Yes, when your friend says it's a loan and you treat it appropiately on your tax return it's not taxed. Else it will be. And if you can delay capital gains tax, great for you! How do I delay income tax?
Wrong. If it's not a loan then it's a gift and that's not taxed either for $1,200 as I mentioned. No need to even report it if it's under $16,000 per year.
I'm not sure that's true. They are only supposed to report on a 1099 if they know it's earned income, not just a transfer. If they're reporting mere transfers to the IRS, then that's a problem.
That said, based on personal experience, I don't think Venmo is sending 1099s to everyone above that cumulative amount. I do believe they categorize transfers based on personal or commercial use. I expect a 1099 to be issued only for the commercial transfers.
Transaction is the word I use, not transfer, just in case you mentioned transfer for some other reason. My reason is deliberate. Some kinds of transactions are tax events, others aren’t. Venmo has no way of knowing. Anybody doing automated 1099s has no way of knowing.
1099s just tell the IRS to look for a tax filing from the same tax ID that matches.