Why did our church (or nonprofit) get a 1099-K for donations, and what do we do with it?

Everything below comes from IRS, Stripe and PayPal pages read in November 2026. Thresholds and state rules change, so check the linked pages before you act. This is general information, not tax or legal advice. For your organization's situation, ask an accountant who works with churches or nonprofits.

What is a 1099-K, and does it mean we owe tax?

No, not by itself. The IRS describes Form 1099-K as an information return for payments received through credit and debit cards and through payment apps or online marketplaces. Box 1a is the year's gross total. Boxes 5a to 5l split the same total by month.

"Gross" matters here. The IRS says box 1a "doesn't include adjustments for fees, credits, refunds, shipping, cash equivalents or discounts," and adds: "Those items are not income." It also says the reporting threshold "doesn't affect whether payments are taxable or whether a tax return must be filed." Whether your organization owes anything depends on its tax status and what the payments were for, not on the form arriving.

Why would a church or nonprofit get one at all?

Because the rules don't carve you out. The IRS instructions for Form 1099-K define the person who receives it as "any person, including any governmental unit," with no exception for churches or charities. Stripe's 1099-K help page says it issues forms to eligible US accounts "regardless of their business type or activity," and adds that "Even for tax-exempt activities, which may potentially include the acceptance of donations," Stripe "is obligated to issue a 1099-K form."

Whether your account crosses the line depends on four things:

• The federal threshold. The IRS says the One, Big, Beautiful Bill "retroactively reinstated" the older threshold. A payment app or marketplace (the IRS calls it a third party settlement organization) must file only when a payee's gross payments exceed $20,000 and there are more than 200 transactions. That replaced the $600 rule many older articles still quote.
• What Stripe and PayPal apply. Stripe's help page uses more than $20,000 and more than 200 transactions for tax year 2025 onward (for 2024 it was $5,000). PayPal's help center says the same federal threshold was restored.
• Card payments. The IRS says there is "no threshold amount" for payments received by payment card, and that a payment app "may still send a Form 1099-K" below the federal threshold. A form for a smaller amount is not automatically a mistake.
• Your state. Some states have lower thresholds. These are from Stripe's state table for the 2026 tax season:

Stripe's state table warns that some states "haven't fully finalized" their requirements for the 2026 tax season. Check it, or your state's revenue department, before relying on a figure.

Why is the form in a volunteer's name, with their Social Security number?

Because the form uses the name and tax ID on the payment account, and the account was set up as a person instead of the organization. Stripe's corrections page explains that an account set up as an individual reports a personal name, home address and SSN, while a company reports its business name, address and tax ID. So if a volunteer opened the church's Stripe account as an individual, the form goes out under their name and number.

Don't mix this up with identity checks. For US company accounts, Stripe collects details about the person who represents the account, including the last four digits of their SSN, "as part of Stripe's mandatory identity verification requirement". That is normal on an account set up correctly under the organization's Employer Identification Number (EIN), the IRS number for an organization. It does not put the 1099-K in that person's name.

PayPal accounts hold a tax ID number too. PayPal's help says it can be an SSN, an EIN or an ITIN, so check which one your account has.

How do we fix the account so next year's form is right?

Change the account's business details to the organization and its EIN, using the exact legal name the IRS has for that EIN.

1. Find your EIN and legal name. IRS Publication 1828 says every church "should have an employer identification number whether or not the organization has any employees," and that a church needs one to open a bank account. Stripe suggests looking up the name and EIN the IRS holds with the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search. Churches are not required to apply for recognition of exemption, so a church may not be listed there. In that case, use the name on your EIN records or ask your accountant.
2. In Stripe, go to Settings, then Business details, and change the type of business, legal name and tax ID. Stripe checks the name and number against the IRS and shows an error in the Dashboard if they don't match.
3. In PayPal, the help article "How will PayPal use my TIN or SSN and how do I add it?" describes adding an SSN, EIN or ITIN under Settings, at Tax ID number. If the account is a personal account, or is in a volunteer's name, ask PayPal support what it needs to put the account in the organization's name. Menus change, so follow PayPal's current help steps.
4. Check who can sign in. If the only login is one volunteer's personal email, change it to an address the organization controls so the account doesn't leave with that person.

Fixing the account does not fix a form already filed, and correcting a filed form does not change the account. Stripe's corrections page says both plainly, so you may need to do both.

What should we do with this year's form?

1. Keep it with the year's financial records, along with any letters or emails about it.
2. Check the name and tax ID. If they're wrong, contact the filer named in the top left corner. The IRS FAQ is blunt: "The IRS can't correct your Form 1099-K." On Stripe, changes made before forms are filed flow into the pending form. After filing, go to Settings, then Documents, choose Update info, and correct the name, address or TIN. Stripe e-files the correction, which "can take up to one calendar week," and warns the IRS "will likely reject" it if the name, address or TIN don't match what the IRS has on file. If the volume belongs to two legal entities, Stripe Support can split it after filing, typically near the end of March. On PayPal, the US help article puts tax forms under Activity, then Tax Documents, with a "Need to change your 1099-K?" link in the 1099-K box. Menus vary, so follow PayPal's current help steps.
3. Reconcile the total against your donation records (next section).
4. Bring in an accountant when:
   • The form is under a person's SSN and can't be corrected. The IRS explains how an individual reports an incorrect 1099-K amount and offsets it on Schedule 1 (Form 1040). The volunteer needs advice for their own return.
   • Anything other than gifts runs through the account. Publication 1828 says a church with gross income of $1,000 or more from an unrelated trade or business must file Form 990-T. Whether a given sale counts "depends on all the facts and circumstances."
   • Your total doesn't match and you can't find why, or your state has its own filing rules.

Does a church have to file anything because of it?

Usually not because of the 1099-K itself. The filer already sent the IRS its copy. Churches are not required to file the annual Form 990, 990-EZ or 990-N, according to the IRS page "Annual exempt organization return: Who must file" and Publication 1828. That exemption is for churches, not every religious organization: Publication 1828 treats the two separately.

A church can still have other federal filings. Publication 1828 names Form 990-T for unrelated business income of $1,000 or more, and lists Forms W-2 and 1099 among the returns a church may file if it pays staff or contractors.

Other tax-exempt organizations file by size, per the IRS's Form 990 series table: Form 990-N if gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less, Form 990-EZ if gross receipts are under $200,000 and total assets under $500,000, and Form 990 above that. Those returns are prepared from your own books, which is why matching the 1099-K to your records matters.

Why doesn't the 1099-K match our donation total?

Because the form is gross and your books usually aren't. Stripe says its gross volume includes "Stripe processing and conversion fees" and "refunded charges," with nothing subtracted. So the 1099-K is often higher than your gift total and higher than what reached the bank. It includes:

• Fees donors covered. A donor who gives $100 and adds $3.30 to cover the card fee is charged $103.30, and $103.30 is what Stripe counts.
• Stripe's or PayPal's own fees, which come out after the charge.
• Refunds, which stay in the total even though the money went back.
• Everything else under the same tax ID. Stripe issues one 1099-K for each tax ID, so event registrations, a second website or another Stripe account using the same number are in it too.

Matching it with Donor Merchant's export

If your donation form is Donor Merchant, go to Donations and click Export CSV. The file lists every gift in your WordPress database, with columns that include Amount, Fee (the part the donor covered), Total, Status, Method (stripe or paypal for online gifts), Transaction (the Stripe or PayPal ID) and Date. Then, in a spreadsheet:

1. Keep the rows whose Method matches the form you're checking: stripe for Stripe's 1099-K, paypal for PayPal's.
2. Keep the Status values completed and refunded. Refunded gifts stay because the 1099-K still counts them. Leave out failed, pending and awaiting-payment rows, since no money moved.
3. Keep the calendar year, using the Date column.
4. Add up Total, not Amount. Total is the gift plus any covered fee, which is what was charged. A partly refunded gift keeps its original Total in the export, which is how the 1099-K counts it too.
5. Compare with box 1a. If it's off, compare month by month with boxes 5a to 5l to find where.
6. Look up any unexplained charge in Stripe or PayPal using the Transaction column.

Small gaps usually have ordinary causes. The Date column is when the donor started the gift, in your site's time zone, so a gift made close to midnight at the end of a month can fall in a different month on the form. A bank (ACH) gift is started a few days before it clears. Gifts taken before you used Donor Merchant aren't in the export unless you imported them. For turning these figures into bookkeeping entries, see how to reconcile Stripe payouts with donation records.

Sources

• IRS Fact Sheet 2025-08, Form 1099-K FAQs (Oct. 23, 2025; read November 2026)
• IRS: Instructions for Form 1099-K (12/2026) (read November 2026)
• IRS: Understanding your Form 1099-K (read November 2026)
• IRS Publication 1828, Tax Guide for Churches and Religious Organizations (Rev. 8-2015) (read November 2026)
• IRS: Annual exempt organization return, who must file (read November 2026)
• IRS: Form 990 series, which forms do exempt organizations file (read November 2026)
• Stripe: Will I receive a 1099-K and what do I do with it? (read November 2026)
• Stripe: 1099-K forms, corrections, updates and splits (read November 2026)
• Stripe: Tax ID verification (read November 2026)
• Stripe: Business rep and owner tax ID requirements for US companies (read November 2026)
• Stripe: Tax information to submit when signing up as a US nonprofit (read November 2026)
• Stripe: 1099-K form state requirements (read November 2026)
• PayPal: Current Form 1099-K reporting thresholds, 2025 update (November 2026)
• PayPal: How will PayPal use my TIN or SSN and how do I add it? (November 2026)
• PayPal: How do I find, download or request a correction to my 1099? (November 2026)