Do I Have to Pay Taxes on eBay Sales? The 2026 1099-K, Explained

Sooner or later every eBay seller types this question into Google. Usually it's in January, right after eBay sends a Form 1099-K with a number on it that looks a lot bigger than what you actually made.

This post covers what the IRS says about income from eBay sales, who gets a 1099-K for 2026, what the number on the form really includes, and what my own form looked like. Every rule here links to the IRS or eBay page it comes from.

The Short Answer: What the IRS Says

The IRS answers part of this question directly on its Understanding your Form 1099-K page: “Whether or not you receive a Form 1099-K, you must still report any income on your tax return.” Getting the form, or not getting it, doesn't change that.

What counts as income depends on what you sold. The IRS separates two kinds of selling in its Form 1099-K FAQs:

• Personal items you sold for less than you paid (the old couch, last year's coat). The IRS says “the loss on the sale of a personal item is not deductible,” and it explains how to report the form so it doesn't count as income.
• Personal items you sold for more than you paid. The IRS says “the gain on the sale of a personal item is taxable.”
• Selling as a business — buying items to resell, like most resellers do. The IRS points business sellers to Schedule C, where sales are reported along with business costs.

One more rule that surprises new resellers: the IRS says you owe self-employment tax when your net earnings from self-employment are $400 or more. The rate is 15.3% (12.4% Social Security, 2.9% Medicare). That's a separate tax from income tax, and the $400 has nothing to do with the 1099-K threshold.

Who Gets an eBay 1099-K for 2026

For years sellers heard about a “$600 rule.” It never took effect. The One, Big, Beautiful Bill, signed in July 2025, put the old threshold back, and the IRS confirmed it in Fact Sheet 2025-08: a platform like eBay doesn't have to file a 1099-K unless your gross payments are over $20,000 and you have more than 200 transactions. Both have to be true. That applies to 2026 sales, the ones you report in 2027.

A few details from eBay's 1099-K help page:

• eBay sends it by January 31 for the year before. You can download it from the Taxes page in Seller Hub or My eBay.
• Accounts are added together. If you have more than one eBay account under the same tax ID, eBay combines them for the threshold.
• Backup withholding changes things. If backup withholding was applied to your sales, eBay sends a form no matter how much you sold.
• Your name should match your tax ID. eBay asks that the name on your account match the name on the tax ID it reports.

The IRS also notes you “may receive a Form 1099-K even when total payments or transactions are less than the reporting threshold.” Some states set their own reporting rules, so you can get a state copy at a lower amount. If you're near either number, check your state's tax agency.

What the Number on the Form Includes

The big number is box 1a, gross payments. eBay's help page says sales tax and canceled orders are left out, and that box 1a doesn't include adjustments like “credits, discounts, fees, refunds.” In plain words: fees and refunds are not subtracted. Box 1a is the money buyers paid you, before eBay takes anything out.

Here's what that looked like on my own 2025 form.

That's not what I made. It's item prices plus the shipping buyers paid, with nothing subtracted:

So the form showed $70,120.38, but $26,610.84 of that went back out as labels, eBay fees, refunds and ad fees before counting a single thing I paid for inventory. Two things on there catch sellers off guard:

• Shipping is in box 1a. On my form, the $70,120.38 was exactly item prices plus the shipping buyers paid. The label you bought with that shipping money isn't subtracted.
• Refunds stay in. $3,146.65 of my box 1a was money I had already given back to buyers. If you had a lot of returns, your form will look higher than your sales felt.

None of this means the form is wrong. It reports gross payments, which is what the law asks for. It just isn't a profit number, and your real profit takes the rest of your costs to figure out — something I wrote about in why your eBay profit is probably wrong.

What About Sales Tax?

This is the other tax question new sellers ask, and it's a different tax. Sales tax is what the buyer pays on top of the price, not a tax on what you earn.

On eBay.com orders, eBay handles it for you. eBay's sales tax page says it will “calculate, collect, and remit sales tax on behalf of sellers” in 46 states plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. The four states not on the list — Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon — have no statewide sales tax. The buyer sees the tax at checkout, and eBay sends it to the state.

• It's not in your 1099-K. eBay's 1099-K page says sales tax is left out of box 1a.
• You can see what eBay collected. eBay's tax information page says the Orders report itemizes how much tax eBay collected and remitted on your orders.
• Sales off eBay are different. The same page says sellers are “generally required to collect sales tax in any state where they have a physical presence” and points sellers to a tax advisor for each state's rules. That's about sales eBay doesn't handle, like in-person or your own website.

2026 Dates and Numbers to Know

• 1099-K threshold: over $20,000 in gross payments and over 200 transactions (IRS Fact Sheet 2025-08).
• Self-employment tax: applies at $400 or more in net earnings from self-employment; the rate is 15.3% (IRS).
• Business mileage rate: 2026 has two. The IRS standard mileage rates page lists 72.5 cents a mile for January 1 to June 30, 2026, and 76 cents a mile for July 1 to December 31, 2026.

How to Check Your 1099-K Against Your Sales

A 1099-K is eBay's count of your sales. It's worth checking it against your own, before you file.

• Box 1a should match your eBay sales for the year: item prices plus shipping buyers paid, with canceled orders and sales tax left out, and refunds not subtracted.
• Box 3 is the number of transactions. On my 2025 form, each order counted once, even orders with more than one item.
• Boxes 5a–5l split box 1a by month. If the year is off, the month that's off tells you where to look.

If something is wrong, eBay asks you to raise it by March 30 so it can correct the form by April 15. The IRS is clear that it can't fix the form for you: “Don't contact the IRS. We can't correct your Form 1099-K.” You go back to the company that sent it.

Want to see the same breakdown for your own year? My free eBay Transaction Report Analyzer reads the Transaction report you download from Seller Hub and shows your eBay fees, ad fees, labels and refunds by month. It runs in your browser, and nothing is uploaded.

How Autotabit Checks Your 1099-K

Autotabit's Tax Center has an eBay Form 1099-K check. It works out box 1a and box 3 from your synced eBay orders the same way eBay does: item price plus shipping buyers paid, canceled orders and sales tax left out, refunds not subtracted, one transaction per order. It shows how much refunded money is included, and splits the year by month to compare with boxes 5a–5l.

When your form arrives, you type in box 1a and box 3 from it and tap Compare. On my account, the estimate for 2025 matched my actual form to the cent: $70,120.38 and 1,273 transactions. For 2026 so far (as of November 1), it shows $39,173.74 from 711 transactions, and that number keeps growing until December 31.

Frequently Asked Questions

Questions about your eBay 1099-K? Contact me using the link in the footer — I read every message.