Disclosure: I am not an accountant. This is not financial advice. Please talk to your accountant regarding taxes.
Last night, I received a message from a reader about the 1099-MISC they received from a bank.
Since it's tax season, I thought I'd share a quick reminder that banks will often send you a 1099-MISC when you've referred a friend to a credit card and received a referral bonus.
Yes, your referral bonuses get treated as income. This is different than points you've earned via sign-up/welcome bonuses or day-to-day spend which are considered rebates.
If you have multiple cards from a bank and refer people from each of them, expect to get one 1099-MISC form for each of your cards. So, if you have an Amex Gold, Amex Platinum, and Amex Blue Business Plus and you referred people from each card, you'll likely get three 1099-MISC forms.
Make sure you provide these forms to your accountant.
Points Wire Note:
I know it's tedious and it means using points to travel isn't free - of course, the "free" travel hype is tedious as well. Still, you can get way more value out of the points than you'll pay in taxes. Think of it as the cost of doing business.
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