Form 1099-K is the tax form payment apps and online marketplaces use to report certain business payments to you and the IRS. Starting with tax year 2025, those platforms generally only have to send a 1099-K when you have more than $20,000 in payments and more than 200 transactions in the year, reversing the lower thresholds that were scheduled to phase in.
The IRS summarizes the reverted threshold in its guidance on the change and how 1099-K reporting works for third party networks. See the IRS FAQs on the 1099-K threshold and the IRS explainer on understanding Form 1099-K.
For small businesses that sell online, take card payments through Stripe or Square, or get paid through apps like PayPal or Venmo, this likely means fewer 1099-K forms arriving in early 2026 for 2025 activity. That can reduce year end form chasing and the time spent reconciling forms you did not expect.
The operational catch is that your tax reporting obligation does not depend on whether a 1099-K shows up. If your sales stay under the thresholds, you still need clean books that capture all business income across platforms, bank deposits, invoices, and cash, so your return is complete.
This is also a good time to tighten how you separate business payments from personal transfers inside the same app. Mixed use accounts can create messy exports and harder reconciliations, even when no 1099-K is issued.
One more wrinkle is that some platforms may still send a 1099-K even if you are below the threshold, depending on their policies or state requirements. If you do get a form, reconcile it to your records rather than using it as your revenue total, since 1099-Ks can include items like refunds, fees, or timing differences that do not match your books.
For additional context on how the threshold change fits into upcoming tax season shifts, see OnPay’s summary of 1099 reporting threshold updates and MCB’s overview of tax changes taking effect in 2026.
