How to correctly enter Ticketmaster ticket profits into Form 8949?

[sw41]

I'm also having the same issue.  If Ticketmaster doesn't provide the buyer's fees and taxes, how are you supposed to be able to account for them?  The transaction report provided by Ticketmaster just shows the seller payout amount.  How do I figure out from the monthly amounts shown on the 1099-K the difference?

[sw41]

How were you able to get the buyer's fee amounts?  The transaction report provided by Ticketmaster only listed the seller's amounts.

[fredj4]

So the report I downloaded from Ticketmaster only had Seller Payout, transaction date and month, PO number 

I can go back into my email and find the seller fee they charged, but can't figure out that added buyer fee.  

[bngoldenberg]

The 1099 gives you the total amount that the buyer paid for your tickets.

You should be able to see what you paid for the tickets plus what you paid for a sellers fee (i happen to keep track on a SS so this was easy.  Then take the amount you received plus te sellers fee you paid and subtract from the amount the 1099 says you received.  This will be the buyers fee, it kooks to be about 22.5% on top of your sale price, including the sellers fee. 

I am now focused on how these entities are able to get in the middle of these transactions and take roughly 25% out if the transaction! Clearly they eliminate 'counterparty risk' but for a very steep price.  The scammers out there are why their cuts a so high 

[JamesG1]

If your Live Nation/Ticketmaster 1099-K Box 1a showed an amount greater than the proceeds you actually received (the buyers fee plus your seller's fee being the difference, likely), then do you enter -zero- or do you enter the amount of the difference?

As an example, the IRS form 1099-K box 1a reports $120.  You paid $50 for the ticket and sold the ticket for $100.  TM collected a fee of $20.

In the entry for the IRS form 1099-K, enter $150 in box 1a.  The $50 cost basis for the ticket sold would be reported on the IRS form 1099-B screens under Investments and Savings.  

The $20 TM fee would be reported at the screen Let us know if any of these situations apply to this sale by selecting I paid sales expense that aren't included in the sale proceeds. Or you may report the cost basis of the ticket sold as $70 reported on the IRS form 1099-B screens under Investments and Savings.

In the second example, the IRS form 1099-K box 1a reports $60.  You paid $50 for the ticket and sold the ticket for $40.  TM collected a fee of $20.

In the entry for the IRS form 1099-K, enter $60 in box 1a.  At the screen Personal Item Sales, select All items were sold at a loss or had no gain.  No IRS form 1099-B entries are necessary.

@wildcat7477 

[fredj4]

That would work perfectly and was my original thought. The problem is I had multiple ticket sales andTicketmaster/Live Nation summarizes sales by month and not by individual ticket sale. 

I'm so frustrated with trying to figure this out so I may extrapolate and just estimate the buyers fees by averaging it out.

I think Ticketmaster should be more thorough in their reporting. 

I also agree it is highway robbery with the fees they are charging. But I guess, if people are willing to pay... Charge what you can get away with. 

Thanks for the reply.

[fredj4]

Thanks for all your posts.

So here's where I am struggling....

I sold about 20 of my tickets, with only three that were at a profit. The rest were at a loss.

Do I have to enter an individual sale for all 20 tickets or just the ones that| I realized a profit?

If I can bundle all those 17 on the line that says "enter the amount of proceeds that were sold at a loss" (out something like that), would I include in this amount all the fees they charged. Or would I enter that bulk fees amount for the 17 tickets somewhere else?

[JamesG1]

Your spreadsheet should list all 20 tickets that were sold.  You may have to allocate the amounts for which the the tickets were sold.

You would allocate the TM fees across all 20 tickets.  So if the total fees were $100, $5 would be allocated to each of the 3 tickets that were sold at a gain and $85 would be allocated to the 17 that were sold at a loss.

For example, the IRS form 1099-K box 1a reports $1,000 for the ticket sales and $100 for the TM fee for a total of $1,100.

You paid $25 for each ticket.  TM collected a fee of $5 per ticket.

In the entry for the IRS form 1099-K, enter $1,100 in box 1a.  At the screen Personal Item Sales, select I sold some items at a loss or no gain and report $935.  This would be computed as 17 @ $50 = $$850 and 17 @ $5 = $85.

Then you would report $165 for the three remaining IRS form 1099-B entries.  The Proceeds for each of the three transactions would be $55.   Total amount paid would be $25 or you could add the $5 TM fee per ticket and report $30.

@fredj4 

[sw41]

Thanks for the info.  The 1099 only provides the total for the month, not by the individual transactions.  I see from another response that they just broke out the difference by %age.

[bngoldenberg]

Sorry I wasn't clearer.  If you used Ticketmaster or another entity to sell your tickets you should be able to look at your account activity by transaction which will show what you received and what you paid the venue.  You won't know what the buyer paid so you have 2 choices, add up what you sold your tickets for, including the fee you paid, from your venue account(s) and subtract from the total reported in the 1099, the difference will be the commission paid by the buyer and for tax purposes a selling expense to you.  If you aren't able to access the transactions to sum up what you received, maybe you can pull the info from the debits to your bank account.  In either case, multiply what you received by 0.225 and subtract this number from the box 1 number as a selling expense. It will get you close even if not exact. 

[sw41]

I ended up doing some fun spreadsheet work to figure out all the numbers.  Had my own records for costs I paid, payments I received and my fees I paid to Ticketmaster.  Took the total monthly info provided on the 1099-K.  Then deducted the amounts I received by month to come up with monthly buyer's fees.  Then based on percentage breakdown for each month, came up with buyer's fees amounts per sale.  Entering it all into TurboTax was a pain in butt but finally got it working correctly without errors.  At least I know what to do going forward and will update my spreadsheet accordingly for this year's tickets.  There really has to be a better way.  If this is how they expect us to report on it, then Ticketmaster should be providing those breakdowns for us as opposed to only providing a monthly number.