Disclaimer: Please note this article is not financial advice. The purpose of our blog is purely educational, so please consult a professional accountant or financial advisor before making any financial decision.
As a newbie seller, there are areas in your Amazon business that will excite you and push you to wake up in the morning. However, there are some parts that will stretch your knowledge and capabilities—namely taxes. This situation is especially true when you are inexperienced in the field and will be taking on taxes for the very first time.
Let us help you break down the idea of taxes into understandable pieces, so you can grasp them easier. This article will discuss the six basic concepts to know about the 1099 Amazon form. By the end of the article, you’ll know what this form is all about. Let’s begin!
- Amazon 1099
All Amazon sellers go under a tax interview, so the system can store their tax information and process their 1099 if they satisfy the conditions above. You can begin your tax interview by clicking “Tax Information” in your account’s “My Account” category. Then, provide all the data the system asks for, which is usually your basic information like name, address, contact information, and your TIN.
The Amazon 1099 is what the eCommerce giant sends to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) when a seller reaches a threshold of $20,000 in their unadjusted gross sales or has reached more than 200 transactions in a year.
- Amazon 1099 form inclusions
The unadjusted gross sales in your Amazon 1099 include the money from your sales income and sales taxes. Note that credits and refunds are still counted for in your income even if you did not receive the money. Sources of income are the following:
- Sales per seller-fulfilled product
- Sales per Fulfillment by Amazon-fulfilled products
- Buyers’ shipping payment
- Buyers’ gift wrapping payment
- Promotional rebates
Meanwhile, sales taxes collected from the following are also included:
- Sales taxes
- Shipping taxes
- Gift wrapping taxes
You have access to this information in your seller account, but these are raw data. You’ll need a tax expert’s help to make more sense of the numbers and process your income tax return.
- Dates to remember
January 31—or the following business day, if January 31 is a holiday—is when you can access your Form-1099 online. However, if you choose to receive your form via mail, you must wait for at least a week before it appears in your mailbox.
Nevertheless, some groups and individuals aren’t required to report and submit their 1099 forms like trusts, estates, limited liability companies, and those with tax-exempt certificates. If you classify as any of these, include the documents needed during the tax interview. For non-US taxpayers, you need to accomplish the Form W-8BEN to be tax exempted.
- Accessing your 1099 forms
There are different ways to access your 1099 form. The first is through taxcentral.amazon.com. Just sign in using your credentials, click the find form button, and download the form. This method is the easiest and most encouraged as it is paperless, and you can access it quickly. Amazon can also send it to you via email once it is available.
Nevertheless, if you need a hard copy, Amazon can deliver it to you. Just make sure to provide the right address during your tax interview and update the details in case of changes to ensure you will get the hard copy every time.
- Managing 1099 for glitches and mistakes
Like many software and applications, even the Amazon 1099 page gets glitches and errors. Yet, there are also easy fixes.
For instance, if you cannot download 1099 from your account, wait for an hour or two before trying again. Try other troubleshooting ways like using another browser or re-logging in on your account.
Meanwhile, check whether your Adobe Reader is updated if you have downloaded the PDF 1099 file but cannot open it. It may just be the solution.
- Multi-seller and sales in non-US regions
If you are selling on different accounts on Amazon and you want to receive a single 1099 form, declare a single TIN for both accounts in the tax interview. Amazon will compute the total gross sales amount from your various seller accounts.
If you sell on other Amazon regions outside the US, note that the reports are in USD. Nonetheless, if you need data using the local currency of the regions, choose the date range of the report you want to extract from your seller account, and Amazon will provide you with data in local currency.
Income Tax Returns Assistance from Unloop
As you see, your 1099 form is quite easy to access as Amazon provides everything for you. You need to remember what information you’ll get from the form when you get it, and how to troubleshoot it if you face any errors. If you sell in different Amazon regions or are a multi-seller, check out the reminders we posted here.
Although accessing 1099 is handy, you’ll still need assistance from experts later, especially with handling your income tax returns. As mentioned, 1099 includes refunds and credits in your gross sales income. Bookkeepers and accountants can fix this during the preparation of your income tax returns. They will also put all the data provided by Amazon into understandable reports, so you can have a full view of your business. We here at Unloop have trained bookkeepers that can help you! Our services include Amazon tax services, bookkeeping, and more. If you need any of these, book a call with us now. We’d love to assist you!