taxes question

Great question!

YouData is cutting new ground here, so it is actually still a little fuzzy how we fit into the existing tax rules, but here is our understanding so far:

Most importantly, as stated in our Terms of Service, you, the consumer, are ultimately responsible for any tax liabilities created via participation in our system.

That said, here is our current understanding of how we affect taxation...

YouData is only acting as a "pass-through" of any funds that advertisers pay you for your attention. This means that each advertisers is paying you directly - not YouData.

The threshold for reporting additional income from any single party is $600 annually - this is the current minimum to require a 1099 be sent from the payer. Thus, if any SINGLE advertiser paid you $600 or more for your attention in a single year, they would need to report the transaction, issue to you a 1099 form, and you would need to report the income and pay the appropriate taxes.

Fortunately, our system prevents any single advertiser from paying any individual more than $599 in a single year, so that we may avoid such a taxable situation. (Realistically, no single advertiser will even come close to the $600 threshold for a single individual anyway.)

So even if you ended up with $601 total via our system in a single tax year, that total would be comprised of hundreds of very small payments from hundreds of advertisers, and no 1099s or other reporting should be required.

Hope this helps. In forming our current understanding of the tax rules, we have talked with several tax experts and attorneys, but all admit that this is "new ground," so this could all change down the road.

We will keep the MeFile community updated on any changes or discoveries that may affect how we all handle taxation.