2019 TAX PLANNING AND SUPPORT LINKS
Oh boy - it's now January 2020 which means those 2019 tax returns can't be far behind!
As a reminder, last year Chase and American Express issued 1099s for support clicks! Here are some random thoughts on this:
- Chase issued one 1099 per person for all cards. It showed the card # on the 1099 so you could easily match up and check for accuracy.
- American Express issued one 1099 per card! So some people received numerous 1099s if they had clicks on multiple cards. The 1099 showed the account number also so you could match up and check for accuracy.
- People did identify ERRORS on their 1099s. The only way to check this is to comb through your records for all the clicks your received.
- We never reached a consensus on what sparked you to receive a 1099. There were lots of theories of a thresh-hold of $500 or $600 but never reached a clear answer there. And there were some people who inexplicably received 1099s at lower amounts if I recall correctly.
- If you had any support clicks last year, it would be best to wait and be SURE that no 1099s are coming your way no matter how simple your taxes may seem.
- I don't recall ANY of these 1099s being available online
Here are the way points were valued last year:
- ALL American Express related cards/points (MRs, Marriott, Delta) = 1 cpp (with exception of Hilton)
- Hilton = 0.67 cpp
- ALL Chase related cards/points (URs, Southwest, Hyatt, Marriott, United) = 1cpp
- Please let me know if anything is wrong here and I can update this.
Some people - namely
@Andysol - did make an effort to dispute some valuations last year and/or attribute expenses/annual fees against them. Unless you are a major heavy hitter in the support link realm, this is likely NOT worth your time since you're probably saving an inconsequential amount on your taxes and possibly putting yourself at a risk of larger scrutiny by the IRS (this is probably just paranoia on my part though). If you can identify a clear mistake however, (i.e. that your amount is higher than the actual points received based on the calculations above) then you may want to follow up with the bank to attempt to clarify that.
Please share here on the thread if you receive a 1099 for support links so that people can be on the lookout for them. These likely won't go out until very late in the month based on how it worked last year.
It just seems like a great card to have. And it's not even about the Away discount, because instead of wanting that I'm kicking myself for not using that Amex Rimowa offer that expired last year.
