The IRS delayed its lower 1099-K threshold three separate times

The workload

A solo founder taking payment through a card processor or marketplace has one recurring task each January: reconcile whatever Form 1099-K the platform sends against the books, because the form reports gross payment volume, not profit, and can arrive even when no tax is owed on the underlying sales. Verified: the IRS's own Form 1099-K guidance, current as retrieved 16 September 2026, states a payment app or marketplace must send the form when payments for goods or services total over $20,000 in more than 200 transactions, though a platform may send one below that figure too. The workload is unconditional either way: the same page states a taxpayer must report all income regardless of whether a 1099-K arrives at all.

What the documents show

Verified: the IRS's own November 2023 news release explains that the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 had set a new $600 threshold with no transaction minimum, intended for 2022, but the IRS delayed it, kept the older $20,000-and-200-transaction rule for 2022, then issued Notice 2023-74 delaying it again for 2023 while planning a $5,000 threshold for 2024. Verified: Notice 2024-85 confirms that phase-in, setting $5,000 for calendar year 2024 and $2,500 for 2025, with its own text stating the $600 threshold would apply only for calendar years beginning after 31 December 2025. The current guidance page instead shows the original $20,000-and-200-transaction figure back in force, meaning a later change not captured in Notice 2024-85's own schedule overtook it before the $600 figure ever applied.

The operating cost

The notices set a reporting trigger, not a fee — there is no cost to receiving a 1099-K itself. Verified: Notice 2023-74 states the ARP's unmodified $600 threshold would have generated an estimated 44 million Forms 1099-K sent to taxpayers who would not expect one, which is the compliance-confusion cost the IRS cited for delaying it rather than a dollar figure owed by any single founder.

The stop condition

The notices name their own expiration: Notice 2023-74 covered only calendar year 2023, and Notice 2024-85 covered only 2024 and 2025, each requiring a further notice or a law change to extend relief — which is what appears to have happened, since the currently stated threshold no longer matches either notice's own schedule.

• Which threshold applies to the specific tax year in question, and which numbered IRS notice or current guidance page states it?
• Has all payment-platform income been reported regardless of whether a 1099-K arrived, as the IRS's own guidance requires?
• Does bookkeeping distinguish gross 1099-K volume from actual taxable income, since the form does not net out refunds, fees or misclassified personal transfers?

A founder who cites “the” 1099-K threshold without naming the tax year and the specific notice is very likely citing a number that has already changed at least once since it was written down.