The Florida Department of Financial Services is pushing back against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) after realizing that a federal law change to IRS policy impacts fans who resell Taylor Swift tickets.
In 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act lowered the IRS reporting threshold for e-commerce platforms, meaning that anyone who sells their tickets on an e-commerce platform like the Ticketmaster marketplace will be subject to the new reporting threshold of $600, regardless of the number of transactions or the profit amount. If a sellers’ income exceeds the $600 threshold, the law required the earner to pay taxes on the amount.
Ticketmaster alerted ticket sellers to the rule in February, adding that the reporting threshold dropped substantially from $20,000 to $600 and that 1099-K tax forms will be sent to sellers who exceeded the threshold, likely in January 2024.
However, on Wednesday morning, Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis lashed out at the IRS for the rule, specifically when it comes to Swift tickets. Patronis heads the Florida Department of Financial Service, which operates under Governor Ron DeSantis .
“In Doral this AM exposing this IRS. The IRS will target parents who resell their Taylor Swift tickets on cash-apps. If the IRS comes after you tell us! Submit your complaint to our IRS Transparency Portal at https://myfloridacfo.com/irs-activity/. We’re working on legislation NOW to fight it,” Patronis posted on X, formerly Twitter .
DeSantis would have to sign any legislation into law to make it applicable, but it’s unclear how the legislation would aid ticket sellers since the IRS didn’t make the rule change but followed the legislation that required it. Patronis’ comments came four days after the Wall Street Journal published an article over the weekend warning ticket resellers that the platform in which they sold their tickets would be required to alert the IRS with the users’ information.
DeSantis, a Republican who is running for president in the 2024 election, previously targeted the IRS, such as suggesting that he was in favor of eliminating the department if elected president.
Newsweek reached out to the IRS by phone and the Florida Department of Financial Services by email for comment.
The rule change is not new. Ticketmaster alerted fans on its website in February.
“The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 lowered IRS reporting thresholds for all e-commerce platforms—including Ticketmaster—effective Jan. 1, 2023,” Ticketmaster said in the statement. “Any seller or fan whose annual gross transaction value across the U.S. Ticketmaster marketplace (including Account Manager) exceeds $600 will receive a form 1099 from Ticketmaster for that year.”
However, a year of high-profile concerts —including Swift’s Eras Tour and Beyonce’s Renaissance World Tour—meant that average ticket prices shot up and the main sellers changed.
StubHub said that 70 percent of all U.S. Eras Tour ticket orders were sold by fans rather than ticket brokers, which is twice the amount the platform normally sees, according to the Wall Street Journal .
Despite the rule change, Patronis still lashed out to the IRS, although his announcement didn’t garner much support on social media.
“Why don’t you work on the problem of all the home owner’s insurance companies leaving the state and canceling all their policies?” one poster responded, while another wrote, “wait only parents, who only buy taylor swift tickets? i’m sure people won’t think you’re making this up.”
The policy change also i mpacts income from Venmo, Cash App or PayPal , although the IRS delayed the implementation of that rule until next year. There are several bills in Congress that aim to change the threshold back to $20,000 or heighten it above $600, but none have been signed into law.