For the 2025 tax year (forms issued in early 2026), you will receive a 1099-K if you receive over $2,500 in payments for goods or services through third-party payment platforms (like PayPal, Venmo, or eBay). This threshold is being phased down to $600 in 2026. Note that this threshold applies to business income, not personal transactions.
What this means. This means that for 2023 and prior years, payment apps and online marketplaces are only required to send out Forms 1099-K to taxpayers who receive over $20,000 and have over 200 transactions. For tax year 2024, the IRS plans for a threshold of $5,000 to phase in reporting requirements.
Beginning with tax year 2025, the 1099-K is issued to anyone who receives over a total of $20,000 or more from more than 200 transactions. So, think about whether you're a gig worker, freelancer, or self-employed. The bottom line: the 1099-K is for people who earn money and get paid using these payment app platforms.
Even if you don't get a Form 1099-K, if you received payments for goods, services or property, you must report your income. This includes payments you receive in cash, property, goods, digital assets or foreign sources or assets.
The IRS $600 rule refers to a change in reporting requirements for third-party payment apps (like Venmo, PayPal) for taxable income from goods and services, where platforms must send a Form 1099-K if you receive over $600 in a year, intended to capture gig economy/side hustle income, though delays and phased implementation have adjusted the timeline, with current rules for 2024 using a higher threshold ($5,000) before fully phasing to $600 for future years, but remember all taxable income, regardless of form, must always be reported.
Use your business account for business purposes and your personal account to receive payments for personal transactions. Otherwise, personal payments will end up on your business's Form 1099-K, and you or your tax professional will then have to sort out personal and business payments when preparing your tax return.
A 1099 requirement is triggered when a business pays an independent contractor or unincorporated entity $600 or more (increasing to $2,000 after 2025) in a calendar year for services, or makes other specific payments like royalties or rents, requiring the payer to report these to the IRS using Form 1099-NEC (for services) or 1099-MISC (for other income), unless the recipient is a corporation (with exceptions for law firms).
You should receive a Form 1099-K if you sold a good or provided a service, you were paid through a payment app or online marketplace, and your gross payments and transactions are in excess of the reporting threshold, or you accepted a payment from a payment card for any amount.
Often, the IRS will recalculate your tax return by including the missing income and determining the amount of tax they think that you owe. This can include penalties and interest. If you realize that you didn't include some income on your tax return, you can file an amended return that includes the missing information.
If you used a payment app or online marketplace
A payment app or online marketplace is required to send you a Form 1099-K if the payments you received for goods or services total over $20,000 in more than 200 transactions. However, they may send you a Form 1099-K with lower amounts and/or transactions.
While the IRS requires payment platforms to issue a 1099-K only if you have at least $20,000 in payments and 200 transactions for 2025, several states set their reporting threshold at just $600, no matter how many transactions you have.
Personal Transactions Misclassified as Business Income
Payment systems sometimes mess up and mix personal and business payments. For instance, if your cousin sends you $500 for car repairs, it might get flagged as business income on Form 1099-K.
Tax professionals warn that missing or incorrect 1099 forms do not prevent the IRS from calculating income and issuing tax bills. IRVINE, CA / ACCESS Newswire / January 5, 2026 / Many taxpayers assume that if a 1099 form was never issued or received, the IRS has no basis to assess tax on that income.
If a business pays an individual nonemployee compensation of $600 or more in a year for work performed, the IRS requires them to file Form 1099-NEC. This threshold increases to $2,000 beginning in 2026 and is thereafter indexed for inflation.
So, if you get a 1099-K for less than the threshold, don't panic. It doesn't automatically mean you owe taxes on those payments — it just means the payment platform reported your transactions to the IRS (and possibly your state).
Key Takeaways
If a business intentionally disregards the requirement to provide a correct Form 1099-NEC or Form 1099-MISC, it's subject to a minimum penalty of $660 per form (tax year 2025) or 10% of the income reported on the form, with no maximum.
Even if you don't receive a 1099-K or 1099-NEC, you're still required to report all earnings to the IRS on Schedule C (Profit or Loss from Business).
The biggest tax mistakes people make include filing late, math errors, incorrect personal info (like Social Security numbers), forgetting deductions/credits (like EITC), misreporting income, not signing forms, and making errors with bank details for direct deposit, all leading to delays, penalties, or missed savings, with using tax software or professionals helping avoid these common pitfalls.
Remember: As long as your client filed the form, the IRS will have a record of that income, even if you lost your 1099 form. If you suspect your client didn't submit theirs on time, don't count on that to save you! They can still file their 1099s late. After all, they'll have penalties to deal with if they don't.
As already noted, Form 1099-K is used to report payments you receive from payment card processors, payment apps, and online marketplaces for the sale of goods or services. For 2025, payers are required to send a 1099-K to you and the IRS if you received more than $20,000 from 200 or more transaction during the year.
In other words, Form 1099-NEC reports income from a particular business, regardless of the form of payment. Form 1099-K reports bank card and payment app income from all your customers and clients.
For most payments to individuals (like contractors or for other income/rents), the 1099 reporting threshold is $600, though this increases to $2,000 for tax years starting after 2025 under new law; for payment apps (Form 1099-K), the old threshold was $20,000/200 transactions, but for 2024, a phased-in $5,000 threshold was planned, with the $20k/200 rule (and $10+ in royalties/broker payments) remaining for now for 1099-MISC. Key forms are 1099-NEC for non-employee compensation and 1099-MISC for other payments, with 1099-K for third-party platform payments.
A 1099 significantly affects taxes because you're considered self-employed, meaning you pay both income tax and the full self-employment tax (15.3% for Social Security & Medicare), as there's no employer to split it with. This usually means setting aside 25-35% of your income, and you'll likely need to make quarterly estimated tax payments to avoid penalties, though business expense deductions can lower your taxable amount.
For the 2025 tax year, the Form 1099-K reporting threshold reverts to the prior standard: payment apps and online marketplaces must issue a 1099-K only when you receive over $20,000 in gross payments AND more than 200 transactions for goods and services. This change, reinstated by recent legislation, means the temporary lower thresholds set for earlier years are no longer in effect, though some states have their own lower requirements.