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IRS Reporting Regulations on Third-Party Payment Transactions For Personal or Business Account Holders

The US Patriot Act and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulations require Amazon Payments to collect identifying information from you when you open certain account types. We may ask for your tax Identification number (SSN, EIN), legal name, physical address, and date of birth. We will use this information to identify you and to comply with tax reporting obligations applicable U.S. taxpayers. If you have more than one account with Amazon, you must complete the information for all of your accounts.

Note: Information in this document does not constitute tax, legal, or other professional advice. If you have questions or require guidance on these matters, please contact your tax, legal, or other professional adviser.

Important notice:

This document applies to Amazon Payments Personal or Business Account holders who use Amazon Payments to buy or sell goods and services other than on Amazon.com.

If you have an Amazon Payments Seller Account, sign on to Seller Central and see IRS Reporting Regulations on Third-Party Payment Transactions for Seller Account Holders.

Not sure what kind of account you have?

You have this type of account…

… if you have this type of service:

Seller account

Login and Pay with Amazon

Check out by Amazon

Personal or business account

Flexible Payments Service

Amazon Simple Pay

Mechanical Turk

Amazon Web Service Dev Pay

Amazon Gift Cards On Demand

How does Amazon use the identifying information?

Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulations require that U.S. payment processors, including Amazon Payments, file a Form 1099-K to report unadjusted annual gross sales or payment volume information for customers that meet both of the following thresholds in a calendar year:

  • More than $20,000 in gross payment volume
  • More than 200 transactions

In order to ensure that there is no interruption to your service when you reach the above threshold, Amazon Payments requires all account holders to provide taxpayer identification information before they start transacting.

Account holders cannot process payments using our Service until they have provided valid tax information.

How do I provide my Taxpayer Identification Information to Amazon Payments?

You can enter your information by signing into https://pay.amazon.com and following the instructions to complete the tax profile.

  • Personal Account holders can provide their information by clicking here.
  • Business Account holders

You can provide your tax information by completing a tax interview.

Please avoid misspellings or entering incorrect Tax Identification Numbers, both of which can affect our verification process. Please move forward or backward through the process at your own pace. Doing so does not affect the verification process.

Note: To help protect the security of your taxpayer identification information, we will not ask you to disclose it by e-mail or over the phone.

Help is available throughout the process, including links to IRS publications that support the IRS form W-9. Also, see answers to frequently asked questions below, and learn more at the IRS website.

Frequently Asked Questions

Regulations

Tax Identity Collection & Validation

Reporting and Document Retrieval

1099-K Form Reconciliation

Regulations

I would like more information on the regulations that require Amazon Payments to file a Form 1099-K for some of its customers. Where in the Internal Revenue Code can I read about these regulations?

The regulations are under section 6050W of the Internal Revenue Code. Please see the IRS website for more information.

What happens if I don't provide the required information?

You will not be able to process payments or receive funds using your Amazon Payments Account. We may also remind you to provide this information when you sign into accounts and via e-mail.

Do these regulations apply to non-profit organizations?

Yes.

I am a foreign customer. Will I have to provide any additional information?

Generally, in order to have an Amazon Payments Personal or Business Account, you must be a permanent U.S. resident, citizen, or U.S.-registered company with a significant U.S. presence.

If you do not meet these requirements, you are not eligible to use Amazon Payments to receive payments. Please see the Amazon Payments, Inc. Customer Agreement for more information about our eligibility requirements.

You may, however, open a Personal Account with limited functionality to make purchases with a credit card even if you are not a permanent U.S. resident or a U.S. citizen.

Tax Identity Collection & Validation

What information am I required to provide to Amazon Payments?

To ensure that we report accurate information to the IRS, we need you to provide the following:

  • Contact information (physical address, e-mail address, phone number)
  • Legal name
  • Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN).

A TIN is required by the IRS for the administration of tax laws. In most cases, your TIN is either an Employer Identification Number (EIN) or a Social Security Number (SSN). For customers using Amazon Payments Personal Accounts, your taxpayer identification number is your SSN.

Learn how to obtain an EIN at the IRS website.

Will Customer Support ask me for this information, or can I contact Customer Support to provide the information over the phone or in an e-mail?

Amazon customer service will not ask you to disclose your taxpayer information via e-mail or phone. To help protect the security of your information, please do not disclose this information by e-mail or phone.

I am not going to come close to hitting the reporting threshold. Why does Amazon Payments require my taxpayer identification number?

While you may not hit the reporting threshold in the near term, we want to make sure that there is no interruption to your service as your business grows. Therefore we require account holders to provide this information upfront. Providing the taxpayer identifier number is simple and takes just few seconds.

Reporting and Document Retrieval

Will I receive a Form 1099-K?

We will track your unadjusted gross payment volume and number of transactions, and if your gross payment volume for a calendar year exceeds $20,000 and you have more than 200 transactions in that same year across all your Amazon Payments, Amazon Webstore, and Selling on Amazon Accounts, a Form 1099-K will be provided to you. If you did not meet both of these thresholds, you will not receive a Form 1099-K. We will track your unadjusted gross sales and number of transactions. You will also be able to tell if you have exceeded the thresholds by monitoring your unadjusted gross sales and number of transactions in your seller account.

If you have a Personal or a Business Account you will only receive a paper copy of Form 1099-K. However, if you have a Personal or a Business Account and another account, such as an Amazon Payments Seller Account (Checkout by Amazon and Pay with Amazon), or a Selling on Amazon Account, you will receive one 1099-K for your combined accounts. That form will be made available through the tax document library through Seller Central for those feature sets that use Seller Central (Checkout by Amazon, or a Selling on Amazon Account, and so on) and that same form will be mailed to you.

When can I expect it?

Amazon will make available to you a copy of your form on or before January 31 of the following year. If you did not consent to electronic delivery, the form will be postmarked on or before January 31 of the following year and will be mailed to the address provided by you in the tax interview. If you consented to electronic delivery, Amazon will send an e-mail to you on or before January 31, of the following year, which will include instructions on how to retrieve your Form 1099-K.

For more information on the Form 1099 filing instructions, please visit the IRS website: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1099gi.pdf.

Is the $20,000 calculated based on net payment volume or gross payment volume?

As required by the IRS regulations, the $20,000 is calculated based on unadjusted gross payment volume. Unadjusted gross payment volume means the total payments received, unadjusted for fees or refunds. The amount that you receive in your Amazon Payments Account is the gross payment amount for the transaction, even if a rebate applies or the transaction is later refunded.

Doesn't the gross payment volume amount change if I refund a payment?

No. When you receive a payment, the transaction total becomes a permanent part of your unadjusted gross payment volume for the year. Even if you later refund the entire amount of a transaction, the order total is still included in your unadjusted gross payment volume calculation. IRS regulations require that no adjustments to gross transaction amounts be made. Please seek advice from a tax professional to understand the appropriate adjustments when preparing your tax return.

Here is an example that includes an Amazon Payments fee, and an eventual full refund to the buyer:

The buyer makes a purchase and incurs the following charges:

$115.00

Order total (gross transaction amount processed by Amazon Payments)

$   3.35

Amazon Payments fee (subtracted after the gross sales amount is calculated)

The buyer is later refunded in full.

$115.00

Buyer credit of the order total

$   3.35

Credit of the Amazon Payments fee

$   0

Net

The gross transaction amount for the purposes of calculating annual gross payment volume is $115, even after the refund.

Will you file Form 1099-K for my account if I only exceed one of the two thresholds?

No. Unless you exceed both thresholds ($20,000 in gross payment volume and 200 transactions) across all your Amazon Payments, Amazon Webstore, and Selling on Amazon Accounts, we will not file a Form 1099-K for you.

If I have multiple accounts with Amazon that exceed the threshold when the account totals are combined, will you file a Form 1099-K for all my accounts?

Yes. Unadjusted gross payment volumes and transaction volumes will be consolidated for all accounts that have the same Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) across Amazon Payments, Amazon Webstore, and Selling on Amazon Accounts. Please assist us by providing your taxpayer identification information in each of your accounts, regardless of thresholds. This will help ensure that we report all accounts with the same TIN on Form 1099-K as required by IRS regulations.

What if I have a Personal or Business Account and another Amazon Account, such as a Selling on Amazon Account?

This FAQ describes the requirements for Amazon Payments Personal or Business Accounts. Different Amazon services and products such as a Selling on Amazon or Amazon Webstore have different requirements. Please review the help content for those services or products to determine if you need to provide tax information.

Can Amazon Payments help me with my tax return?

Unfortunately, we do not provide tax guidance. Please contact a tax professional for further assistance.

I did not receive my Form 1099-K in the mail. What address was it mailed to?

The Form 1099-K was mailed to the address that you provided when you provided your Tax ID Number (EIN or Social Security Number) at https://pay.amazon.com. If you have not received a form, please visit https://pay.amazon.com, click the Help tab and then click Contact Us to ask for an additional copy to be issued. Please provide the address where the form should be sent to.

Are there instructions on how to use the 1099-K for my tax return?

To find out how this legislation and Form 1099-K affects you or your business, or if you have other questions, please contact your tax, legal, or other professional advisor.

For Individual filers, see these IRS instructions: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040sc.pdf

For legal entity filers, see Form 1120: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1120.pdf.

Can you provide me instructions on how to read the Form 1099-K and how to know what the different boxes mean?

Please refer to these IRS instructions that can be found at: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1099k.pdf

I believe there is an error on the Form 1099-K I was issued. How do I get an updated Form 1099-K?

Please use the contact information provided on the form you received to discuss any errors or issues with the information on the tax form.

You may also contact Amazon customer service for questions about your account by clicking the "Help" tab from https://pay.amazon.com.

How do I save a copy of the Form 1099-K to my computer?

If you have access to Seller Central, from the Reports section in your seller account, select Tax Document Library, then the appropriate year, and then Form 1099-K. Click the Download PDF link and enter the password. To save the form to your computer, while it is open in Adobe Reader, click File, then Save As, and then PDF. Select a location on your computer and click Save.

For your security your tax form is password protected. The password provided on the Tax Document Library page is required for opening the tax form. If you save the form to your computer, be sure to save the password also because it is required each time you open the file.

If you didn't save the password, log in to your seller account, and from the Reports section, select Tax Document Library. A new password will be provided. Click the Download PDF link and enter the new password.

I saved the PDF to my computer, but I no longer remember the password. How can I get another copy of my Form 1099-K?

For your security your tax form is password protected. The password provided on the Tax Document Library page is required for opening the tax form.

If you didn't save the password, log in to your seller account, and from the Reports section, select Tax Document Library. A new password will be provided. Click the Download PDF link and enter the new password.

Be sure to save the password because it is required each time you open the file.

1099-K Form Reconciliation

How can I find my unadjusted gross payment volume for a particular year?

In order to determine your unadjusted gross payment volume you will need to combine the activity in all of your Amazon accounts.

You can find your unadjusted gross payment volume by doing the following:

  1. Sign in to https://pay.amazon.com.
  2. Click Overview.
  3. In the Account Activity section, adjust the Activity type to Payments Received – All.
  4. Change the date range to reflect the year you are inquiring about.
  5. Click View.
  6. You can download a copy of the report by clicking the Download button or view the results on the page (there may be multiple pages listed).