2021 1099K

[Victoria1128]

Hello, I received a 1099K this week regardless that I did not meet the threshold for 2021. I have called for over 3 days and being passed around. I was told a Case Manager will call me and still no calls to date.  Just wondering if other hosts had same experienced? I don’t know what to do to rectify the oversight they made. Thank you 

[Allen136]

Hi @Sybe,

Also, please see this article in the Resource Center that’s still live to this date. It was posted Feb 24, 2021 and updated December 9, 2021. What im trying to say is that according to Airbnb, this information is current as of December 9, 2021. (link and image below)

It very clearly states “Whether you receive a Form 1099-K from Airbnb depends on a few factors. Airbnb will send you a Form 1099-K for 2021 if all of the below apply:”

Airbnb even italicized the “ALL” as to bring attention to it. I’m my case, I wasn’t even close to the 200 transaction limit so “all” did not apply to me. 

Airbnb was also very specific in mentioning “for 2021” and “during the 2021 calendar year”

The article also clearly defines the changes in 2022. 

Again, we received a 1099-k in conflict with that’s published in multiple places on airbnbs site, including the resource center. How can you expect hosts to accurately plan our tax year if you say you’ll do one thing, then do the complete opposite?

https://www.airbnb.com/resources/hosting-homes/a/important-income-tax-changes-for-us-hosts-331

[Allen136]

Again, the date of this article is current as of Dec 9, 2021. That’s a month before my issue came up. Everything points to us not receiving a 1099k. It’s only fair that Airbnb does right by their hosts and correct/amend the 1099k issued in error. It’s unfair for us to be surprised like this. How could you reasonably expect us to plan for a situation like this when Airbnb said they would do one thing, then go ahead and do the opposite? Leaving us in a very very bad position here. I would have changed a million things if we were given prior notice that we would receive a 1099k for 2021. As something as important as taxes, ample time to prepare is very necessary. 

This is like saying “We passed a law increasing fines for speeding, but this applies to the year prior so if you were caught speeding last year, you now owe fines even if you had no such idea a law would be passed.” A law doesn’t apply retroactively to a prior year because that would be unfair, correct?

As you can see. I can’t find ONE thing that points to us receiving a 1099k for the 2021 tax year..

[Allen136]

It’s clear there’s something amiss internally at Airbnb, otherwise it wouldn’t be this convoluted process of actively ignoring all these questions and providing conflicting information. I can sense that for some reason, Airbnb doesn’t want to fix the 1099k issued in error and won’t admit to anything. Perhaps someone’s afraid of losing their job? 

It’s clear we either: 

Received a 1099k in error 

or 

Airbnb provided inaccurate information in all their published content which is customary for support to direct hosts to. 

Either way, we expect it to be addressed. Airbnb had broken trust with their hosts in the past, and for me, this tops it all. I understand tax law is complex and mistakes happen. But when there’s no avenue to solve the issue, that’s a big problem. I sincerely hope this issue is reaching the right people. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Allen136 Please could you help me understand why this is such a big issue. Surely receiving a 1099 just makes it easier to file your taxes. Why does it matter that Airbnb didn't have to send you it this year? 

[Allen136]

Hi Mike and Jane,

I see you’re one of the most active members on here. While that’s amazing, I hope you’re using your time and ability to provide meaningful insight to others seeking assistance on here as I feel we have already provided a lot of information with glaring issues.

It’s a bit awkward of a question as it delves into very personal taxes which vary greatly case by case as you know and you can’t reasonably expect someone to share that information in a public forum. 

Let’s just say, there’s multiple stakeholders for our short-term rental  and the way payments and expenses are spread amongst us affects our income independently. Essentially for us, this would cause a large amount of deductions that can’t be expensed that would normally qualify, which means we would incur a larger tax liability than if we were properly informed and had ample time to adjust. This also highly complicates how each of us should file what income belongs to us. 

Which is why laws, acts, propositions and bills that are passed applies to the following year to give people ample time to transition. Which is in line with the American Rescue Plan Act and Californias Franchise Tax Board requirement for 1099k. They both go into effect for the 2022 tax season.

Airbnb also clearly stated in their Help Center, the Resource Center and in a email we received the criteria for receiving a 1099k. They also clearly stated the criteria for which we will not receive one and differentiated 2021 and 2022. Which was all in line with the American Rescue Plan Act and CA FTB changes for 2022. 

It’s a breach of trust and integrity to refer hosts to those resources and then decide to do the exact opposite. No one should be okay with Airbnb arbitrarily deciding to not follow their own published resources. How would you be able to trust anything Airbnb publishes or says in the future if they’re allowed to backpedal and leave the hosts to figure out what happened? Again, that is a big breach of trust and integrity and you cant reasonably expect anyone to prepare for that. 

I do believe we are a small group that has received a 1099k in error. Otherwise, I can assure you there would be tons of people raising hell, like what happened with eBay/PayPal which also issued 1099k mistakenly. 

Consistency is also a problem. Why would the support reps say California has lower reporting limits for 2021, because if that was true, every single host in California who made over $600 in 2021 would have gotten a 1099k too and most people didn’t because Airbnb applied the correct threshold to them but not us? It also means the support reps are also actively providing false information to us. 

Lastly, don’t you agree that going 31 days without meaningful answers from Airbnb is an issue? All information I gathered is from other hosts experiencing the same issue and my own research. There’s other issues with my 1099k and there seems to be no avenue to resolve it. Again, the IRS themselves classified this as an error and is directing the issuer to fix the problem except they have been unresponsive. 

Airbnb made a mistake somewhere and something is clearly wrong internally because it’s not that hard to answer our very real questions of conflicting information unless they are hiding something. 

Tell me you see nothing wrong with this? 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Allen136 Thank you for your explanation. To be honest it is the first time a '1099 complainer' has answered my question which leaves me to believe the others are just complaining for the sake of it or complaining because they can no longer evade taxes.

Do you have a plan going forward? I can only hope that Airbnb are working behind the scenes to correct their mistake and also provide a way of splitting revenues that will allow host group such as yourselves to operate effectively going forward.

[Sybe]

Hi @Allen136 @Victoria1128 

Thank you for replying. I can imagine it can be frustrating to be surprised by unexpected forms when it comes to something like taxes. Like @Mike-And-Jane0  said, what I’d like to understand better is the direct impact of receiving this form on your taxes and your planning. My understanding is that you could use the Earnings Summary to file your taxes as well if available, and otherwise the CSV file is available for download. Please do correct me if I'm wrong, taxes in UK are handled quite differently!  

In the meantime, I’ve sent this bug to the team so they can look into it, make sure the correct forms are sent in the future and to have the Support pages show up-to-date information.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Sybe UK taxes are an absolute dream compared to US taxes. We do all our own tax returns in the UK and, if we get stuck, we call the HMRC helpline and get a human being to talk to whose only role seems to be to make sure we pay the right amount of tax - Not too little but also not too much. In the US our company hired an accountant for us as it is so complicated.

@Allen136 's explanation of multiple owners being responsible for tax but only 1 getting the 1099 seems to be the real issue here.

[Sybe]

@Mike-And-Jane0 and receiving a letter saying you paid too much taxes sometimes feels like you're receiving a small holiday bonus from HMRC!

I only saw your message after I posted my reply @Allen136 , my apologies for that. I get that it's challenging to figure out everyone's separate earnings if only one person receives the 1099-K. As I mentioned, I've sent this to the bug team for them to look into.

[Allen136]

@Mike-And-Jane0 

I believe a reason people may shy away from responding to you is because you sort of take a negative stance and a condescending tone. Which is evident with the “1099 complainer” comment. It shows that how you personally feel about an issue and if that’s all you got from this thread, you missed the point of some serious Airbnb trust and integrity issues.

Also, the real issue is not what you mentioned. Like I said, I was giving an example of loss of deductions due to inability to plan for such a surprise. There’s way more caveats. For example, all the people that were paid in cash last year didn’t get a 1099 from me because it wasn’t necessary prior. Now I can’t use those deductions. Same with the way our mortgage is paid, that one hurts as it’s over $20,000 we can’t expense.

Like I said before. I, along with everyone else here is totally fine and aware of the changes with ample notification and time to transition so we can plan accordingly. That is the case for 2022, we were given ample time and are prepared and made the changes necessary to manage tax liability.  If airbnbs website specifically said we would NOT get one for 2021, how would you reasonably expect us to prepare for that? Especially if the law is in line with what they said. There was no indication they would jump the gun. There’s an oversight made here, and why should the host bear the burden from that oversight? 

[Athena18 · Accepted solution]

Please stop pretending you don't know what we are talking about. A middle schooler could read this thread and infer the question being asked, plus I clarified it for you on the last thread. You are just popping in here to make it look like someone official is responding, but a non response is not a response; your response it is patronizing and the antithesis of customer care. It would be nice to receive the same level of care we give to our guests which makes your entire product marketable. 

To c-l-a-r-i-f-y:

Can Airbnb please correct the incorrectly issued 1099 forms? The forms in question were sent to the IRS but did not meet reporting thresholds for the 2021 year (200 transactions and $20,000).

My friend did not meet either threshold and still received a 1099. We are not isolated cases. 

[Sybe]

Hi everyone,

Thanks again for raising this. We received a response, and it appears that the tax forms have been sent out in line with our internal processes. As most of you know, the 1099-K forms would be sent out to US Hosts who earn over $20,000 and have 200+ transactions in a calendar year. This applies to non-US Hosts with US-sourced income as well. Airbnb is required to report earnings for these users to the IRS. 

I’m afraid we aren’t able to offer any more specific advice, and if you do have more questions about why you received a 1099-K, we suggest you have a look at the information on this page or get in touch with a tax professional for more information. I know this is not the answer you were hoping for, but I hope this can at least steer you in the right direction.

Thanks, 

-Sybe

[Victoria1128]

Hello Sybe, thank you for your response. We have been saying all along that WE are aware of the US tax law. We did not meet the threshold of 200 transactions in a given calendar year of 2021. The host has to meet both criteria and NOT either or.. what we are fighting for is the fact that Airbnb made a mistake and should be rectified regardless of our tax filing. We do file our taxes and declare our income. The point being addressed is the sole fact that Airbnb mistakenly issued 1099-K to some California Hosts and not to all! Does it mean that for those hosts that were affected by this impactful oversight made by Airbnb we are to let it go and go along with Airbnb regardless of the oversight? Thank you for further investigating our case. 

[Allen136]

Hi @Sybe 

Thank you for your reply, 

You say: “it has been sent out in line with our internal processes. As most of you know, 1099-K forms would be sent out to US Hosts who earn over $20,000 and have 200+ transactions in a calendar year.“

We did receive a 1099-k while under the $20,000 and 200 transaction limit. That is the main issue here. There’s nowhere on the site that says we would for the 2021 tax year and even specifically and clearly mentioned we wouldn’t. So that means they were NOT sent out in line with Airbnbs internal processes.

[Athena18]

People are trying to tell you: WE DID NOT MEET THOSE THRESHOLDS THAT YOU, THE WEBSITE, YOUR PHONE OPERATORS KEEP TELLING US WE NEED TO HAVE MET TO BE ISSUED A 1099 FORM. 

We did not meet those thresholds. Some of us didn't even reach either threshold. HOW WILL YOU FIX THIS FOR THOSE PEOPLE who did not meet the thresholds and were issued a 1099 in error?

You can't say we won't issue you a 1099 form unless you meet these thresholds then go ahead issue a 1099 form when we don't meet the thresholds. Then tell us we won't issue you one unless you meet the thresholds and gaslight us like that. We are not crazy, your response to our response  is unethical and wrong on so many levels. Apologize for the error like Ebay and Paypal did and correct it, please.