What have you won online?

[FoodLover]

In the last few years I've won quite a few smallish prizes from entering online sweepstakes and contests. These are the ones that come to mind:

$200 worth of M&Ms merchandise (M&Ms recipe contest)

$125 gift card from Olive Garden

Large assortment of Ziploc products, Grinch soundtrack & book (from a Ziploc/Grinch promotion)

Harry Potter striped knitted scarf (really tacky -- I was trying to win a Harry Potter trip to England)

3 Hanes Tagless t-shirts

Pair of cheapo 7-up boxer shorts (made excellent dust cloth)

Lot of free candy: Fastbreak bars, Skittles/Starburst, M&Ms

Free coupon for Act II popcorn

Now if I could just win the BIG stuff, like the free trips!

Mary

 

[jjohnson]

Not that I'm complaining.....but I didn't realize when I picked the most expensive trip ($9,000) that I would receive a 1099 & pay taxes.

Although I know its a trip of a lifetime - I may have picked one of the other trips that were all had a value between $2500 - $4500.But once I heard Disneyland tickets were included my mind blocked all logic & reason to go anywhere else.

That said I do think twice when I signup for sweepstakes now.

(i guess i am whining!)

 

[Eilonwy]

I forget what the cut-off is ($250? Anyone know?), but anything over whatever that amount is and you're paying taxes. I had to pay taxes on my $3600 "free" groceries. And I'll have to pay taxes on my Martha Stewart merchandise. I haven't had to pay on anything else I've won yet.

But, hey, if I win $100,000 or $1,000,000, I'll be more than happy to pay some taxes on it.

If they're asking you to sign an affidavit with your SSN on it, chances are you're paying taxes and that's why they want the info.

 

[jjohnson]

the cut off if $600. I'm way over. Yes, Buena Vista Studios sent a bunch of legal paperwork for me to sign & send back. It also stated I would receive a 1099 and I had to give them my SS#.

Believe me I'm thrilled with the prize. Right now i'm planning our trip so i'll deal with the tax issue next year. at least i have some time i was afraid it was going to be mailed for 2002 tax.

 

[Eilonwy]

Just one thing to watch out for is to not claim anything until they DO send you the 1099. The free groceries I won was in November of 2001. So we should claim it on our 2001 taxes, right? Which we did, but without receiving the 1099. We figured we were doing the right thing. DLBlair (the company responsible for the paperwork) didn't send us a 1099 until *this* year, for the 2002 tax year. It took many calls between them and the IRS to get things straightened out. It was DLBlair's mistake, but they didn't want to fill out the necessary paperwork to get it into our 2001 tax year. Honestly I can't remember how things were worked out, because DH handled most of the calls. I'm not trying to avoid taxes, certainly, but in the future I'm not going to claim anything until I have that 1099 in my hands. Or I guess now I know to call them if I don't receive one for the right tax year and request one so that I can do my taxes.

 

[jjohnson]

Thanks for advice. I didn't receive the paperwork until this year (I had won in Oct.2002 so maybe that's why it was delayed. Who knows!