If your YMMSS account was abandoned in 2005

[Casandra]

argument against 1099 for any credits

The Affiliate Agreement is your friend.

Section 18.d. Failure to log in for 6 months Unless the affiliate has previously notified STA, received approval and appropriate arrangements have been made.

Except for voluntary termination, or approval pursuant to Section D above, all Reading credits, unpaid commissions and fees and any unused EPCs will be forfeited.

To me this means that after 6 months there should be no credits in your account as they are forfeit back to STA, and if you never used any of the credits, they belong to STA now by their agreement.

What does "forfeit" mean???

[davent]

argument against 1099 for any credits

The Affiliate Agreement is your friend.



To me this means that after 6 months there should be no credits in your account as they are forfeit back to STA, and if you never used any of the credits, they belong to STA now by their agreement.

What does "forfeit" mean???

I think forfeit means fine and penalty. I am not sure.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/forfeit

[drankoolaid]

Hello Casandra,

Great work finding these little jewels.

My thinking is their affiliate agreement
means nothing ie: is not enforeceable
by either party because we are dealing
with a major criminal enterprise thereby
voiding any past, present or prior 'terms.'

Still it is good to show these things as further
proof of the illegitimacy of the whole enterprise
called YMMSS / STAy - Kim Inman's vision from God

Best Regards,
Michael

[Arzel]

I think forfeit means fine and penalty. I am not sure.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/forfeit

Not to take away from Michael has stated, but additional clarification. Forfeit is this context would mean that you lose ownership of those items to YMMSS/STA without any possible compensation.

In essence you forfeit (lose) because you fail to meet some qualification. In this sense you fail the qualification because you do not meet the requirements to remain part of YMMSS/STA. Read literally you would have no claim to those EPC's or WAC's or whatever they were called at that time.

However, as Michael has stated it shouldn't really matter anyway because YMMSS was running a Ponzi scheme.

[Casandra]

Exactly, but still many need to deal with an IRS 1099 and this particular
item in the affiliate agreement makes it very easy to document. If STA refuses to issue $zero amended 1099's to those whose accounts have not been logged since 2005, they are so far into blatant lies and fraud that I don't know how anyone can still follow the way of Kim Inman.

[Casandra]

forfeit
v. to lose property or rights involuntarily as a penalty for violation of law.

So, you fail to log in for 6 months, that violates the STA Affiliate Agreement and the penalty for that is that you forfeit your STA account contents. I would say in this case that it's voluntary too.

So, if a parent has to forfeit his house after his child is caught with drugs, does the parent have to continue paying real estate taxes on that house after the government owns it?

Kim Inman, what is your definition of 'forfeit' ??

[mousiecat]

Hi, I have been reading this forum for a long time, but just joined yesterday...greetings, everyone. I have filed an IRS 3949 A, and send a letter to Kim asking for a corrected 1099.

I voluntarily closed my account in March, 2006. Do I fall under that as, well, i.e., I forfeited everything when I closed it.

Closing the account was extremely difficult...I had several back and forth with their help desk...supposedly I got bumped up to higher management, and finally they said they closed it...they kept advising me to "just quit logging in", and I refused to do that.

Thanks for any help...this is a great website!

[Casandra]

Hi, I have been reading this forum for a long time, but just joined yesterday...greetings, everyone. I have filed an IRS 3949 A, and send a letter to Kim asking for a corrected 1099.

I voluntarily closed my account in March, 2006. Do I fall under that as, well, i.e., I forfeited everything when I closed it.

Closing the account was extremely difficult...I had several back and forth with their help desk...supposedly I got bumped up to higher management, and finally they said they closed it...they kept advising me to "just quit logging in", and I refused to do that.

Thanks for any help...this is a great website!Your email chain with the Help Desk proves that you closed your account and a copy of the STA Affiliate terms is your additional proof. Please print these out and save in a file in case the IRS asks you later on why you didn't report the 1099 income. The IRS uses computers to read our tax forms. If the 1099's and the form don't match, the computers spit the forms out and you will likely be send a letter asking you questions.

Now, I would not give up quite yet. Please send a new email to the STA helpdesk.

Ask them why they are not complying with their own Affiliate Terms as published at http://www.stasite.com/affiliateterms.html

EXCEPTION: When an Account is terminated by an Independent Business Associate (IBA) for personal, business or other legitimate reason any accrued reading fees or commissions will be paid but all outstanding and un-posted EPCs will be eliminated.

Tell them that you were an affiliate according to those terms that you were lead to believe that they followed these terms as well. Tell them that you closed your account on (date) with the understanding that these terms would be adhered to. This means that all contents of your account would be eliminated. (your account closure would fall under the "EXCEPTION" clause as you voluntarily closed your account).

If your account still contained all the credits reported in that 1099, it means that you gave them back everything in that account when you closed it. This means there should have been nothing in your account to report as income for 2006.

Ask them to please correctly close your account as of the date you requested it closed and eliminate all contents of that account as of that date. Ask them to please issue you a $zero ammended IRS 1099. (you have to tell them what you want!)

If you used the credits in question before you closed your account, then this will not work as you cannot give back what you used.

Hope you get a good result. In any case you will then have very substantial evidence to show the IRS if they ask you questions later on. I would also add that if STA does not reissue you a $zero 1099, you should also send in the IRS form 3949 as that is how you report the fraud committed against you.

[mousiecat]

Hi Cassandra, thanks so much for the reply. You have done really tremendous work here in the forum, and your posts have been really helpful. In the letter I sent to Kim, I did request a corrected 1099 for zero, as well as ponted out the terms to him, and that my account was closed, not abandoned, therefore as I had never used any EPC's in the two years I was a member, never posted an ad, etc, everything in my account was returned to him per his own terms. Sent my letter to him and the 3949 to the IRS certified mail, return receipt requested. I also stated that I had paid him, he had never paid me a cent in two years.

Have you had a response to your question about the terms? I am guessing he will find some clever way around them...can't wait to hear the response.

[Casandra]

Have you had a response to your question about the terms? I am guessing he will find some clever way around them...can't wait to hear the response.I am helping my brother-in-law convince the helpdesk that he closed his account and should therefore have a zero 1099. He has not logged into his account since Sept 2005. STA is maintaining that he is still an affiliate.

We have told the helpdesk about the Affiliate Terms and they replied:


Had STA closed your account for fraud, hacking, or violating the IBA Terms and Conditions, then every thing in the account would have been forfeited.
The problem is, if you read the Terms, failing to log in to an account for 6 months or more is a violation of the Terms!

The Terms are very clear and I quote in part:

d. FAILURE TO LOG IN FOR 6 MONTHS...all Reading credits, unpaid commissions and fees and any unused EPCs will be forfeited"

So, that is not an optional thing. If they have not removed these credits, they are in violation of the published IBA Terms.

We are going another round with them. In any case, the email chain from the helpdesk is evidence to provide, along with the Affiliate Terms to show the IRS if they want to know why you didn't claim the income.

STA has left the door open to their own interpretation of these terms when they say:

"AN AFFILLIATE ACCOUNT MAY BE TERMINATED FOR ANY OF THE FOLLOWING REASONS, IN THE SOLE DISCRETION OF STA:"

They have used their discretion to interpret their Terms to suspend these accounts rather than to close them properly. If you did not send them notice that you wanted your account closed, it's a more difficult battle to get them to change their "discretion".

We were all lead to believe that STA would keep their Affiliate Terms. The Terms were quoted to us often enough.

It's all kind of moot now that STA is closed. That my friends is a true "wash" :D Now, if we claim it as a loss, STA keeps their tax write-off on the virtual money they claim to have paid us. They will fight to keep that advantage. If they had 10,000 accounts abandoned for 6 months or more and they credited all of these with $1,600 virtually generated money, it means they get to write off $16M. This is not a small thing and they did it with the accelerator table as well; so double that advantage and you will see what is at stake for them.
They will not concede this issue of abandoned/closed accounts easily.