Bioautographica
Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Mississippi
My husband is a self-employed writer (independent contractor) for a large video games entertainment website. Much of his business entails reviewing games, which can run anywhere from $30-60 apiece in retail value. Most of his reviews are of games that the publishers send him (I'm assuming so that he doesn't incur any expense for the purposes of basically *advertising* their games - which, in my opinion, is sort of what reviewing/critiquing is, only there's no guarantee the person will say something positive). In fact, one of the things about which I'm curious is how these companies probably deduct the games they send to reviewers, expense-wise - would they count as advertising expense, and if so, is it just one general expenditure, or do they say, "I sent this title to this person at this address"? As none of them collect information on the reviewer, I can't imagine they'd send my husband anything akin to a 1099-MISC for the property they gave him. We've never been sent anything from these companies for reporting purposes before.
Anyway - my main question is whether or not we have to declare these. We get SEVERAL different games from several different publishers/studios every year. He requires them to do his job, and if they weren't given to him, he'd have to purchase them. Is there a value threshold we'd have to cross first (for instance, if we recieved $100 worth or more in games from one specific developer/publisher)?
My husband is a self-employed writer (independent contractor) for a large video games entertainment website. Much of his business entails reviewing games, which can run anywhere from $30-60 apiece in retail value. Most of his reviews are of games that the publishers send him (I'm assuming so that he doesn't incur any expense for the purposes of basically *advertising* their games - which, in my opinion, is sort of what reviewing/critiquing is, only there's no guarantee the person will say something positive). In fact, one of the things about which I'm curious is how these companies probably deduct the games they send to reviewers, expense-wise - would they count as advertising expense, and if so, is it just one general expenditure, or do they say, "I sent this title to this person at this address"? As none of them collect information on the reviewer, I can't imagine they'd send my husband anything akin to a 1099-MISC for the property they gave him. We've never been sent anything from these companies for reporting purposes before.
Anyway - my main question is whether or not we have to declare these. We get SEVERAL different games from several different publishers/studios every year. He requires them to do his job, and if they weren't given to him, he'd have to purchase them. Is there a value threshold we'd have to cross first (for instance, if we recieved $100 worth or more in games from one specific developer/publisher)?