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| Porch and step railing |
When we moved into our new house our back porch was over five feet high and needed a railing. We didn’t like what the builder’s contractor had to offer so we decided
to do it ourselves. We ordered the railing from The Home Depot and installed it ourselves, it worked out
super and when we were finished Larry wrote a review on the product. About a
month ago The Home Depot wrote him an e-mail and asked him if he would like to
join their Seeds program, where he could choose products from their vendors every
month and write a review on them. This doesn’t cost him anything and he could
keep the product if the vendor doesn’t request it back. He wrote them back and
said he would love to. A few days later he received another e-mail with the
list of products he could choose from and he could choose five products. The
most expensive products were already gone but he did choose the five products
(a wireless thermostat, sprayer, Gorilla shipping tape, LED light bulbs and
a car camera).
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| TCP LED Light Bulb |
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| Emerson Wireless Thermostat |
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| SecurityMan Car Camera |
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| Gorilla Shipping Tape |
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| Smith Deck Sprayer |
I also was just invited to join the Home Depot Seeds program. The program is by invite only and comes directly from Home Depot Support who obviously cannot show a bias for or against a specific brand or product. HD Support is contacted by vendors offering limited quantities of specific product that Seeds members can choose from to review. My first selection of items contained if I remember correctly about 500 unique items, of which you can choose 5 items, only 1 of which can be a premium item (higher price). There is no guarantee that the vendor won't require the item to be returned in the 6 months following the review, the items cannot be sold, ownership transferred, gifted or abandoned under any circumstances. After the 6 month vendor option return period, the reviewer can choose to keep the item or destroy the item to make it unusable (I plan to photograph if I do this).
ReplyDeleteAnother very important thing to remember is that all of the Seeds members have been spending their own money on products at HD which they then had to review and then also have random visitors to the site up or down vote. All this goes into a rating system similar to Amazon's rating system showing how confident visitors are in a reviewer's review.
After all that, HD Support goes through all of a reviewer's submissions before inviting them to join the program. So I wouldn't assume that just because a product was reviewed for free that you can't trust the review. The guidelines for participation are strict and the vetting process in depth.
I belong to the Home Depot Seeds Progream also. I called my tax man and asked would I have to pay taxes on the free products and he said yes. I also did the free product reviews for Walmart
ReplyDeleteTechnically, if you read the fine print, the Seeds Reviewers do not own those products. They remain the property of the supplier or Depot forever, so you should not have to pay any taxes on them. To be clear however, I have been a Seeds member since 2013 and they have never requested the return of any product.
ReplyDeleteYou should always read the fine print. To participate in the Seeds Program the reviewer has to accept the Terms & Conditions agreement, which is an intrinsic part of the program. As of 2018-11-28, the Terms & Conditions agreement states that, "The product supplier retains all right, title and interest in a Seeds Product until six months after the date of your review of the product, after which you may keep or destroy the Seeds Product at your discretion, but may not transfer it." In other words, after six months the product belongs to the reviewer with the sole provision that it cannot be transferred to another person.
DeleteIf you got a product from a supplier with no obligation to pay for it, the IRS considers its fair market value as income as and you must report it as such.
It is clear there are misunderstandings of the Terms and Conditions of being a Seeds member. Those terms and conditions clearly state that items could only be requested for return if a defect or safety issue became evident. Otherwise they are yours to keep free of charge. Home Depot or it's suppliers will never ask you to return them unless they are found to have a manufacturers defect which is in effect a recall. The terms and conditions are for a 6 month period only and clearly state as a member you may not sell the items you are given. You are not allowed to share information with competitors or in any way reveal information that could be viewed as revealing trade secrets or otherwise confidential information. The items Given to Seeds members are not taxable as they are not sent to you as a complimentary or otherwise FREE item. You must use the product and provide an unbiased opinion which constitutes a trade of value. A trade of value doesn't always have to be for cash so in essence you are still paying compensation for these products. You can remain a member of the program so long as you provide feedback in a timely manner. A good comparison is people who perform on-line surveys for pay. These are not taxable as you are providing a commodity in return for money. It still constitutes a transaction but is performed as intellectual property. Therefore you cannot be taxed for your ideas or opinions.
ReplyDeleteI submit that you are mistaken about certain aspects of the Seeds Program Terms & Conditions.
DeleteAs of 2018-11-28, the T&C states that, "The product supplier retains all right, title and interest in a Seeds Product until six months after the date of your review of the product, after which you may keep or destroy the Seeds Product at your discretion, but may not transfer it." There's no mention at all of manufacturer's defects or other limitations on the supplier's title to the product reviewed. Furthermore, the prohibition on transferring possession of the product, whether by gift or sale, is a prohibition in perpetuity.
Your opinion on the tax liability of the value of Seeds products provided for review is misleading and incorrect. In most cases, products provided for free for the purpose of evaluation are taxable at their fair market value. Tax liability extends to federal and state (where applicable) income taxes as well as use taxes (a.k.a. sales taxes). Writing reviews does not in itself reduce your tax liability; to do that you would need to set up a business and document business-related expenses just as you would if you had any other small business. My advice is to consult with a qualified tax advisor on the tax liability of products received for evaluation. He/she will be cognizant of the applicable IRS statutes and rulings on product gifts.
Your railing looks really nice. I doubt a contractor could have done it any better.
ReplyDelete