I’m a high school senior applying to colleges. I do not have any W2’s and didn’t file any tax returns. However, I am a software developer who published a few mobile apps for sale. I made about $2000 in royalties in 2015. I have a couple mobile apps available for sale, and the total amount of money I make from sales is transferred straight to my Paypal account every month; there is no paper trail at all.
I am filling out a non-tax filer’s statement, and it asks to list untaxed income and earnings. What should I do? I never got a 1099 form either. Should I just leave the income section blank?
Well, this is what we did. My D had babysitting income and no paper trail. But since we were applying for federal and state aid I felt we needed to report the income on FAFSA even if it was not high enough to have to file a tax return.
So we put on FAFSA “will not file” and the amount she made.
There was no problem because it was under the filing threshold.
Now in your case I think your income would be qualified as self employment income as well.
So you should file a tax return since it’s over $400.
The 1099 would be issued by someone else paying you over a certain amount, not you.
But how do I report income that has no paper trail? I have absolutely no documentation that shows that I earned this money. I have been earning royalties like this for over two years now, and the whole time I have accrued undocumented money like this. Reading everyone’s advice, I have a feeling it might have been illegal to not report this income; I don’t know what to do now :-S
If you are self employed, you are supposed to keep,your OWN records.
My son is a musician. He gives private lessons and is usually paid in cash. He keeps very meticulous records of this income himself…as he is self employed (like you) and needs to pay taxes on his earnings.
Dude… c’mon. You know how much you made, right? That’s how much you report. Do the royalties get deposited in a bank account or in PayPal account? Those deposits are a record of earnings.
The problem is that the non-filer’s statement wants documentation for all the income reported, and I have no documentation to attach. The money is deposited to my Paypal account every month. I’m pretty sure taking screenshots of my Paypal account wouldn’t count as documentation, but that’s literally all I can think of.
You can’t provide what you don’t have, but that doesn’t excuse completely ignoring your earnings. You can describe your earnings and how you get paid and explain that there is no documentation (other than PayPal deposit entries). If the school needs to follow-up, they will.
To make things more complicated, I’m an international student living in the USA on an H4 visa. Thus, I don’t have an SSN, but I do have an ITIN. I believe I’m not allowed to complete a 2015 Tax return because of my visa situation.
The only solution I can think of is to pretend this income doesn’t exist. I really don’t want to do that, so I hope I can find a solution.
I really appreciate the guidance I have received so far, thank you to everyone who has replied.
Yeah… you need to hire an accountant to make sure you are complying with U.S. tax law. Your situation is probably beyond the scope of most people who post on CC.
You can keep books - that becomes the documentation. My H has a small side business, I keep the books on Quickbooks online. It’s very inexpensive and that IS the documentation. It’s on you as a business owner to keep track of your income and relevant expenses.
No, that’s not the only solution, but it is the worst solution. And if you don’t report the income on financial aid forms, you will be doing something illegal and unethical.