Duplicate 1099-K amounts from two different companies

[prdfy]

I hope someone can give me a clear answer on this.  I have not had any luck getting some guidance so far.

Here's the situation.

What does someone do when receiving two 1099-K forms, from two different companies, but for the same income source?  It should only be reported on my taxes once, but the IRS will be seeing it twice since both companies will be sending it in.

One from Google, for money earned through YouTube.

One from PayPal, which is sent by a 3rd party, (YouTube partnership program)

I have been down this road before with a similar situation for Patreon earnings distributed to PayPal.  In that case, I also received two 1099-K forms for the same income.  PayPal support is useless or clueless.  No matter what documentation I would provide them, they would not or could not fix their 1099-K form.  Thankfully, Patreon was able to fix things with their tax team contacting PayPal directly and getting them to issue a corrected 1099-K.   This situation will not happen again as my Patreon earnings are being sent to my bank now.

That leads me to this year.  If the same thing happens with Google and PayPal, what is the best course of action if neither company will issue a correction for their 1099-K so it's not a double taxation issue?

[Critter-3 · Accepted solution]

Best course of action to avoid IRS letters later ... simply enter in the total from all forms received from all sources (even if they are duplicated) on the Sch C  then make a "correcting" entry in the misc expenses section (page 2 of the Sch C)  for the duplicate income.  Bottom line will be correct and the IRS income matching computers will be happy ... win/win. 

[prdfy]

Hi Critter-3.

Thank you so much for the reply.  To avoid any questionable entries on Schedule C, would those income corrections be categorized in any special way?  I mean it's probably going to throw a flag of some kind when you are attempting to write-off a substantial portion of your income.

Before I would use that option, I will try to get PayPal to fix their 1099-K when the time comes.  But it's good to know there is a way to reconcile those 1099-K amounts if needed.

[Critter-3 · Accepted solution]

Sadly this is an unintended situation since both parties are required to issue the same form for the same income    ... so   I would use "correcting duplicate income reported in error".   If the IRS questions it later  then you can use a lot of words to explain the reason for the entry.

[Tuffty737]

@prdfy  As we are approaching tax time I was wondering how you actually solved this problem  - look forward to your update . Thanks 

[Critter-3]

No further instructions have been coming from the IRS to date ... my original answer to enter all the income reported on all the forms   and then simply  use a negating expense  entry to remove the duplicate  amount would work (and has worked in the past )   and keep you from getting an IRS CP2000 audit letter in the future.  

[Tuffty737]

Thank you for your response