (which is an actual thing that happens) and then you using the promotional rides then they say its taxable