3 ms·

Stripe the service is fantastic. I just hope they can get the financial side together soon. They sent me a 1099 on April 14 this year (you know, one day befor

Stripe the service is fantastic. I just hope they can get the financial side together soon. They sent me a 1099 on April 14 this year (you know, one day before taxes are due). Fortunately I hadn't filed yet (I was literally typing everything in TurboTax as the postman came). Not only was that usually illegal (at least for traditional 1099's; I don't know if the same rules apply to 1099-K's...haven't looked), it was highly annoying as it was also the second one they sent me (each with a different amount). Turns out they'd switched payment processors or something at one point and didn't bother to tell their customers to expect two 1099's. Still using it. Great product. But I had to file an extension and crap to get it all sorted out, which was highly annoying.

pc 14y ago
Yeah, we just messed this up. I'm very sorry. I'm literally walking to a meeting with a user, but I'll follow up and edit this comment with details and what we're doing to prevent it within the next three hours. [Update:] So, the background here is that 1099 reporting rules changed last year. A lot of companies—including some of our partners—didn't yet have their infrastructure in place to properly handle them. A lot has been written about the change in the law (search "2011 1099 confusion" for a small sample), and there's been a fair amount of ambiguity and confusion overall (Citibank issued 1099s for frequent flyer miles; whether this was necessary isn't yet clear). Due to this confusion, the IRS actually backed off plans to require the reconciliation of Form 1099K in tax returns filed for 2011. In Stripe's case, one of our banking partners responsible for the filings was unable to meet the original filing date for all 1099s. While they filed a proper extension with the IRS, this meant that receipt of your 1099 was delayed. As you point out, we should have done a much better job communicating this at each step -- and, obviously, receiving tax forms in mid-April is not an acceptable outcome regardless. We are working on controlling the process much more closely ourselves next year so that this does not happen again. But the bottom line is: sorry. We built Stripe to make this kind of hassle go away, and we're doing everything we can to make sure that this was a one-off blip.
dennisgorelik 14y ago
Do payment processors even have to send you 1099? If I'm not mistaken, Google Checkout and PayPal did not send me 1099 - I just had to report all the revenue received from them myself.
- mietek 14y ago
  This is a good question and I would really like to see it answered.
  - dangrossman 14y ago
    They have to send you a 1099-K like all other payment processors... if you made over $20,000 in gross sales in the year. I got one from PayPal in 2011. https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/marketingweb?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=marketing_us/IRS6050W https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/marketingweb?cmd=_render-c...
    - somesaba 14y ago
      I see, but I thought corporate tax was based off profit, not revenue?
      - dangrossman 14y ago
        How would PayPal know what your profit is? 1099s are informational forms. They inform you and the IRS how much someone else paid you. They are not directly used in computing your taxes. The purpose of the new 1099-K is to prevent you from receiving $x in credit card sales, then claiming you only had ($x / 2) in gross sales on your tax return.
        somesaba 14y ago
        Ah I see. Thanks!
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
gcb 14y ago
if i was missing a form I'd have filled for extension probably a week before april and noted the parties that were owning me forms on the request.

pc 14y ago

Yeah, we just messed this up. I'm very sorry. I'm literally walking to a meeting with a user, but I'll follow up and edit this comment with details and what we're doing to prevent it within the next three hours. [Update:] So, the background here is that 1099 reporting rules changed last year. A lot of companies—including some of our partners—didn't yet have their infrastructure in place to properly handle them. A lot has been written about the change in the law (search "2011 1099 confusion" for a small sample), and there's been a fair amount of ambiguity and confusion overall (Citibank issued 1099s for frequent flyer miles; whether this was necessary isn't yet clear). Due to this confusion, the IRS actually backed off plans to require the reconciliation of Form 1099K in tax returns filed for 2011. In Stripe's case, one of our banking partners responsible for the filings was unable to meet the original filing date for all 1099s. While they filed a proper extension with the IRS, this meant that receipt of your 1099 was delayed. As you point out, we should have done a much better job communicating this at each step -- and, obviously, receiving tax forms in mid-April is not an acceptable outcome regardless. We are working on controlling the process much more closely ourselves next year so that this does not happen again. But the bottom line is: sorry. We built Stripe to make this kind of hassle go away, and we're doing everything we can to make sure that this was a one-off blip.

dennisgorelik 14y ago

Do payment processors even have to send you 1099? If I'm not mistaken, Google Checkout and PayPal did not send me 1099 - I just had to report all the revenue received from them myself.

mietek 14y ago
This is a good question and I would really like to see it answered.
- dangrossman 14y ago
  They have to send you a 1099-K like all other payment processors... if you made over $20,000 in gross sales in the year. I got one from PayPal in 2011. https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/marketingweb?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=marketing_us/IRS6050W https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/marketingweb?cmd=_render-c...
  - somesaba 14y ago
    I see, but I thought corporate tax was based off profit, not revenue?
    - dangrossman 14y ago
      How would PayPal know what your profit is? 1099s are informational forms. They inform you and the IRS how much someone else paid you. They are not directly used in computing your taxes. The purpose of the new 1099-K is to prevent you from receiving $x in credit card sales, then claiming you only had ($x / 2) in gross sales on your tax return.
      - somesaba 14y ago
        Ah I see. Thanks!
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

gcb 14y ago

if i was missing a form I'd have filled for extension probably a week before april and noted the parties that were owning me forms on the request.