What Really Grinds My Gears

I was inspired to start Sean's Ramblings after reading blogs by several friends. My friend Dan was the author of one of these blogs and had a regular feature titled What Really Grinds My Gears after the TV show Family Guy. Well, I have a perfect example of this today.

Late in 2022, three friends and I purchased tickets to see Bruce Springsteen for approximately $200 per ticket. Why there was a television show called Who’s the Boss? and the answer wasn’t Springsteen is one of life’s greatest mysteries. Anyway, the concert was scheduled for summer 2023. It was postponed several weeks because of an illness and then postponed again to September 2024. By the time the concert date arrived, two of my friends were no longer to attend.

So I did what any other logical person would do with two extra tickets. I posted them on Ticketmaster and sold them. While I can't find the exact amount of the sale, I made some money even after refunding my friends for their tickets. Of course, Ticketmaster being Ticketmaster, they took a cut of the sale. Yes, Ticketmaster charged a rather significant fee to buy the tickets and took even more money from me selling the same tickets. 

A few weeks ago, I received a 1099-K form from Ticketmaster/Live Nation. While I'm not an accountant or tax professional and I don't play one on the internet (or TV), apparently, this counts as income that needs to be reported on my tax return. Even better is that the amount on the form is the total amount of sale. The original cost of the ticket and the fees taken out for selling the tickets by Ticketmaster are not part of the equation. Ticketmaster is the worst.