IRS Reporting Requirements

Form  1099-K is used to report income received from income received from  electronic payments such as credit cards, debit cards, PayPal, and other  third party payers. In most cases, the payment settlement entity (PSE)  will send you a 1099-K by February. Be sure to add the income you report  on your 1099-K to your total business income when you file your taxes. 

Beginning with the 2011 tax year, companies  that process credit cards for merchants are required by the IRS to  report revenue from such sales  that they send to a merchant, either by  check, direct deposit or as money on account. You, the merchant, get a  copy of this form and so does the IRS. To the merchant, this money from  the processor is revenue, just like cash sales. Unlike cash sales, the  form lists your gross sales, not the net figure of the fees and other  deductions. 

Not all businesses with merchant accounts will be getting a 1099-K form. There are a couple of exceptions to this  reporting requirement: 

1. Merchants who have less than 200 credit or debit card transactions a year.
2. Merchants who's total credit and debit card transactions total less than $20,000 a year.

In these cases these merchants are still required to report their income to the IRS, even though they may not receive a form.

Since companies with merchant accounts receive  a 1099-K form with their gross receipts on it, you will need to  reconcile this total with your net payments and any chargebacks, fees,  refunds and debit card cash-back transactions. It's advisable to set up  your bookkeeping to keep track of gross sales as well as separate  entries for any deductions, rather than  working with net credit sales.

Why is the IRS doing this? In part, they  intend to discourage under-reporting of income as more merchants are able to accept credit and debit payments, thanks to recent advances in  mobile credit card processing technology.

For  businesses, freelancers and professionals who accept credit card  payments via merchant accounts, these IRS reporting changes shouldn't  require a lot of changes. Presumably, your business is already reporting   this income. The new 1099-K form just means you have another form to  file away with your tax records.