Chase Sending Out 1099 for Other Bonuses Too, e.g. Paperless & Retention Bonuses; Also Mistakenly Reporting 500 Points as $500(!)

Update: Chase will send out corrected 1099 forms.

So this is turning into a real ****storm.

Chase this year decided to send out 1099s for referral bonuses earned during 2018. Many reports are now coming in with Chase 1099ing other bonuses earned during the year:

1) $5 or $15 paperless statements bonus. Many people are reporting this. E.g. if they had 16 referrals, they are getting a 1099 for $805, the extra $5 being for the paperless signup.

2) Retention bonuses (1, 2, 3, 4). Not sure if they’re sending out for retention bonuses which require spend – those should be like signup bonuses which are considered rebates – it may be only for those that don’t have spend requirements. (It’s still odd being that the retention bonus is usually meant to partially offset the annual fee. As one r/churning member noted, it’s like getting a 1099 for using a $20 off coupon on your Costco membership.)

3) Two reports reader (1, 2) of getting 1099ed for a Marriott card upgrade bonus.

4) A reader suggests they are sending out 1099s for bonus Ultimate Rewards earned from a Best Buy purchase special offer (!?!?). This is getting pretty crazy if true. This reader’s 1099 was for $910.85, so Chase has obviously some wacky stuff going on here.

5) One r/churning member got a 1099 for various mortgage cashback and rebate offers they received from Chase.

Note: It seems so far that Chase is only sending out 1099s to those who earned $600 or more during the 2018 year. So if all you got the entire year is a $5 paperless bonus, you probably won’t get a 1099. But if all your bonuses bring you up to $600, you’ll get a Form 1099. You might get a few Form 1099s with smaller amounts which equal $600 total.

Another issue mentioned by multiple readers (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) is that Chase sent out a 1099 valuing the 500 points paperless bonus at $500! Yeah, that’s obviously a mistake, and presumably they’ll correct that one. This $500 issue also pushed a lot of people over the $600 threshold, e.g. if you got the 500 points bonus + 2 $50 referral bonuses, you’ll get 1099ed due to the $500 + $50 + $50 bonuses.

Anyway, this whole thing is turning into a real pain in the neck, most people just give their W-2 and a couple of other tax forms to their accountant, this takes it to a whole new level. We’ll have to see how it plays out. Obviously the 500 points mistake should get a retraction, but I’ll hazard a guess that some of the other stuff will get retracted to (though probably not the main thing which is the referral bonus part).

Follow-Up: Chase To Send Out Corrected 1099 Forms