Tax Guru – Ker$tetter Letter

Q:

Subject: Income recognition problem

 

Hi Kerry,

I love your blog, esp. the cartoons, and I had a question for you. I run

a website where I earn affiliate income and I use the cash accounting

method (where you recognize income when it’s paid, not when the work is

performed) with my sole proprietorship. My problem is that the program

will recognize monies paid out on Dec. 31st via check as part of my

earnings in 2006 on the 1099 and I didn’t know if I had to as well and

whether that discrepancy would be a problem.

 

Thanks,

A:

I’m assuming that you’re referring to how to handle a check to you that was printed on 12/31/06, but not actually received by you until sometime in early January 2007. 

By not having constructive or actual receipt of the money, you are correct that you do not have to pay tax on it on your 2006 income tax return, even if the payor has reported it to IRS as 2006  income. The way I have long handled this very common situation is to include the full 1099 amount on the Schedule C line for gross revenues and then on a line below that, enter a negative amount for the check not received until 2007, with a description of what happened.  This way, the IRS computer will match the 1099 amount and the actual amount of income you are paying tax on will be accurate.

You then need to be sure to make the same kind of adjustment in the opposite direction on your 2007 Schedule C.  You need to add the January 2007 payment received to the 2007 1099 amount. 

You really should be  addressing issues such as this with your own personal professional tax advisor.  If you don’t have one, you should know how I feel about that if you have been reading my blog for any length of time.

Good luck.  I hope this helps.

Kerry Kerstetter

Follow-up:

Hi Kerry,
Thank you so very much for the response and you understood my poorly explained question perfectly! And yes, after reading your blog for several months, I do know your stance on hiring a professional and I have considered it – I just haven’t gotten all my docs together so I have been putting it off.

Thanks again and if you ever have blog related questions, feel free to shoot me an email 🙂