Tax documents

[SvetlanaSF]

Hello everyone,

I'm new to Alamy, last year was my first year contributing here (but I've been contributing to other microstock sites for a while) so I'm not familiar with how Alamy reports taxes for the US residents. Can anyone help me figure it out? I can't find a link to anything on the website that resembles a tax center like other microstock sites have, where I can download my 1099. Do they get mailed to you? If yes, have you gotten yours yet? It's getting late in the tax season and I'm concerned that I haven't gotten mine yet.

Thanks in advance,

Svetlana

[NYCat]

We don't get a 1099. I just add it up and give the sum to my accountant. I have other self-employment income as well as pension, etc. Alamy is just one source of photography income. Are your other sites in the US with taxes withheld?

 

Paulette

[spacecadet]

Surely you know Alamy is a British company? It doesn't have any responsibility to the IRS.

[SvetlanaSF]

Hi all, Yes, I do know that they are a British company. But the US regulations are quite strict and the IRS requires transparency from businesses who work with American residents. It's a burden but most companies comply with it. My french bank has to report my account to the IRS... So I was under the assumption that Alamy would do the same. 

All the other sites I work with report my earnings on a 1099 which I then use for my taxes. Sounds like I'll just have to do the math. But now I know and that's what I needed.

Thanks everyone! 

[Ollie]

I've been with Alamy many years and I don't ever recall receiving anything from them to document my proceeds.  I just add up the monthly deposits made to my account and note it on my Schedule C, where I report business income and expenses.  If the IRS were ever to ask for documentation I would show them the deposits on my monthly bank statements, but that has never happened.

[spacecadet]

There's certainly no equivalent to that form in the UK outside the construction industry. If I pay a contractor, I have no obligation to tell the Revenue that I've done so on a separate form. I just get a receipt and it goes in the accounts in the usual way. As to earnings, I add them up myself.

[MizBrown]

I'm an American citizen who is a legal resident in Nicaragua.  I pay self-employment taxes on income earned in the US over $400 or $500 a year (and those generally do send me tax forms).  So far, I haven't enough from photography to pay self-employment tax on it, but I believe that foreign earned money while I'm a resident of another country is exempt up to some five figure amount.

 

The US tends to want taxes from all its citizens, though.  My earnings from Alamy don't go into a US bank, but into my Nicaraguan dollar savings account.  The Nicaraguan bank is required to report activity on. my account.  We've had an interesting go-around on where I am legally a resident (the US wants me to give them a US address, which I don't have).

 

Anyone else in the same situation?  

[Chuck Nacke]

Svetlana,

 

I've been self employed since 1980 and from 1989 to 1996 I lived and worked outside of the country (U.S.)

I never dealt with 1099's, except for U.S. Companies.  I just total my income from each source and do my

taxes.  With Alamy it is easy to do I.E. Payments to XXXXX contributor.

 

MBrown,

 

When I lived in Europe, I was exempt from the first $75,000 income and I did maintain a U.S. Bank account.

For U.S. Taxes there is a restriction on the amount of time you spend in the U.S. and I was always below that.

My largest problem was working for my French agent, their tax system is a mess for Americans.

 

Chuck 

[Michael Ventura]

Like the other U.S. citizens, I just add up my deposits from Alamy and give that figure to my accountant, along with other miscellaneous income and 1099’s.  Alamy does not send out 1099’s.

[MizBrown]

On 05/03/2019 at 15:31, Chuck Nacke said:

MBrown,

 

When I lived in Europe, I was exempt from the first $75,000 income and I did maintain a U.S. Bank account.

For U.S. Taxes there is a restriction on the amount of time you spend in the U.S. and I was always below that.

My largest problem was working for my French agent, their tax system is a mess for Americans.

 

Chuck 

 

Thanks.  That matches what I thought was the foreign income max.  These days, if we have more than $10K in a foreign account, we owe the IRS some additional forms.

 

I think the max time in the US before tax liabilities as a resident kick in is a month in any given year.

[Chuck Nacke]

MB,

 

I had always been lead to believe that if you spent less than 30 days during a calendar year, don't quote me on that it was a long time ago,

Americans were exempt from income, up to $75,000 earned while working outside of the United States.  I did not think that it mattered who

or where the income was from as long as the person was living and working outside of the U.S.?  The French were a completely different

story and I've always had tax issues with my French agents.

 

FYI, I did live in the Ukraine and Russia for ten years and worked with agents in the U.S., UK, France, Germany, Finland, Spain, Italy and

my favorite Japan, great agency.

 

I would suggest to you and all Alamy contributors get good tax advice and not from the U.S. internal Revenue Service.  At the time my best

friend was a tax attorney.

 

Chuck