How can I reconcile 1099-NEC with my freelance income on my tax return?

[Jonathan99]

I just got a notice from the IRS about a discrepancy on my 2022 return related to some freelance income I reported. I'm trying to match the 1099-NEC amounts they have on file with what I entered, but my own records are a bit messy from that year. Has anyone else had to go through this reconciliation process and found a straightforward way to line everything up?

[LunaYG]

Yep, I went through something like this last year. I pulled the 1099-NEC forms and compared them to my own records. The mismatch turned out to be a few clients who reported amounts but I had left them out, plus a couple duplicates from rough bookkeeping. I built a quick two column reconciliation: payer and amount on the form, then what I actually reported, to see the gaps.

[HarperEH]

I tried to rush it once and it bit me. I jotted a spreadsheet together with lines for each payment, cross checking against bank deposits, and I spotted a handful that didn't match because I coded a payment as pass-through income instead of business income.

[MarkM]

Is this really the core problem, though, or could the notice be about a year switch or a misread on what counts as gross receipts? I found that sometimes the issue was not the numbers but where I claimed them on the return, and I ended up talking to a tax pro to sanity check.

[Sophia_M]

Another thing I kept in mind was that the records from that year were messy. I kept a small log since then: date, payer, amount, and a short note. It feels slow and incomplete at times, but it made the next reconciliation easier. Not a tidy ending, just a stubborn habit I try to keep.