Form 1099-K FAQs: General information

A1. Form 1099-K, Payment Card and Third Party Network Transactions, is an information return used to report payments you received during the year from:

• Credit, debit or stored value cards such as gift cards (payment cards)
• Payment apps or online marketplaces for goods or services (third party settlement organizations or TPSOs)

You should receive a Form 1099-K if you sold a good or provided a service and were paid a gross amount in excess of the reporting threshold through a payment app or an online marketplace or accepted a payment from a payment card. You may have a tax obligation if you had a gain on the sale or received payment for services you provided.

Form 1099-K is an information return that popular payment apps and online marketplaces provide when you use them for selling goods or providing a service. You can use the information on the Form 1099-K with your other tax records to determine your correct tax owed. See Understanding your Form 1099-K for more information.

Third party information reporting for certain payments is required by law and has been shown to increase voluntary tax compliance, improve tax collections and assessments within the IRS, and thereby reduce the tax gap.

A2. For payment cards, there is no threshold amount that has to be met to receive a Form 1099-K due to payments received through a payment card transaction. Therefore, if you received $0.01 of payments from a payment card transaction, you should receive a Form 1099-K for those payments.

The federal reporting threshold for TPSOs for calendar year 2023 remains the same as previous years, which is for total gross payments for goods or services that exceed $20,000 and for which there are more than 200 transactions for a payee.  Your state may have a lower reporting threshold for TPSOs, which could result in you receiving a Form 1099-K, even if the total gross payments you received in the year did not exceed the federal reporting threshold.

For background: The ARPA lowered the reporting threshold to impose a reporting requirement on TPSOs on Form 1099-K from gross payments of more than $20,000 and 200 transactions for a payee to gross payments totaling more than $600 (regardless of the number of transactions) for a payee.

For 2022: The IRS issued Notice 2023-10, which temporarily delayed the enforcement of the lowered reporting requirement on TPSOs only. However, you may have received a Form 1099-K at the lower threshold, despite Notice 2023-10.

For 2023: The IRS determined in Notice 2023-74 that calendar year 2023 will be regarded as another transition year for the new reporting requirements for TPSOs only. However, you may have received a Form 1099-K at the lower threshold, despite Notice 2023-74.

A3. The term “payment card” includes credit cards, debit cards, and stored-value cards (including gift cards), as well as payment through any distinctive marks of a payment card (such as a credit card number).

A payment card is issued according to an agreement that provides all of the following: one or more issuers of the cards; a network of persons unrelated to each other, and to the issuer, who agree to accept the cards as payment; and standards and mechanisms for settling the transactions between the merchant acquiring entities and the persons who agree to accept the cards as payment.

A4. A TPSO is the central organization that has the contractual obligation to make payments to participating payees (generally, a merchant or business) of third party network transactions. An example could include apps used to handle the money transfer between buyers and sellers.

A5. Not necessarily. The 2023 federal reporting threshold of over $20,000 and 200 transactions is a reporting requirement for TPSOs, but companies may still send a Form 1099-K for payments for goods or services payments that are less than that amount. For example, you may receive a Form 1099-K from other payment settlement entities, such as merchant acquiring entities.  In addition, those TPSOs that have performed backup withholding under section 3406(a) for a payee during calendar year 2023 must file a Form 945 and a Form 1099-K with the IRS and furnish a copy to the payee if total reportable payments to the payee exceeded $600 for the calendar year.  Also, your state may have a lower reporting threshold for TPSOs, which could result in you receiving a Form 1099-K, even if the total gross payments you received in the year did not exceed the federal reporting threshold.

For more information see Backup Withholding.

A6. The entity submitting the instructions to transfer funds to the participating payee's account is responsible for reporting payment card transactions. In this case, the electronic payment facilitator is responsible for reporting because it is the entity submitting the instructions to transfer the funds in settlement of the payment card transactions.

A7. Yes, the Form 1099-K reporting threshold doesn’t affect whether payments are taxable or whether a tax return must be filed.

All income, no matter the amount, is taxable unless the tax law says it isn’t – even if you don’t get a Form 1099-K. Income also includes amounts not reported on forms, such as payments you receive in cash, property, or services.

A8. The gross payment amount (Box 1a) on Form 1099-K reports the total, or gross, dollar amount of reportable payment transactions. It doesn't include adjustments for fees, credits, refunds, shipping, cash equivalents or discounts. Those items are not income. Taxpayers can deduct those items from the gross amount when including the income on their tax return.

The gross payment amount also does not account for the original purchase price, or basis, of any items sold and whether the items were sold at a gain or loss. For more information on how to establish this basis, go to IRS.gov: Publication 551, Basis of Assets PDF.

Taxpayers will need to use their Form 1099-K with other tax records to help figure and report their correct income on their tax return.

A9. No. You should not receive a Form 1099-K for making purchases. Form 1099-K is used to report certain payments that you received for selling goods or providing services.