Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Google sent me and several other AdSense publishers duplicate 1099 forms. They are identical in every aspect, and came in two separate envelopes.
I called the phone number on the 1099 form, and it is a non-working number at Google!
Is Google aware of this yet, or do we each have to contact them about our situation?
Will Google issue a corrected 1099 so that the IRS is aware there is an issue, or will they leave it up to us to deal with this issue 12 months from filing when the IRS sends the letter audit to each of us?
It would be nice if ASA would weigh in on this for us before we all swamp the Google switchboard without problem.
Two exact duplicate 1099's.
I guess the Income Removal Service is going to audit every one of us next year.
:-(
I suppose I shall have to keep all my bank statements handy to demonstrate, "Here is the total I received by Direct Deposit, not twice that amount!"
I asked if she could send me to an accounting department. She refused, then she told me to 2) throw the duplicate away. Or I could 3) send an email to AdSense-Support.
I asked if she could tell me to what department the non-working phone number belonged. She said she couldn't. I asked if there was an AdSense department,
Then she put me on hold, and when she came back on the phone, told me I could either 4) shred it or 1) send it back to them or 3) send an email to AdSense-Support.
I 3) sent the email to AdSense-Support.
Anyone else call?
Anyone else call?
I wouldn't. They are clearly duplicates and a mistake on their part. If they sent dups to the IRS, I do believe the IRS would be able to determine that they were dups too.
Here's the filing instructions for form 1099, the instructions that the IRS gives to companies that need to send forms 1099:
[Note: this is in the electronic filing section.]and
If a payer realizes duplicate reporting or a large percentage of incorrect information has been filed, contact the information reporting customer service site at 1-866-455-7438 for further instructions.
[Note: this is in the paper filing section]
Common errors. Be sure to check your returns to prevent the following common errors:
Duplicate filing. Do not send the same information to the IRS more than once. Also see Multiple filings below.
Nowhere in there do I see "If you've made an error and reported income twice, tell the recipients to throw out or shred the duplicates" or "Don't worry, the IRS's computers will realize there's been an error". In fact it is such a serious error, they don't want you to try and correct it yourself, they want you to call them about it.
It's not just inconvenience. A letter audit will cost me probably $300 to my accountant. I'm sure just writing the accompanying note to the IRS is going to cost $50 to $150. If it turns into a face to face audit it is a minimum of $2,000. A full blown audit -- shudder. CPAs are not cheap.
I have nothing to hide, I am completely above board, but why would I want to have to spend this kind of money defending myself?
I understand that most have rather uncomplicated personal returns with a Schedule C. Some of us have complicated businesses and complex tax returns.
[edited by: RonS at 5:35 pm (utc) on Feb. 5, 2007]
(I wish we would have got dup checks this year!)
Well, that's two days without a reply from support.
I would think that due to the sheer number of 1099 duplication, they would make a blanket statement and not respond to individual support requests?
You are certainly not alone. Got my 2 1099's yesterday and I too, fear the audit. It is not the concern that something will come up in an audit, it is the cost of my accountant and the fact that it will be a time waster on my end. I just sold a business this year, so a flag would probably be followed up on.
Looking forward to hear what you find. "Throwing it away" was NOT my first choice.
roblaw
Last time I had a real issue (other than "does this look OK to you") for support it was about a year ago. As a matter of fact it was last February as well. Time sure does fly.
That time, 11 days passed before ASA interceded on my behalf, and then I got a response a day later. Will we make a new record?
Why can't they simply respond with "We're looking into this, here's a case number." like every other legitimate support organization in the world?
The self-employed version of the W-2 form is the 1099. Any individual or company that pays you $600 or more in the previous year is required by law to report that payment, known in the tax world as miscellaneous income, via a 1099-MISC form. The form is to be sent to you and the Internal Revenue Service by Jan. 31.
Instead of sending us one copy of the 1099 form and the other copy to the IRS, I think they sent out both copies by mistake to us. If this is really the case, then the IRS doesn't have any record of it. I believe it's best to call the IRS BEFORE you file this year. Otherwise, it could be a very costly error!
It is up to Google to correct the errors, if any, and I'd like them to tell me that they intend to do so before I file my taxes -- actually, before I bring my accountant in.
Calling the IRS would be an utter and complete waste of time at this point, IMHO. They will undoubtedly tell you to contact the payor (Google) and ask for a correction, then tell you to file anyway with an attached note. That's my best guess.
Good luck.
I'm virtually certain that Google files the 1099s electronically with the IRS
Good Point Ron, surely they did not file electronially twice. So the extra W2 is a goofup and that's all.
Otherwise you open yourself up to discrepencies...
(I was in the financial industry software business... :) )
Since people can probably guess that my last name starts with S, I wonder if other people who got two have the same last initial.
[edited by: RonS at 3:19 pm (utc) on Feb. 8, 2007]
roblaw
I am in: NY.
TaxID starts with: 10
Adsense Account starts with: 322
roblaw
In Massachusetts
TaxID starts with 0
Account starts with 5
I just returned to my computer and find I got a response from support 25 minutes ago!
ToS forbids publishing emails but the gist is:
1) Sorry for the delay in replying, next time, use the email address associated with the account to send correspondence to support.
2) They will forward the info to the banking team for investigation.
3) Be assured the info won't be reported to the IRS twice.
Here's my response:
3) How can you in support tell that it won't be (or hasn't been) reported twice if your banking team hasn't seen this yet?
2) Great. How about assuring me that they'll get back to me with a resolution when they find one?
1) Really? I use an AdSense-specific email address for my AdSense account. I gave them my account number and my Google email address in the body of the email, and they could have sent their response to the address of record for the account instead of the one I used, and they probably should have, come to think of it.
Maybe their system sees a publisher's email addy and prioritizes it, so OK, I'll be sure to set the return address to be the AdSense account when I send something to AdSense.
I will continue to follow up with them until I'm satisfied that they have identified the issue and have corrected any duplicate reportings, if any, and I'll keep you all informed.
Thanks for the update. I will post the gist of my response once received.
I wish there was some way of confirming what they are saying. They can tell us it did not go to the IRS, but I would like to be sure.
roblaw
Instead of sending us one copy of the 1099 form and the other copy to the IRS, I think they sent out both copies by mistake to us.
IIRC. ;)
