Taxpayers must report all income they earn and receive in a year on their tax return. Often times, however, people neglect to report several types of miscellaneous income. For instance, self-employment income where no 1099-misc is received, bartering income, gambling winnings, and prizes.
Do I need to report undocumented income?
Of course, a business owner is only required to send an independent contractor a 1099-misc if the work they did for them exceeds $600 in compensation. Where some self-employed business owners get hung up is when they don’t receive an official form from their customer/client. All income, regardless of official documentation needs to be reported.
What about bartering income?
Bartering income is also often times not reported. If you are a small business owner who trades services with another business owner, this counts as income and must be reported as such on your tax return. For example, if you are a landscaper and you agree to landscape your accountant’s yard in exchange for bookkeeping services, then the value of the bookkeeping services are taxable income to you.
(Note: Huddleston Tax CPAs does not accept landscaping in exchange for accounting or bookkeeping services.)
Do you need to report gambled earnings or prizes?
Gambling winnings from lottery tickets, horse racing, and casinos are also taxable. Just because you are not issued a W-2G does not mean you are exempt from reporting your winnings. Gambling losses may be deducted if you itemize your accounts, but only to the extent of winnings.
When you win prizes from things like game shows and contests, the cash value of the prize is considered taxable income to the person who won. This should be reported as other income on line 21 of your 1040.
If you ever have a question about what income should be reported on your tax return you should discuss it with your tax advisor to make sure you have correctly reported all taxable income for the year.