I use accrual, client is cash. How to handle for the year in which my income will not match 1099, & the year in which client issues 1099 for pymnts I reported prior year?

[TomYoung · Accepted solution]

You reconcile between the dollars on that little piece of paper you receive that says "Form 1099-MISC" and the correct number, and you enter the correct number.

Too, just because you receive a 1099-MISC doesn't mean you must enter the 1099-MISC using the 1099-MISC interview; that's strictly for your convenience.  Absolutely no detail of any of the 1099-MISC's you might enter using TurboTax is actually transmitted in your income tax return.  All the IRS sees is a lump sum figure of "revenue."

Tom Young

[TaxGuyBill]

If the total of all of your 1099-MISCs are LESS than your actual income, just enter your actual income and ignore the 1099s.

If the total of all of your 1099-MISCs are MORE than your actual income, enter the amount of your total income.  Then enter the difference as an "other deduction".

[TomYoung]

I'm going to disagree with TaxGuyBill here, maybe more on philosophical grounds as opposed to "practical" grounds, an area I'm sure where he has more experience than I do.

Your obligation as a taxpayer is to report the "correct" amount of income based on your accounting records and based on your accepted accounting method.  If you do report the proper, supportable amount of income based on your excellent records and based on your accounting method, then you are completely bullet-proof.  There is absolutely nothing that the IRS can, (legally), do to you.  (The fact that the IRS often acts in an illegal capacity perhaps should temper that advice.)  

But I hope the US population is so not so cowed, not so beaten down and fearful of their government that they feel the need to overstate their income and overstate their deductions to conform their reporting to little pieces of paper that might very well be wrong, in the hope that the black-uniformed IRS police won't break down their door in the middle of the night, spirit them away to a prison in a 3rd-world and water-board them into submission.

As a practical matter the IRS has only a very vague picture of what your income "should be."  They know that not all income is reported on 1099-MISC's, even income that should be, they know that 1099-MISC's are prone to error, they know that different accounting methods produce different results.  And they don't know - at all - any detail of 1099-MISC's that you might enter in TurboTax because that's simply not part of the income tax return you submit.

I'm sure that as a practical matter that if the IRS's receives 1099-MICS's that amount to "X" times whatever you are reporting as revenue - and I have no idea what "X" is - then your chances of receiving a inquiry about the difference goes up.  But I would bet that if "X" is a fraction - 1.25x say - something like that doesn't send up red flags.  Even the IRS has a concept of "materiality" in selecting what income tax returns they are going to follow up on.  But I still wouldn't advocate doing anything other than reporting the correct amount of income and being prepared to defend it.

[TaxGuyBill]

I agree, you are technically right.

However, if you don't report at least the amount of the 1099-MISCs, you WILL get an automated IRS notice asking about it.  That notice is completely computer automated, and from what I've seen and heard, it is triggered at ANY amount of difference.  

Besides the hassle of needing to respond to the IRS notice, your response also means that real, live IRS agent will be looking at your tax account and possibly your tax return.  That means there is an increased risk of them seeing something questionable and audit it.

[TomYoung]

Well, you learns something new every day, don't you?  I guess I'm forced to join the cowed masses.  🙂

[TaxGuyBill]

LOL.  Yeah, it is quite annoying having to 'fool' the IRS automated computers like that.

One word of caution:  If it is a very LARGE amount of difference, it is also possible that the very LARGE 'deduction' could also cause a 'red flag'.  That wouldn't be very common, so I wouldn't worry about it.

[mbasbury920]

Hi TaxGuyBill. This is the first year this has happened to me in the 7 years I've had my own consulting company. Client's 1099 has about $600 more than what I recognized in 2018. She is including a check she wrote in December since that's when it's dated, even though I didn't receive it until January. I have assumed I need to put the 1099 amount as listed. What is the appropriate category for the $600 difference? I understand that I need to account for it in 2019. Thank you.

[TaxGuyBill]

Is the total of ALL of your 1099s more than the total of ALL of your income?

If not, just ignore the 1099s and enter what you actually received.

If the total of the 1099s is larger, then you can enter the $600 adjustment anywhere.  Personally, I would enter it as an "other expense" and call it a "Timing Difference".

[tgomax]

Have a follow up at the 'extreme' example of the above. It's a good 'toy' problem but it is actually true in my case. To simplify:

• I have about $1M on my 1099-NEC (prepayment for goods for resale)
• I file on an accrual basis, and I have only delivered $100K of the goods. Therefore, the correct income is $100K for this tax year but it will look very odd considering the large 1099. As mentioned above, this will lead to an automated trigger of some type of check or audit if I report a low income.
• California has a 'revenue tax' with which, if I 'falsely' use the $1M income number and add a $900K deferred revenue expense, I would pay an extra tax ($2.5K), even if the bottom line evened out.

So, to conclude, I basically have to choose between an audit and $2.5K 'incorrect' tax. What would you do? 

[TomYoung]

@tgomax 

I "retired" as a SuperUser when TurboTax switched to the "CHAMPIONS!" program, (queue up Queen's "We Are the Champions"), but still get notifications when things happen over here, and sometimes I respond.

First, since you are on the accrual basis indicating on your income tax return $100K of revenue and $900K of deferred revenue is absolutely the correct accounting.  You have no real exposure to the taxing authorities if you are correctly reporting your taxable income.

Second, even if the IRS would contact you you certainly would not be undergoing an "audit" in the correct sense of the word.  A more correct word to use here would be "inquiry."  Your situation of getting a dollar figure on a 1099 that well exceeds the correct amount of income to report in this situation has got to be fairly common and one would hope that a well-written explanation of the transaction, perhaps with appropriate supporting documentation, would put the issue to bed.  (I use the word "hope" because the taxing authorities sometimes are extremely - maybe purposely? - obtuse so sometimes you have to do some back-and-forth with them.)

You'll need to make the judgement here whether the cost to you of responding to the inquiry times the probability of them actually making the inquiry is more or less than the $2.5K cost of reporting the entire $1M as revenue.

[tgomax]

Thank you sir! You are indeed a champion. I'll attach an explanation statement and hope the IRS has bigger fish to fry.