Swagbucks slickdeals

Has anybody besides me opened a bank/fintech acct with these outfits? Seems lucrative to me. I did a 1)100.00 bonus from Axos bank (bonus from the bank) and opened account via Sdeals link for another 40.00 paid out as Vanilla egift cards.2) Axos "high interest savings via Sdeals for 75.00 in Sdeal1k fake DD and savings 250.00 3)Wife opened Chime for250 swagbucks with a fake dd. Also these bonuses are not taxed as the banks do. Just asking…

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I’ve had a swagbucks account for me and one for my wife for years. In total, I’ve earned over $2,000 worth of swagbucks on both of the accounts. Since they discount their $25 card redemptions only once per month, and I like to take advantage of that, I’ve still got a bunch to burn, so I think I’m probably done earning on there for a while. But lots of great deals still to be had for people just starting out into swagbucks.

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thanks. been in the MSing and bank bonus game, but never been interested in SB. so far so good. And their bank bonuses are pretty good and no tax since you get egift visa cards to boot! Lots of time to f around due to pandemic.

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From what I’ve seen, the values of most deals are pretty low and most require some kind of:

  • new account sign up (bank or app),
  • a purchase, or
  • participation, like play some mobile game to achieve a certain level (which could take an hour or more).

I suppose it can be good if you make enough $ to justify the time spent. I keep seeing SB deals on DoC, but haven’t been able to justify signing up yet. I place a high value on my privacy and because of that I dislike signing up for new things (that require my PII or “must” use my phone) all the time.

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Ugh, not this again. This one is explicitly refuted in their own help:

Is this like all of the out of state purchases that you reported to Sacramento?
:laughing: JK

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No way that I figure an egift card can be taxed by authorities. Banks are not reporting it as a bonus since it’s paid by SB. I’ll find out in tax year 2023 as my SB bank bonuses won’t be given to me till this March/April. Did the Chime/Current/Stash and another one. Axos via SD paid a 100.00 bonus via Axos plus the 125.00 egift cards from SD. Took 2 weeks for Axos bonus and 6 weeks for SD Egift. I’m retired so I have time for this stuff, plus due to covid wife doesn’t let me roam too many places.

As far as you know! And it’s not really an issue anymore with Amazon and eBay automatically collecting sales tax for the past few years.

Point being that legally speaking it is not tax-free, so we shouldn’t say that it’s tax free. Even if privately we break the law.

It doesn’t matter how you get paid. SB is required to report once you exceed $600/yr (from that description it sounds like they’ll require your SSN, and likely won’t pay if you refuse). Doesn’t mean ti’s not taxable < $600, just means it’s your responsibility to keep track and report, not theirs. Pay taxes, don’t pay taxes – I don’t give a shit. Just don’t lie about it being tax-free.

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How will you “find out”? If your total is less than $600 they wont send a 1099, but that doesnt make it any less taxable. You wont “find out” anything unless you draw a full anal-probe-level IRS audit where they find the money. And even if they do uncover it, the tens of dollars of lost tax revenue will only be a priority if they’re already looking to nail you for something. So basically, your arguments is that you’re likely to get away with no reporting it. Which is fine, as long as you are willing to accept the consequences if caught, but not a position you should be promoting to others.

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Got it Sir: aye aye

According to that page, the activities that OP is doing (Discover/Offers) are NOT taxable.

FWIW, I’ve never received a 1099 from Swagbucks. Considering 1 swagbuck isn’t exactly equal to $1, one would need a 1099 to figure out how to report.

One of us is misreading what he wrote then, because that page says VGC redemptions are taxable.

Well, that isnt exactly what it says. That’s a pretty standard disclaimer that taxability depends on your person circumstances, and it isnt their responsibility to make that determination. Not getting a 1099 does not mean it is nontaxable (and getting one doesnt necessarily mean it is taxable, either).

The following Q&A then goes deep into the weeds, detailing what supposedly is and isnt taxable, claiming that if “a majority” of earnings were earned via taxable means then the entire total earned is taxable, and for whatever reason claiming that redeeming to paypal somehow makes it all exempt no matter how it was earned. So, that’s a mess that folks would be best served to not read at all.

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An interesting discussion to say the least. In NYState there is no tax on gift cards. Plain and simple. If I give a 500.00 VGC to my son, does he report it as income? I think not. But I guess it depends where I buy it. If I buy a Dunkin Donut 15.00 gift card in NY or CT (Im on the border) both states collect tax. But the receiver pays no tax when using it. same as SB, no tax when using those egift cards. On the other hand, if my son uses the 500 VGC at Shoprite or Walmart he pays tax on the taxable items. But its confusing.

I misread part of it, so my claim about not knowing the value as a defense against taxation is incorrect. They don’t issue 1099s based on the value of the swagbuck, they issue them based on the value of the gift cards you redeemed.

However, that only comes into play if the way you earned the swagbucks is taxable. So since the OP earned his swagbucks doing Discover/Offers, it doesn’t matter how much he redeems, he won’t receive a 1099 and according to Swagbucks, he shouldn’t have to report the redemptions as taxable income.

Surprisingly, there is also something on there saying paypal redemptions aren’t taxable. That doesn’t make any sense to me since it is an actual cash deposit. But that’s what they say, even if it doesn’t make any sense. That’s the easiest way to avoid a 1099 if you aren’t sure how much of your earnings fall into the taxable category.

I don’t think it’s reasonable for the IRS to expect someone to report taxable income when the entity paying them specifically says the money they are giving them isn’t taxable.

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This is incorrect. There is no tax on gifts. If you give your son a GC as a gift, it is not taxable income. But if someone gives him a GC to pay him for mowing their lawn, the value of that GC is in fact taxable income.

But I guess it depends where I buy it. If I buy a Dunkin Donut 15.00 gift card in NY or CT (Im on the border) both states collect tax. But the receiver pays no tax when using it. same as SB, no tax when using those egift cards. On the other hand, if my son uses the 500 VGC at Shoprite or Walmart he pays tax on the taxable items. But its confusing.

Some states charging or not charging sales tax on the purchase of a GC is completely irrelevant, it’s an entirely different tax. This quoted text has nothing to do with our topic.

In the case of these swagbuck redemptions, they are not giving them to you out of the goodness of your own heart - you are doing something to earn them. So it’s on you to determine if that reward is a rebate/reduction of a cost you paid, or if it’s a payment for having done something. But it definitely is not a gift. The method of how you receive it is mostly irrelevant, beyond determining the value of what you’ve received.

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“Sawgbucks said so” is not a valid audit defense. At best, referencing them can help mitigate criminal fraud accusations - if you can convince them that referencing a deal site constitutes a good faith effort to comply with tax law - but it will have zero effect on the validity of your reported income.

Again, the numbers are usually so low they’ll never be questioned no matter how you do/do not report them, but getting away with it is not a synonym for getting it right.

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To my knowledge, the IRS hasn’t gone after anyone that isn’t MSing regarding credit card rewards and this is analogous to that. Sure, their site isn’t legally binding, but they go further than any other site I’ve seen in explaining what is taxable and what isn’t. Why would they do that unless they had some sort of basis for their explanation? Unless their side business is rewards points, the OP and most people have nothing to worry about when it comes to reporting their swagbucks redemptions. This isn’t shinobi claiming that his points/cashback earned on rotating through CDs every month (which is essentially a side business for him) aren’t taxable. This is someone earning points on a few purchases/account openings. I get that it peeves you when someone says “swagbucks are better than straight up cash bonuses because they aren’t taxable” when that claim isn’t technically correct. But for the average bank bonus applicant / swagbucks user, it is essentially correct.

And that’s a conclusion each person needs to arrive at based on their own circumstances. Which requires they receive facts, not the conclusions of others. Feel free to tell someone they probably will get away with it, but stating it’s not taxable is only misleading them and doing them a disservice.

Because they’re a low-budget deal site that skimped on their legal counsel? If you want to ask “why”, ask why virtually no other site even attempts to dive into giving such tax advice.

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