Form 1099-K is an information return. You do not fill it in. The company that moved money to you fills it in, sends a copy to you, and sends the same copy to the IRS. That company is your card processor, your payment app, or the marketplace you sell on.
The form exists so that the IRS can see the total that a payment network passed to you in a year. It reports payment card transactions and third-party network transactions, which is why the official name of the form is "Payment Card and Third Party Network Transactions."
Two things make this form a problem for founders. First, the reporting threshold changed several times in recent years, so most of the advice you will find online is describing a rule that no longer applies. Second, the number printed on the form is the gross total the network paid out, and people read it as if it were their profit. Both problems are easy to fix once you know what the rule says.
What the rule actually requires
The company that reports is called a payment settlement entity. There are two kinds. A card processor handles payment card transactions. A third-party settlement organisation, usually written TPSO, runs a network where buyers pay sellers, which covers payment apps and online marketplaces.
For a TPSO, the IRS states the reporting threshold like this. The TPSO must issue a Form 1099-K when the payments it made to you for goods and services are more than $20,000 in the year and the number of those transactions is more than 200. Both conditions have to be true. If you sold $50,000 across 40 transactions, you are over one line and under the other, so the TPSO is not required to send the form.
The threshold applies to the TPSO side only. This is the part most summaries drop. The de minimis exception in the statute, IRC section 6050W(e), is written for "third party network transactions" and nothing else, so a card processor reporting payment card transactions has no threshold to clear. The IRS puts it plainly: a payment card processor sends the form "no matter how many payments you got or how much they were for." A $300 card sale can appear on a Form 1099-K.
The TPSO threshold was restored by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (Pub. L. 119-21), section 70432, which was enacted on 4 July 2025. The restoration is retroactive. The statute says the amendment takes effect as if it had been included in the 2021 law it reverses, which puts the $20,000 and 200-transaction rule back in place for returns covering calendar years that began after 31 December 2021, so the 2022 tax year onward. The lower thresholds that had been scheduled for those years, $5,000, then $2,500, then $600, were repealed. If an article tells you that a $600 payout triggers a 1099-K, it is describing a rule that is no longer law.
Now the second point. The amount in Box 1a is the gross amount of the reportable payments. It is the money the network processed on your behalf, before the processor's fees, before refunds, and before any of your own costs. It is not revenue in the sense you use the word when you look at your own books, and it is certainly not taxable income. Your expenses are not in that number, because the payment company has no idea what your expenses are.
The third point is the one the IRS repeats most often, and it is the one that catches people who stay under the threshold. You report your income whether or not a Form 1099-K arrives. The form is a copy of a report someone else made about you. It is not the thing that creates the obligation. A seller who took $18,000 across 150 transactions on a marketplace gets no form from that marketplace and still owes tax on the profit.
🇺🇸 If the IRS counts you as a U.S. person
You receive Form 1099-K from each payment settlement entity that has to report on you. That means every card processor that settled card payments for you, whatever the amount, and every TPSO that went over both parts of the threshold. If you sell on three platforms, you can receive three forms, and each one reports only what that platform paid you.
Three practical rules follow from this.
- Match the form to your own records, not the other way round. The gross figure includes money that later left again, such as refunds and platform fees. Your income is what you calculate from your books. The form is a cross-check.
- If the number is wrong, ask the issuer to correct it. The IRS tells you to request a corrected form from the company named as "Filer" in the top left corner. The IRS also says not to contact the IRS about it, because the IRS cannot correct the form, and not to delay filing while you wait. Do not simply leave the form out of your return, because the IRS already has a copy.
- A missing form changes nothing about what you owe. Staying under a TPSO's threshold does not make the income invisible or untaxed.
🌏 If it does not
The threshold is the same for you. It does not move because you live abroad, and it does not move because your customers are American.
The reason is in how the rule is written. The duty to report belongs to the payment settlement entity, and it is triggered by what that entity paid out through its network. It is a rule about the payment network, not a rule about the person receiving the money.
So a non-resident founder running a U.S. LLC with a Stripe or PayPal account can receive a Form 1099-K exactly like an American seller can, on exactly the same numbers.
What the form does not do is answer the tax question. A Form 1099-K is not a bill and it is not a decision. It says "this much money went through this network to you." Whether the United States taxes that money depends on your own status and on whether the income is connected to the United States, and that question is settled on other pages of this guide, starting with the U.S. person page.
The reverse is also true. If no form arrives, you have not been excused from anything. Any filing duty you already had still stands.
Where the two lanes go
This is one of the few terms in this guide where the two answers are the same. The table below shows what is identical, because knowing that saves you from looking for a rule that does not exist.
| Item | 🇺🇸 U.S. person | 🌏 Not a U.S. person |
|---|---|---|
| Who fills in the form | The payment company, not you | The payment company, not you |
| TPSO reporting threshold | More than $20,000 and more than 200 transactions | The same |
| Card processor threshold | None. It reports the card payments it settled, at any amount | The same |
| What Box 1a shows | Gross payments processed, before fees, refunds, shipping and discounts | The same |
| Does no form mean no reporting duty | No | No |
| Does the form decide your tax | No. It is an information return | No. It is an information return |
| What the form leads to | Reporting the income on the return you already file | Depends on your status and whether the income is connected to the U.S. |
The lanes only separate on the last row, and that separation happens after the form, not because of it.
Common mistakes
🇺🇸 If the IRS counts you as a U.S. person
- Working from the $600 threshold. It was repealed in July 2025, back to 2022. The current rule for a TPSO is more than $20,000 and more than 200 transactions.
- Assuming the $20,000 and 200-transaction test also covers your card processor. It does not. The de minimis exception is written for third-party network transactions, so card payments are reported at any amount.
- Copying the Box 1a figure into your return as if it were profit. It is the gross amount the network processed, with fees and refunds still inside it.
- Assuming that no form means no income to report. The IRS states the opposite in plain words.
🌏 If it does not
- Assuming the threshold is different for foreign sellers. It is not. The rule applies to the payment company, and it counts payments, not passports.
- Treating the arrival of a 1099-K as proof that you owe U.S. tax. It is an information return. Your tax position is decided by your status and by the source of the income.
- Assuming that because you never received a form, you have no U.S. filing to do. A foreign-owned U.S. LLC can owe filings that have nothing to do with the 1099-K.
FAQ
What is the Form 1099-K threshold right now?
A third-party settlement organisation must issue Form 1099-K when it paid you more than $20,000 for goods and services and the payments came in more than 200 transactions in the year. Both tests have to be met. A card processor reporting payment card transactions has no threshold and reports what it settled for you at any amount.
I read that the threshold is $600. Which is right?
The $20,000 and 200-transaction rule, for a TPSO. A lower, stepped-down threshold of $5,000, then $2,500, then $600 was scheduled, but it was repealed by section 70432 of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, enacted on 4 July 2025, and the repeal reaches back to the 2022 tax year. Articles written between 2023 and mid-2025 usually describe the cancelled plan.
I did not get a Form 1099-K. Do I still have to report the money?
Yes. The IRS says the income is reportable whether or not you receive the form. The form is a report the payment company files about you, and its absence does not change what you earned.
Is the amount on the form my taxable income?
No. Box 1a is the gross amount of payments the network processed for you. Platform fees, processing fees, refunds and your own business costs are all still inside that number. You work out taxable income from your own records.
Do non-residents get a Form 1099-K?
Yes, on the same threshold. The reporting duty sits with the payment settlement entity and is triggered by the payments it made through its network. Receiving one does not by itself mean the United States taxes that money.
The form shows a number I do not recognise. What do I do?
Ask the company that issued it for a corrected form. Do not ignore the form, because the IRS received the same copy you did.
Can I get more than one Form 1099-K in a year?
Yes. Each payment settlement entity reports its own payments. Selling through several platforms or processors can produce several forms, and each one reports only that company's share.