Rebates are not taxable. A rebate is not income, it is a price break on a good or service that you purchased.

Do you pay income tax because the store sold you something at a sale price? Of course you don’t.

There are realtors that will claim that they cannot give you a rebate because either

a. you don’t have a real estate sales license and therefore it would be illegal to “pay” you for representing yourself.

b. you would have to pay tax on the commission “income”, and “their office just isn’t set up to do that”.

Both a. and b. are total lies.

Repeat after me:

I’m getting a REBATE!
I’m getting a REBATE!
I’m getting a REBATE!

There, does everyone feel better now :-).