Key takeaways
- For the 2024 tax year, you should get a Form 1099-K from Ticketmaster if you receive more than $5,000 from reselling tickets through them during the year.
- You're only taxed on the profit you make from ticket sales, not the total sales amount.
- Even if you don't receive a Form 1099-K, you still need to report payments from your ticket sales on your tax return and pay tax on any profit.
- Keep detailed records of the amount you paid for your tickets, how much you sold them for, and any related expenses to accurately determine your taxable profit.
Expecting a 1099-K from Ticketmaster?
If you're reselling tickets online for live events like concerts, sporting events, or the theater, receiving a Form 1099-K means you had a busy year! For the 2024 tax year, the IRS plans to require companies running payment apps and online marketplaces – including ticket exchange or resale sites like Ticketmaster – to send Form 1099-K to anyone who received payments from them totaling more than $5,000 during the year (more than $20,000 and over 200 transactions for 2023 and earlier years). (More on the payment threshold after 2024 in a minute.)
Turbo Tax Tip: States can also set their own 1099-K thresholds and requirements. In some cases, the payment thresholds are different than the federal amount, or the requirements are based on whether state income taxes were withheld from your payments. Check with the state tax agency where you live for more information.
If you sell enough tickets through Ticketmaster to trigger the 1099-K requirement, the company should provide a copy of the form to you by Jan. 31 of the following year (so by Jan. 31, 2025, for tickets sold in 2024). The IRS gets a copy of the form, too. And since Ticketmaster doesn’t know how much you originally paid for the tickets, it will send a 1099-K to you and the IRS even if you didn’t make a profit selling tickets on its site.
On the other hand, if your total payments from Ticketmaster don’t exceed the year’s reporting threshold, you might not receive a Form 1099-K for that tax year (although the company might still send you one). However, even if you don’t receive a 1099-K form, any profit from the sale of tickets or other goods or services is taxable – so you’ll still need to report it on your federal income tax return.
What information is included on your Ticketmaster 1099-K form?
If you receive a Form 1099-K from Ticketmaster, it should show the total amount of all your payments from Ticketmaster transactions for the tax year in Box 1a. The total amount is also broken down by month elsewhere on the form.
The amount in Box 1a doesn't include any adjustments for fees, credits, refunds, shipping, cash equivalents, discounts, or the like. It also doesn’t account for any expenses related to your ticket sales, such as the amount you paid to buy the tickets in the first place. You'll need to keep detailed records of these items, which can be deducted from the total amount in Box 1a when calculating your taxable income.
In addition, the total payments reported in Box 1a don’t include any amounts paid to you from other ticket sales that didn’t go through Ticketmaster. These payments – minus adjustments and expenses – typically need to be added to the amount shown on your Ticketmaster Form 1099-K when you file your tax return for the year.
Plus, among other things, your Form 1099-K from Ticketmaster will also show (if applicable):
- your Ticketmaster account number (required if you have multiple accounts)
- how many Ticketmaster transactions you had for the year (not including refund transactions)
- federal and/or state income tax withheld from your payments
How to report payments from Ticketmaster on your tax return
Whether or not you receive a Form 1099-K, payments you receive from Ticketmaster must be reported on your federal tax return. However, you only have to pay tax on the profit you make, which is generally the difference between the amount you received for selling tickets and the amount you originally paid for them.
So, for example, if you bought tickets for $5,000 and sold them for $7,000 through Ticketmaster, your taxable income from those ticket sales is only $2,000 because that’s your profit ($7,000 - $5,000 = $2,000 profit). That’s the case even though your Ticketmaster 1099-K form reports $7,000 in payments in Box 1a.
How you report payments received through Ticketmaster depends on whether you’re selling tickets as part of a business or if they’re personal sales of tickets.
Business sales of tickets
If you’re actually running an online business buying and selling tickets as a sole proprietor, you’ll report the payments you received from Ticketmaster, the amount you paid for the tickets, and any related expenses on Schedule C (Form 1040).
Whether you end up with an overall gain or loss from your business, the amount calculated on Schedule C is transferred to Schedule 1 (Form 1040) of your personal income tax return. From there, it ultimately gets rolled into your taxable income for the year.
Personal sales of tickets
If you’re not running a ticket resale business – like most people who sell tickets through Ticketmaster – how you report payments from Ticketmaster depends on whether you made money on all your ticket sales, lost money on all your ticket sales, or had a mixture of profits and losses.
All sales for a profit. Congratulations if you made a profit on all your Ticketmaster sales. For example, if you paid $100 each for four tickets ($400 total) and sold all of them for $110 each ($440 total) for a total profit of $40 ($440 - $400 = $40 profit). In that case, your profits are reported on Form 8949, which is then carried over to Schedule D (Form 1040). From there, they’ll be reported as a capital gain on your Form 1040.
All sales for a loss. What if all your Ticketmaster sales result in a loss? For instance, if you paid $100 each for four tickets ($400 total) and sold all of them for $90 each ($360 total) for a total loss of $40 ($400 - $360 = $40 loss). In that case, you won't owe tax on the $360 in payments from the sale – but you can’t deduct the $40 loss from your other taxable income, either.
Even though there’s no taxable income or deductible loss, you still have to report the loss from your ticket sales on your federal income tax return. To do this, you can report the total payments received from those sales as “other income” on Part I of Schedule 1 (Form 1040), and then report the same amount as “other adjustments” on Part II of Schedule 1. The two items will cancel each other out so you don’t have any taxable income or deductible losses.
As an alternative, you can also use Form 8949 instead of Schedule 1 to report ticket sale losses (the loss on Form 8949 will carry over to Schedule D). This might be easier if you’re already required to file Form 8949 and Schedule D for other reasons. However, as with Schedule 1, you have to make sure you don’t end up with any taxable income or deductible losses from your ticket sales. This is accomplished by following the steps for reporting Form 1099-K payments described in the instructions for Form 8949.
Mixture of profit and loss. If you sold some tickets during the year for a profit, but also sold other tickets at a loss, the loss can’t be used to offset your profits. So, for that reason, you have to separate your profits and losses before reporting them as described above. That way, the profits are taxed, while the losses aren’t deductible and don’t offset your profits.
For example, suppose you paid $100 each for four tickets ($400 total). You sold two of the tickets for $110 each ($220 total) for a total profit of $20 ($220 - $200 = $20 profit). However, you sold the other two tickets for $90 each ($180 total) for a total loss of $20 ($200 - $180 = $20 loss). Overall, you broke even, since you spent $400 on tickets and received $400 when you sold them. But for tax purposes, you would report the sale of the tickets that resulted in a profit on Form 8949 and Schedule D, and owe tax on the $20 profit. You would report the sale of the tickets that resulted in a loss on Schedule 1 with $180 in both Part I and Part II (or use Form 8949 and Schedule D), but there would be no tax consequences for those sales.
What if you receive an incorrect Form 1099-K from Ticketmaster?
Contact Ticketmaster to ask for a corrected form if they send you a 1099-K form with an error on it. Make sure you keep a copy of the corrected form and any correspondence you have with Ticketmaster about the error.
If you can’t get a corrected form, don't wait to file your taxes. Complete your return using the correct information. However, make sure you have records to prove that your figures are accurate, because the IRS might question why the information on your return doesn’t match with the information on the copy of Form 1099-K that it received.
Also let Ticketmaster know if they sent you a 1099-K form by mistake or you have other questions about the form.
Who else might receive a 1099-K form?
There are generally three reasons why you’ll receive a 1099-K form. First, as described above, is if you receive payments for goods you sell, services you provide, or property you rent through a payment app or online marketplace exceeding that year’s 1099-K payment threshold. Personal payments from family and friends – such as a gift or reimbursement for a meal at a restaurant – aren’t payments for goods or services, so they shouldn’t be reported on Form 1099-K.
According to the IRS, payments triggering a 1099-K form for this reason can be received through any:
- payment app
- online community marketplace
- craft or maker marketplace
- auction site
- car sharing or ride-hailing platform
- ticket exchange or resale site
- crowdfunding platform
- freelance marketplace
So, in addition to Ticketmaster, you can also receive a Form 1099-K from eBay, PayPal, Etsy, Venmo, Uber, StubHub, Airbnb, and other websites, apps, or platforms that facilitate payments for goods and services.
You can also expect a 1099-K form from your payment processor – such as a bank or credit card company – if you run a business and customers or clients pay you by credit, debit, or gift cards. There are no dollar or transaction thresholds associated with 1099-K forms sent for this reason.
In addition, you can receive a 1099-K form from a payment app, online marketplace, or payment processor if you’re receiving payments from them and you’re subject to backup withholding.
New $600 threshold for Form 1099-K
As part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the threshold for sending a Form 1099-K was changed from payments over $20,000 from more than 200 transactions to payments over $600 regardless of the number of transactions. A significantly larger number of people will get a 1099-K form under the new standard.
However, the IRS has delayed implementation of the new threshold to allow for a transition period. So, for the 2022 and 2023 tax years, the old threshold was used. For the 2024 tax year, as noted earlier, the IRS intends to use a $5,000 payment threshold, without regard to the number of transactions.
At this point, we don’t know if the new $600 threshold will apply for the 2025 tax year. The IRS might use a $5,000 threshold or come up with another amount for 2025. So, stay tuned for more information!
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