If Stripe processed enough volume for you in a calendar year, it issues you a 1099-K. It shows up in January and surprises people, so here's what it is and what to do with it.
This is general information about where the form lives and what's on it — not tax advice. Your accountant is the right person to tell you how it affects your return.
What a 1099-K is
It's an informational form summarizing the gross payment volume Stripe processed for you. Emphasis on gross: it reports the full amount charged, before processing fees, before refunds, before your platform fee. It is not a statement of income, and receiving one doesn't by itself mean you owe anything. Stripe's explainer is at IRS 1099-K form: What to know.
Where to find yours
- Sign in to dashboard.stripe.com.
- Open the Documents section.
- Download the form for the year you need. Stripe posts it before January 31 and emails account admins when it's ready.
Details, including how to correct the tax information printed on it, are at 1099-K tax forms and Where is my 1099-K?
Whether you'll get one
Federal thresholds for 1099-K reporting have moved several times in recent years, and a number of states set their own lower thresholds regardless of the federal number. Rather than plan around a figure that may have changed, check Stripe's current summary at 1099-K forms issued by Stripe, which tracks both the federal rule and the state-by-state variations.
Nonprofits are not automatically exempt from receiving one. A 1099-K is about payment volume, not tax status.
Why the number won't match your books
This trips up nearly everyone the first year. The 1099-K figure is almost always higher than what you actually banked, because:
- It's gross, so Stripe's processing fees aren't subtracted.
- Studio's platform fee isn't subtracted.
- Refunded and disputed transactions are usually still counted in gross volume.
- It's counted by transaction date, not payout date — so a gift on December 30 lands in that year even though the deposit arrived in January.
To reconcile, pull the full ledger from Stripe rather than working from the 1099-K alone. Stripe publishes a reconciliation report for exactly this: 1099-K reconciliation report.
Getting the numbers your accountant wants
- From Stripe: Balance → Payouts gives you deposits with the charges and fees inside each one, exportable as CSV. This is the version that ties to your bank statement.
- From Studio: your giving and transaction reports give the donor-facing view — who gave, how much, and when — which is what you need for acknowledgment letters and donor records.
Donor tax receipts are a separate thing
The 1099-K is about your organization. Your donors' year-end giving statements are a different document entirely, generated by Studio from your giving records, and nothing to do with Stripe. Those are covered in Year-End Giving Reports.
Keep your tax details current
Stripe prints the legal name and EIN on file. If either changed — a rename, a restructure, a new EIN — update it in your Stripe account settings well before January, or the IRS gets a form that doesn't match its records and you'll spend the spring fixing it.