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Messages - Gel-O Shooter
Pages: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 ... 8
1
« on: April 02, 2017, 16:09 »
I'm in the US. And glad I have a whole year to figure this out.
2
« on: March 31, 2017, 18:42 »
"Do you have a portion/room of your home office set for tax purposes as business property use?"
Not anymore. I quit last November.
How low would my income have to go before it would no longer be considered a business? $50 a year? $100?
3
« on: March 31, 2017, 16:17 »
How do you report earnings on your income tax return? Hobby income, even if it's still fairly substantial? If you put zero effort into it and just passively collect royalties all year, would it still qualify as a "business"? Just curious as this will be my situation next year. Thanks!
4
« on: March 30, 2017, 10:45 »
why not simply resolve it with the company? the balance is on the books, write them a letter asking to send you a check?
I did. No answer.
5
« on: March 30, 2017, 09:32 »
The account was closed and that $16 went right back into Envato's bank account. It is not in "my" account and I do not have access to it, nor did I ever have access to it. So that is $16 in income to Envato that they have falsely claimed was paid to someone else and they evidently will not pay taxes on, since the tax bill was sent to me.
I think that failure to report all income and falsely claiming that it was paid to someone else is tax evasion. And yes, I am serious.
We'll see what the IRS has to say about it.
6
« on: March 29, 2017, 09:32 »
Envato and FT both provide the amount earned during a calendar year to the IRS, regardless of whether it was paid (like all the other agencies do). Very annoying. For Envato that is the total sales price not the amount you earned - you need to deduct their seller fees off as a cost.
Since they reported the amount to the IRS I would include it in your income just to avoid any possible hassles. However, once you deduct off the 60% or whatever it is they keep it isn't going to add a lot to your taxes.
I knew they were going to keep my earnings when they closed my account. My problem is that they are trying to make me pay taxes on THEIR income. I know that neither the IRS nor Envato is going to be concerned with my little $16. But I'm sure they do this to everyone who closes their accounts and that could add up to thousands. The IRS might be interested in that scenario. Am I missing something here? I always thought that if you send a 10-99 to the IRS with a total amount on it that you were saying in effect "I paid this person X amount of money and they are responsible for tax on it".
7
« on: March 28, 2017, 14:33 »
Denounce them to the tax office for fraud!
I think I will. My love note to Envato: "You sent me 10-99 saying that you paid me $16.00 in 2016. That is not true. I closed my account before I was ever paid anything by you. Since you kept $16.00, which I'm sure you didn't pay taxes on (since you shifted the tax burden to me), that would probably be considered tax evasion on your part under US law. So you can either pay me the $16 or I will be reporting you to the IRS for US tax evasion. Your choice" To anyone from Envato reading this: I'm not kidding, I've already downloaded the form from IRS.gov.
8
« on: March 28, 2017, 09:20 »
Doing my 2016 taxes.  I got a 10-99 from Envato saying I made $16 in royalties. I cancelled my account before I ever got a payoff just to avoid tax problems. So do I really have to pay taxes on $16 that I never received and never will, which was in effect, a gift to them? 
9
« on: March 15, 2017, 09:14 »
The more abuse like this that contributors tolerate from those bass turds, the more they will be emboldened to dish it out. So glad I fired them months ago.
10
« on: January 30, 2017, 09:35 »
My stock photo income is going down every month and it looks like January will be even worse than December. So, I'm probably out, at least for now. We always knew microstock's days were numbered. On the bright side, I'm 20 pages into writing my doomsday novel and I should be done with it much faster now that I don't feel the need to shoot and upload new photos. 
11
« on: January 10, 2017, 10:46 »
Just curious.....I axed my IS account when they started talking about 2 cents last year. Have they really screwed up the site so much that now you can't even see what you're actually making on your pics? They could be paying you 2 cents per download and you wouldn't even know it for weeks or even months? I thought they were going to start reporting sub sales in real time like everyone else (yeah right).
I'm thinking that I probably made the right decision. In case anyone is wondering about it, I haven't seen an uptick in SS sales since I pulled the plug on IS, but FT, and 123 seem to be up slightly. DT is a whole different ballgame and seems to be in a long slow decline for everyone, including me. It's hard to tell much since it's only been a month (December) and I have very few holiday pics.
12
« on: November 25, 2016, 09:41 »
No, I won't be signing any petitions. I no longer have any dogs in that fight, and it would be a total waste of my time anyway. You all have fun with your petitions, complaining to them, etc. The question of whether IStock gives a crap about what I or any other independent contributor thinks about them was answered loud and clear to me on October 25, 2016. That 2 cent royalty clause told me everything I needed to know about IStock and any future relationship I might have had with that abusive, offensive, greedy agency. I will now be putting my efforts into producing superior images for competing agencies that pay us fairly so I can do my part to help IS go out of business faster.
13
« on: November 24, 2016, 20:22 »
Update. It looks like they finally closed my account and it only took them 27 days. I guess I just have to trust them to send me the correct amount that they owe me. So today I am thankful to finally be done with those rotten, greedy bass turds.
14
« on: November 23, 2016, 08:04 »
I asked them "nicely" to close my account and remove my portfolio on October 28th. I think they have 30 days, which if I'm counting correctly will be on November 27th, since October had 31 days. I'm quite sure I probably won't be the only one they will be in breach of contract with. Would this be grounds for a class action lawsuit if my account is still open on November 28th?
15
« on: October 28, 2016, 12:12 »
Just sent this to the greedy bass turds. I hope it doesn't take long.
Congratulations, IStock. After putting up with your total lack of respect and rock-bottom royalties for TWELVE YEARS, you have finally found a way to get rid of me. I tolerated your stingy 15% royalties for far longer than I should have, and now you have finally gotten my attention by informing me that my photos are worth as little as 2 CENTS to you. I considered deactivating nearly all of my files, but after thinking about it, I hereby REFUSE to support your ill-treatment of content creators by leaving even ONE file in your untrustworthy hands. Any agency that thinks so little of me and my hard work is not an agency that I need to have any type of relationship with, in any form or fashion. I will now concentrate my efforts on agencies which still pay me somewhat fairly. So please delete my account as soon as possible and send me any unpaid funds which you owe me.
PS. I will be educating my customers via my website exactly why they will no longer find my files on your site and I sincerely hope you go out of business.
16
« on: October 25, 2016, 16:10 »
Unfortunately that will be tough. You can't delete images any longer, I think it takes a year. The only way is to close your account and that requires a 30 day notice. This is why Istock sent out that lousy notice a few months back telling us we had until such and such date before images would be locked in for a year. Sad but true. If you can tell them that all of your images except that ONE are going exclusive elsewhere......that would be fun to see if they buy it. 
My "delete" function in "manage file" is still working for some reason. I just deleted a few of my SS popular ones.
17
« on: October 25, 2016, 15:50 »
Member since November 2004. I think I'll leave them one photo. If I can get my neighbors dog to cooperate.
18
« on: July 31, 2016, 10:24 »
The new keyword and deactivation policy is to prevent contributors from yanking their best files after August 20th. If I couldn't delete my best ones, then my next move would be to change 20 relevant keywords to 5 unrelated terms and effectively make it un-searchable. They have closed this avenue of escape and seem to be thinking that most people will accept reduced royalties rather than accept zero royalties by deleting their accounts. I don't know what they have in mind for September, but this move by them is a huge red flag to me.
I have gone through my files and deactivated anything I wouldn't take 5-10% royalty on. It will be a pain, but if they don't do something stupid after August I can always re-submit them. I hope they don't, but with their history of screwing contributors I won't be surprised.
19
« on: July 17, 2016, 21:42 »
They are obviously trying to prevent another "D-day". The nasty surprises they have planned for contributors soon after August 20th must be disgraceful, even for them. I just hope that it won't take an act of Congress, 3 months, 25 emails, and the threat of a lawsuit to remove my account and the few old files I still have there when September rolls around.
20
« on: May 06, 2016, 20:11 »
i guess thats why it takes ages to get a reply, because of impatient people emailing over trivial stuff
And this is why I rarely visit this forum anymore, and post comments/questions almost never. Stock photography isn't just a fun little hobby for me, it pays my bills. So if there is a problem with my account not updating properly for the first time in 11 years, you better believe I will email them.
21
« on: May 02, 2016, 15:20 »
Kidding right?
Hence the eye-roll emoticon. 
22
« on: May 02, 2016, 14:26 »
My earnings total is still showing April's amount plus May's two days' worth. Anyone else? I sent them a message and am expecting a timely reply 
23
« on: April 20, 2016, 21:48 »
My info is showing a -.58 on the 18th. They sent no notification of any customer refund on that date, so I wonder what's up with that. My sales are way down for the past few days too.
25
« on: March 28, 2016, 22:56 »
"Don't limit yourself. We want you to go to SS and get more than a measly, stingy 15%" ??
Maybe it's a message to contributors. Ah, desperate times at IS, and serves them right indeed.
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