Amazon misses payment amount to influencer in IR statement

Amazon reported the wrong amount on payment statements to associates, sent to the IRS for income tax purposes, according to influencer reports. The case gained attention when content creator Gabriela Bailas reported on her social media that the company indicated the payment of R$77,800, instead of the little less than R$2,900 it received in 2021.

Cases similar to that of Bailas were described on the Reclame Aqui website. In March, a user claimed that Amazon had declared a value nearly 20 times what he received as an associate of the company. In April, another user reports the registration of a value 17 times greater than the one received.

Questioned by the report, Amazon said it had identified “a systemic inconsistency in the generation of the income report, which may have affected some associates, and which has already been promptly corrected”. The company also said it had contacted all those impacted, corrected the amounts with the Federal Revenue Service and provided the income report with the correct amount.

Affected contributors are part of the Amazon Associates Program, through which users post links to the platform and receive commission for sales made.

SOCIAL NETWORKS ATTRACTED ATTENTION TO THE PROBLEM

Gabriela Bailas is the creator of the Física e Afins channel, which has 309,000 subscribers on YouTube. On Tuesday (23), she reported what happened on her social media. “I posted it because I spent many hours trying to reach Amazon and have a solution, but none was presented,” she says, adding that she was redirected to different websites and phone numbers without a satisfactory resolution.

According to the physicist, the company apologized for what had happened and, on Wednesday (25), the correct amount was already on the Federal Revenue website. “I’m going to close the membership account. I won’t have any kind of account there anymore, because I don’t want to go through another headache like that.”

ERROR IN DECLARATION CAN LEAD CONTRIBUTORS TO FINE MESH

The difference between the value informed by the company and that declared by the taxpayer can lead you to fall into the fine mesh. The IRS points out that, in this case, the individual’s obligation is to declare the income they actually received, regardless of what is reported by the paying source.

The agency also recommends that, after finding a discrepancy in information, the taxpayer should contact the company. “There is no instrument that regulates the taxpayer’s claim against the paying source, but if there was incorrect information, it is up to the interested party to manifest itself”, he explains.

Renata Leal Ferrarezi, tax lawyer and specialist in Income Tax, informed that if there are no changes after contacting the company, the taxpayer must declare the amount received, bearing in mind that it will fall into the fine mesh due to inconsistency. “When called by the IRS, it takes proof of the amounts it received and the IRS will notify Amazon.”

The Internal Revenue Service states that it may ask the paying source and the taxpayer to justify the divergence, recommending the presentation of documents that prove the amounts presented in the declaration. In addition to vouchers, bank statements and invoices, a police report can be made and presented to the agency.

The Revenue adds that it is the responsibility of the paying source to make the report correctly and that if the taxpayer manifests itself against the paying source, the document can also be presented to the Federal Revenue as proof of the previous attempt to resolve the divergence.