

Are Banks now sending out 1099s for Airline Miles awarded? - SanjeevSharma
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/unroadwarrior/2012/01/29/are-banks-sending-out-1009s-for-miles-awarded/

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_delirium
As one of the comments points out, this is very specifically related to miles
given as "interest" or "account-opening bonus" on a bank account. For years
any non-cash payment in those circumstances has been required to be valued as
cash and reported on a 1099, to avoid savings accounts or CDs that dodge
taxation of dividends by paying them in various alternative forms, e.g. a
savings account that pays interest in Amazon gift cards instead of cash, or a
$200 account-opening bonus that's given as a free iPod instead of in cash.

Miles received for buying plane tickets, or as reward miles on credit-card
spending, aren't considered taxable or reported. It's both cases, the _form_
(miles or cash) doesn't matter, but what they're given for does: rebates
aren't considered taxable, whether given in loyalty points or in 1% cash-back
or some other form, but interest on a bank account is.

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biasedstudy
It's more income. So ... more taxes. Think of it like the grocery bag tax in
the affluent suburbs. We do need more "investment" in schools ... so this is a
win for society, right?

