Managing an affiliate program

[sitesbycal]

Hello all, wondering if any of you have experience with running your own affiliate program for products or services. The main thing I'm looking to understand is paying the affiliates. Is there anything special you need to do with taxes? Do you have to send your affiliates a 1099 or something like that?

Asking because some affiliate software can be set up to accept social security numbers and I'm assuming it's for tax purposes.

Any info or help would be great, thanks.

[bluedreamer]

I don't know what country you are in but I'd say that you are not responsible for the tax affairs of your affiliates! It should be up to them to declare their own earnings in their own tax returns.

You should of course keep records of your revenue and payouts for your own tax purposes.

[sitesbycal]

Thanks for the help bluedreamer

I live in the US, forgot to mention that! Doh!

What you say makes sense. I guess I wasn't sure if my tax return should say like "payed John Appleseed $45 this year" or something like that. That way they have a record of where he got that money.

I always do my own taxes so I like to try and figure this stuff out....

I think I get what you're saying though. They made an income on the sale and so did I. They report an income and so do I, end of story......thanks

[eljefe3]

Yes you have to 1099 anyone who makes over $600 per year.