PayPal 1099 Tax Loophole Going Bye Bye

June 1st, 2021 at 8:29 PM

The PayPal loophole is going away in a little over six months from now.

You may remember the strategy where you can avoid giving 1099s to contractors and vendors when you use PayPal or a similar service as your payment platform.

With this strategy, you push the reporting requirements to PayPal. Current federal law requires that PayPal file Form 1099-K with the IRS and send it to you when

• your gross earnings are more than $20,000, and
• you have more than 200 transactions.

Example. You work as a consultant. Your clients pay you $30,000 via PayPal. PayPal does not give you a 1099-K because this fails the more than 200 transactions in a calendar year test.

According to lawmakers, this created a situation where those people who use PayPal have an easy ability to cheat (i.e., not report the income on their tax returns).

Starting January 1, 2022, the American Rescue Plan Act kills the two-step “more than $20,000 and more than 200 transactions” threshold for third-party settlement organization (TPSO) filing of 1099-K and replaces it with the single “$600 or more” reporting threshold.

The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that this change in the 1099 rules will gain more than $8 billion in new taxes over the next 10 years with this change.

Several states have already closed this reporting loophole on the state level:

• Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Vermont, and Virginia require a 1099-K to be filed with the state tax agency if a TPSO pays a state resident $600 or more during the year.
• Illinois and New Jersey have a $1,000 1099-K threshold (plus, for Illinois, a requirement of at least four transactions).
• Arkansas has a $2,500 threshold.
• Missouri has a $1,200 threshold.

Mark S. Fineberg, CPA