1099-K reconciliation notes for preparers

• Stripe Reserves and Holds: Why the Bank Is Short and the Books Are Not

  A client's Stripe payouts are smaller than their sales minus fees, and the difference does not reverse next month. Before anyone suspects missing revenue,…

• A Payout That Belongs to Two Months

  Stripe pays out days after the sale, and one payout can cover transactions from several days. At month-end that means June's bank deposits and June's…

• Which Stripe Export Is the Close, and Which One Lies

  Stripe offers several exports that all look like "the transactions," and they answer different questions. For a month-end close, the wrong export is the…

• CP2000, CP2501, or Something Else: Which IRS Letter Is Actually a 1099-K Mismatch

  A client forwards an IRS letter with the note "it's about my Stripe." Before anyone opens a workpaper, one question decides the response: is this a…

• The 2026 1099-NEC Threshold Is $2,000, Not $600

  For decades the rule was simple: pay a contractor $600 or more in a year and you issue a 1099-NEC. For payments made in 2026 and later, that number is…

• Year-End Checklist: Getting 1099-K Reconciliation Ready Before January

  The firms that spend the least time on 1099-K reconciliation in February are the ones who do a handful of small things in November, while there's still…

• The Filing Season 1099-K Checklist: What to Pull Before You Start

  The 1099-K lands, the client forwards it, and the temptation is to plug Box 1a straight into the return and move on. That works fine when the number is…

• Economic Nexus Thresholds Explained: When a Client Needs to Register in Another State

  A client can owe sales tax in a state they've never set foot in, simply by selling enough into it. This is economic nexus, and for a multi-state…

• Why Monthly Reconciliation Beats a Once-a-Year Cleanup

  Ask a bookkeeper which is more work — reconciling a client's Stripe activity every month, or reconstructing an entire year of it in January — and the…

• TIN Matching Errors: Why 1099-NEC Forms Get Rejected

  A 1099-NEC filed with a TIN that doesn't match IRS records doesn't just get flagged — it can trigger a B-notice, put the payer on the hook for backup…

• PayPal vs. Stripe vs. Square 1099-K: Key Differences for Preparers

  The $20,000 / 200-transaction threshold is federal and applies the same way regardless of processor, but the paperwork each one produces — and the traps…

• Got a CP2000 for a 1099-K Mismatch? Here's the Workpaper the IRS Actually Wants

  CP2000 notices tied to 1099-K amounts tend to arrive in waves through late summer and fall — here's the reconciliation that resolves most of them.

• Why Your Client's June Stripe Payout Doesn't Match Their Sales Report

  Payouts are a batch, not a sale — the same reconciliation logic used at tax time, applied mid-year while the detail is still easy to trace.

• The 1099-K / 1099-NEC Overlap: Where Client Income Gets Double-Counted

  A client hands you a 1099-K from Stripe and a 1099-NEC from a client of theirs, and both forms appear to include the same payment. Add them together…

• Fees Belong on an Expense Line, Not Netted Into Line 1

  This is the single most common mistake in a 1099-K reconciliation, and it's easy to make because it feels like it produces a "more accurate" number. It…

• Schedule C Line 1: What Actually Belongs There When a Client Hands You a 1099-K

  Line 1 of Schedule C asks for one number — gross receipts. When a client's income runs through Stripe, Square, or a similar processor, it's tempting to…

• Building a Square 1099-K Workpaper: What to Pull and How to Read It

  Square clients are common in retail and food service, and their 1099-K reconciliation has its own quirks compared to Stripe or PayPal — mostly because…

• State 1099-K Thresholds: The Federal Number Isn't the Whole Answer

  The federal 1099-K threshold is $20,000 and more than 200 transactions, restored by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in 2025 after the $600 figure was…

• Your Client's Stripe 1099-K Doesn't Match the Books. Here's the Actual Fix.

  A client's Stripe 1099-K lands, and it agrees with nothing — not the number in QuickBooks, not what the client remembers, not last year's pattern. Before…