Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I have two accountants I've talked to and I get different decisions for each. I'm trying to get confidence to declare adsense as passive income.
Note that some websites don't lend themselve to passive income since they require daily care and feeding for things like product reviews, blogs, price comparisons, etc.
If you don't think a fairly static website qualifies then please say why.
Thanks.
In such cases, even a relatively modest income, together with frugal lifestyle, might be sufficient enough to form a basis for a viable passive income model.
[en.wikipedia.org...]
Maybe it could be a good starting point to present to accountants and the IRS?
Is there any difference with the tax level with passive income?
In the USA passive income, like dividends on stocks, are taxed at a lower rate than regular wages income.
I'm hoping some folks here has been declaring adsense as passive income successfully.
The IRS page doesn't specifically address AdSense-type income, but I'd bet dollars to doughnuts you'd get slapped down if you tried to claim it as passive income. It really doesn't fit either of the definitions the IRS uses for passive income.
I have both rental property income and adsense income. There are diffrent tax write-offs available for each revenue stream, however at the end of the day the net income is taxed the same.
I thought that you don't pay the social security and medicare on passive income.. for a self employed person that can amount to 15%
correct?
But when it comes to things that can get me in trouble with the IRS, I tend to ignore Wikipedia and go with what the IRS says. Have you checked with the IRS on this question?
"Any income from intangible property, such as a patent, copyright, or literary, musical, or artistic composition, if your personal efforts significantly contributed to the creation of the property."
I wonder if website content is considered an intangible property? I guess articles on websites might be considered 'literary composition' ?
As with all such technical matters, it is best to consult a tax accountant and/or attorney.
I consulted two tax accountants. One says yes the other says no. At the moment the accountant I'm using is the one saying no. I'm tired of asking him Why? and him saying 'Because'. But I'm afraid to make the leap so far with out more confirmation. And as you said, it hasn't been settled yet so I guess there isn't any possibility of confirmation either way at this moment.
IRS immediately comes to the conclusion that we are getting paid for the content that we created (and therefore not passive). That's the gray area since it can be argued that we are not getting paid for the content, we are getting paid for the advertisements.
If you steal other people's content then I guess the income would be passive :)
By the way. I called IRS again and said I provide google with space on my website to display ads under google's control. Google sends me a check every month for a portion of the money they make. Answer is: sure, that is passive income.
note that you can't have much in the way of w-2 wages when you attempt to collect social security!
[irs.gov...]
Seems to suggest that if Google is reporting it on a 1099 it can't be claimed as passive....
In the link I believe they refer to examining the 1099 to make sure the income isn't from 'personal services'. I can't even speak to google let alone give them a personal service of any kind :)
As I mentioned before, my current point is that as long as we are not getting paid for the content on our site directly (that would be income from a literary work) then it would be passive income. We are getting paid for the advertising revenue from the ads google places (not needing our control or management).
The other slightly sticky point is: is the income from a related (w-2) business. My other business (consulting) is completely independent from the advertising and each would not be affected if either one did not exist - therefore they are not 'related'. my consulting business existed for many years before adsense arrived.
back to the 1099, my accountant says it has nothing to do with it since generally you get a 1099 for just about every non w-2 income. I think the important thing is that we don't receive a w-2 from google.
If the IRS person knew what Adsense was about they would realise they were wrong. What if you did not have adsense or any sort of paid advertising on your website would you receive income? NO.
I'm not sure what you point is. Could you explain a little further please?
Just to clarify - I do get income from the website indirectly because it provides me with clients for my consulting biz - that was the purpose for which the website was created. Not sure if that matters to your point.
Thanks for the further clarifications re 1099s and such. I posted the IRS link to make sure I understood...
The other slightly sticky point is: is the income from a related (w-2) business. My other business (consulting) is completely independent from the advertising and each would not be affected if either one did not exist - therefore they are not 'related'. my consulting business existed for many years before adsense arrived.
I have a somewhat similar situation, but I may not be able to claim such a separation. My web site functions both as the online home of my business, and as an informational site earning AdSense income. The two incomes streams are entirely separate--the business has a sort of mini-site within the site with no AdSense on it--but that might be a hard case to make.
I'm going to look into this some more but I'm not sure I can make this case.
I have tons of deductions and they all go against the consulting biz/company. Currently the adsense is going into another company but one is owned by the other so I'm switching my adsense back to my personal account so I can receive it directly under my ssn.
I'm trying to get this all straight for next year.
Although if adsense continues to go into the toilet all this may be mute.
Yes, I did read sailorjwd's post where the IRS said it would be passive income, but I don't particularly trust what an IRS person says on the phone. Reality is in an audit.
IRS immediately comes to the conclusion that we are getting paid for the content that we created (and therefore not passive).
What about user-generated content? I don't generate the content for my site. Wonder if that changes things in my favor?
Content is a sticky issue. Are we selling content to google? No.
are we getting royalties from the content? No. When I called IRS back and didn't mention 'content' and just mentioned providing google with 'space' they said it was passive. But it is hard to seperate content form adsense. But you and others have special cases that may pass the sniff test. You provide the structure (basically a one time setup) for other people to add information.
