Comments on: Are Credit Card Cash Rewards Taxable?

By: DWeber

DWeber — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 22:30:13 +0000

I’m not a tax expert, but I did read the IRS advisory on declarable income. All money, products, and services received is to be reported, unless the IRS says otherwise. Certainly those business credit card rewards have a market value and must be reported if they were earned by the company and spent by employees. The “otherwise” covers things like Holocost survivor reparations and special cases that Congress has spelled out.

By: JRM

JRM — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 15:42:10 +0000

If a business earns credit card rewards and shares those rewards with its employees as part of a bonus program, are the employees responsible for reporting additional taxable income even though the bonus is not in the form of cash but reward points?

By: Tina

Tina — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 15:41:38 +0000

What about rewards for opening a bank or brokerage account? Do you think those would work the same way (since you’re not exactly purchasing anything)?

Thanks.

By: Free Money Finance

Free Money Finance — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 11:21:25 +0000

Star Money Articles for the Week of Jan. 15

Here are interesting posts and news this week from the MoneyBlogNetwork members and beyond: AllFinancialMatters asks if you’re broke because you overspent on a car. He also did me a favor and addressed my question of whether or not credit

By: mbhunter

mbhunter — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 07:02:22 +0000

Oh good! I had wondered about that too.

By: cash back credit card enthusiast

cash back credit card enthusiast — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 00:46:10 +0000

Great to know! I’ve always been a fan of cash back credit cards, in part, because the rewards are tax free — or so I always thought based on the “just another rebate” argument and the fact that I never received a 1099 from a credit card company even when my rewards were quite large in years I traveled a lot.

Thanks for the confirmation!

By: jim

jim — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 03:26:36 +0000

I thought the IRS sent out guidance that it was just a cost basis reduction on the price of the item… ie rebate.

By: samerwriter

samerwriter — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 01:21:57 +0000

I’d read the same thing (that credit card rebates are not taxable). On the one hand, it’s surprising that the IRS isn’t taxing something. On the other hand, rebates don’t “feel” like income, so I guess I’m not too surprised.

By: Kirk Walsh

Kirk Walsh — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 21:41:03 +0000

I actually covered this last May when a similar post came up on the TaxProf blog.

http://www.kirkwalsh.com/blog/2006/05/10/tax-consequences-of-rebate-cards/

I came to the same conclusion. It might be, but the IRS isn’t going to go after it.

By: FMF

FMF — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 21:06:40 +0000

Thanks! You’re the man!!!!!