Banking Expenses are Going Up
Expect our fees to follow
The Internal Revenue Service just released this FAQ – that they are providing special transitional relief to banks and other payment settlement entities required to begin reporting payment card and third-party network transactions to the IRS on new Form 1099-K. These are the fees that banks are trying to find a way to pass on to us, the consumer.
By law, reporting is scheduled to begin in early 2012 for payment card and third-party network transactions that occurred in 2011.
See details at:
http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=249029,00.html
What is a third-party settlement organization?
A third-party settlement organization is a central organization that has the contractual obligation to make payments to participating payees (generally, a merchant) in a third party payment network. Characteristics of a third party payment network include: (i) the existence of a central organization with whom providers of goods and services have established accounts, (ii) an agreement between the central organization and providers to settle transactions between the providers of goods and services and purchasers, (iii) the establishment of standards and mechanisms for settling such transactions and (iv) the guarantee of payment in settlement of such transactions. The most common example of a third-party settlement organization is an online auction-payment facilitator, which operates merely as an intermediary between buyer and seller by transferring funds between accounts in settlement of an auction/purchase. Third-party settlement organizations charge sellers a fee for facilitating the transaction. Under the reporting requirements, these entities must report the gross reportable transactions of the businesses to which they make payments provided the payee satisfies certain transaction volume and dollar thresholds.
Edi Alvarez, CFP®
BS, BEd, MS