Arbiter Pay

[NorthTexasUmp]

I am looking for information from those who get pay thru Arbiter pay from different organizations or assigners. Here in Texas, for spring HS ball, each individual school or school district is responsible for paying umpires. Usually they mail us a check. In the association I belong to, we have enough school districts that we cover that it is extremely rare that any single umpire makes at least $600 from an individual school or district that would necessitate the issuing of a 1099.  The past few years more and more school districts have gone to paying us electronically (ACH). Now it looks like several school districts will switch their payment process to Arbiter Pay. My question is this, does Arbiter Pay issue a single 1099 for all payments or is each paying entity (school/school district or assigner) still responsible for issuing 1099's? 

I am just trying to gather information. We have a board meeting next week and general meetings for all umpires start in January. We want to accurately and factually answer the questions that we will undoubtedly get. 

[Jimurray]

49 minutes ago, NorthTexasUmp said:

I am looking for information from those who get pay thru Arbiter pay from different organizations or assigners. Here in Texas, for spring HS ball, each individual school or school district is responsible for paying umpires. Usually they mail us a check. In the association I belong to, we have enough school districts that we cover that it is extremely rare that any single umpire makes at least $600 from an individual school or district that would necessitate the issuing of a 1099.  The past few years more and more school districts have gone to paying us electronically (ACH). Now it looks like several school districts will switch their payment process to Arbiter Pay. My question is this, does Arbiter Pay issue a single 1099 for all payments or is each paying entity (school/school district or assigner) still responsible for issuing 1099's? 

I am just trying to gather information. We have a board meeting next week and general meetings for all umpires start in January. We want to accurately and factually answer the questions that we will undoubtedly get. 

Those who would ask for that info are, either mistaken that non 1099 income does not have to be reported and you should correct their impression, or knowingly not reporting that income. 

[LMSANS]

Arbiter is not paying you.  The schools are still responsible for the tax reporting process.

it doesn't really matter as you should be reporting ALL of your income.

 

[dumbdumb]

I smell increased assignments for some, and job openings for others, base upon the above 3 posts.

[scrounge]

The schools as the legal entity are the ones paying you and issuing the 1099's...but ArbiterPay greatly assists them in doing so. It's one of the selling points they stress in pitching it to schools, increased tax compliance.

[umpirebrianc]

They are all incorrect.  You will receive one combined 1099 from ArbiterPay as ArbiterPay is the one paying you.  It will combine all the school districts who use arbiter pay.  So if you get $200 form one ISD, $300 from another, $200 from another, you will get a 1099 for $700 from ArbiterPay.  This is NOT a good thing for officials in Texas and the schools are now going to create more of a shortage because of this.

[Jimurray]

2 hours ago, umpirebrianc said:

They are all incorrect.  You will receive one combined 1099 from ArbiterPay as ArbiterPay is the one paying you.  It will combine all the school districts who use arbiter pay.  So if you get $200 form one ISD, $300 from another, $200 from another, you will get a 1099 for $700 from ArbiterPay.  This is NOT a good thing for officials in Texas and the schools are now going to create more of a shortage because of this.

Not a good thing if you don't like to report your income. The shortage will be from guys who think what they are payed is not enough and the 20 to 30 percent tax free bonus (without a 1099 making it traceable) makes it worthwhile. You might threaten a shortage but some body else might sniff out unreported income from a whole bunch of people and report it to the IRS. Small change but who knows. But obviously we are talking about small change since your ilk will stop calling for approx $70 per game tax free because it will be something less depending on your tax bracket. Not that I am against minimizing your taxes legally as is everyone else including President Trump. 

[zm1283]

I have used Arbiter Pay for several years and have never gotten a 1099 from them directly. I always get them from the individual leagues/schools that use the service to send me money. 

I don't know why Arbiter Pay would send the 1099. They aren't the ones paying you. It's just a tool to transfer money from the payer to the payee. 

[Jimurray]

21 minutes ago, zm1283 said:

I have used Arbiter Pay for several years and have never gotten a 1099 from them directly. I always get them from the individual leagues/schools that use the service to send me money. 

I don't know why Arbiter Pay would send the 1099. They aren't the ones paying you. It's just a tool to transfer money from the payer to the payee. 

So all those guys can rest easy. I wonder if their assignor has to make sure their games to one school district are limited to keep their pay at under $600 or the individual ump just declines anything that would take them over.

[maineump]

5 hours ago, zm1283 said:

I have used Arbiter Pay for several years and have never gotten a 1099 from them directly. I always get them from the individual leagues/schools that use the service to send me money. 

I don't know why Arbiter Pay would send the 1099. They aren't the ones paying you. It's just a tool to transfer money from the payer to the payee. 

Don't you have to click on the 1099 tab to see yours? That is the way for our college board.

[Richvee]

Last year My assignor started using Arbiter Pay for some travel leagues and some other leagues they assign for. I received one 1099 from Arbiter Pay for all the games. 2016 was the first year some high schools used A.P. in my area. So this year I have Adult leagues, travel leagues, high school games...all that were payed through A.P. I'm interested to see how the 1099's come this year. No problems for me either way. I declare my umpiring money. With that, there's plenty deductions that go along with umpiring. The net result in my taxes is negligible.

[LMSANS]

6 minutes ago, Richvee said:

Last year My assignor started using Arbiter Pay for some travel leagues and some other leagues they assign for. I received one 1099 from Arbiter Pay for all the games. 2016 was the first year some high schools used A.P. in my area. So this year I have Adult leagues, travel leagues, high school games...all that were payed through A.P. I'm interested to see how the 1099's come this year. No problems for me either way. I declare my umpiring money. With that, there's plenty deductions that go along with umpiring. The net result in my taxes is negligible.

What tax ID was on the Arbiter Pay 1099? As @zm1283 said, Arbiter Pay is just the service making the payment. They may produce the 1099 as part of that service.  

[Richvee]

20 minutes ago, LMSANS said:

What tax ID was on the Arbiter Pay 1099? As @zm1283 said, Arbiter Pay is just the service making the payment. They may produce the 1099 as part of that service.  

The Payer's name, (top left of the form) is ArbiterPay. Then it would follow the Payer's ID # is AbriterPay.

Funds are listed under category 7 nonemployee comp. 

 

 

[lawump]

Ah, yes...the myth of, "I didn't get paid more than $600 by a school, so I don't have to claim it," rears its head again.  If the school/entity pays you less than $600 they don't have to report it on a 1099, but you have to claim it.  I'm not a tax attorney, but as one tax attorney told me: the IRS is generally forgiving and will work with you if you incorrectly claim a deduction to which you were not entitled.  They are totally unforgiving, and will come after you hard, if you fail to report all income earned.  So, why not just report the income? As pointed out above, with all of the legitimate deductions available to us amateur umpires, the effect on your taxes can be quite negligible.

BTW, I stand up in front of my high school association and say the same thing to the members every January.

[kylehutson]

One thing I've done (in case it helps anybody else here): just as a matter of personal policy, I don't make a deposit until I've recorded all the pay, mileage, and any other relevant data on my "income & expenses" spreadsheet. Makes it a lot easier when tax time comes around.

[NorthTexasUmp]

Finally got information from Arbiter. The schools/districts that contract with Arbiter for this payment service have the option to process 1099's themselves or, for a fee, to let Arbiter handle it all. The payments from the schools/districts that pay Arbiter to process the 1099's will be combined and a 1099 issued (if it is over $600) under Arbiter's tax ID number.

And for the record, I report all my income.