Money you receive through a GoFundMe campaign is generally not taxable if donors gave out of generosity without expecting anything in return. The IRS treats those contributions as personal gifts, and gift recipients do not report gifts as income on their tax returns.1Internal Revenue Service. Some Things to Know About Crowdfunding and Taxes So the answer to whether GoFundMe money is taxable turns on one question: did the people sending money get anything back for it?
When the Money Counts as a Gift
Federal tax law treats gross income as money from any source unless a specific exclusion applies, and gifts are one of those exclusions. If contributors gave because they wanted to help you through a hard stretch and received nothing tangible in return, their contributions are gifts.2Internal Revenue Service. Money Received Through Crowdfunding May Be Taxable You owe no income tax on the funds, regardless of the total raised.
This covers the situations most personal campaigns are built around: medical expenses, funeral costs, rent shortfalls, disaster recovery. The size of the campaign does not change the treatment. A gift recipient never owes income tax on the gift itself, even if a single donor contributes far more than the annual gift tax exclusion.3Internal Revenue Service. Frequently Asked Questions on Gift Taxes The gift tax exclusion is a filing rule for the donor, not a tax on you.
If you organized a campaign on behalf of someone else and passed all of the money along to them, those funds are generally not included in your own gross income either.1Internal Revenue Service. Some Things to Know About Crowdfunding and Taxes The intended beneficiary is the one who received the gifts, not the middleman running the page.
When GoFundMe Money Is Taxable
Crowdfunding proceeds become taxable when the transaction is not really a gift. The IRS is explicit that “not all contributions to crowdfunding campaigns are gifts.”1Internal Revenue Service. Some Things to Know About Crowdfunding and Taxes The clearest example: you offered contributors something of value in exchange, such as a product, a service, early access, branded merchandise, or a share of a business. That is a sale or a business transaction dressed in a donation button, and the money belongs on Schedule C as business income.2Internal Revenue Service. Money Received Through Crowdfunding May Be Taxable
Some campaigns fall in between. A mostly goodwill campaign that hands out small thank-you perks might carry a partial taxable component tied to whatever donors received. If your campaign had any element of exchange, keep detailed records of what was offered and to whom, and ask a tax professional to sort out the split before you file.
Form 1099-K and the $20,000 Threshold
GoFundMe and its payment processor may be required to send you a Form 1099-K reporting the gross amount distributed to you.4Internal Revenue Service. IRS Reminds Taxpayers of Important Tax Guidelines Involving Contributions and Distributions From Online Crowdfunding Receiving one does not mean the money is taxable.2Internal Revenue Service. Money Received Through Crowdfunding May Be Taxable It just means a form was filed.
Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the threshold reverted to the pre-2021 rule: a 1099-K is only required when payments to a person exceed $20,000 and come from more than 200 transactions.5Internal Revenue Service. IRS Issues FAQs on Form 1099-K Threshold Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Both conditions must be met. A campaign that raises $15,000 from 150 donors clears neither, and you would not receive a form.
Not receiving a 1099-K does not change what you owe. Gift money is not taxable whether a form arrives or not. Business-style crowdfunding income is taxable whether a form arrives or not.
What to Do If You Get a 1099-K for Gift Money
If your campaign crosses the threshold and a 1099-K shows up, you still need to account for it on your return, because the IRS matches these forms to filings and an unmatched form can generate an automated notice. The funds remain non-taxable gifts; the paperwork simply has to line up.
The IRS tells taxpayers to report the gross amount from the 1099-K on Schedule 1 (Form 1040) and then subtract the non-taxable portion so it does not flow through as income.6Internal Revenue Service. What to Do With Form 1099-K You can list the full amount on Schedule 1 and offset it on Line 24z with a description such as “Nontaxable crowdfunding gifts.”7Internal Revenue Service. Form 1099-K FAQs – Common Situations The net effect on taxable income is zero.
If part of the campaign was a genuine gift and part involved something given in exchange, split the amounts. Only the gift portion gets zeroed out.
The Risk to SSI, Medicaid, and Other Means-Tested Benefits
This is the piece that catches people off guard. If you receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI), disability-based Medicaid, or another means-tested benefit, GoFundMe money sitting in your personal bank account counts as a resource. SSI caps countable resources at $2,000 for an individual and $3,000 for a married couple. Crossing that line, even for a single month, can cost you benefits or reduce your payment.
The result can be brutal: a campaign started to cover medical bills can push someone off the Medicaid coverage that pays those bills, because programs count whatever cash sits in the account at the start of a new month, no matter where it came from or what you intend to spend it on.
A few approaches can keep this from happening:
- Spend the funds before the first of the following month, when eligibility is reassessed. Document every expense.
- Have someone else, such as a family member, organize the campaign, hold the money, and pay vendors directly, so the funds are never sitting in the beneficiary’s account.
- Route the funds into a properly drafted special needs trust. A third-party trust set up by someone other than the beneficiary avoids a Medicaid payback requirement at the beneficiary’s death.
- Use an ABLE (Achieving a Better Life Experience) account if the beneficiary’s disability began before age 46. Up to $100,000 in an ABLE account is excluded from SSI resource calculations. The maximum annual contribution for 2026 is $20,000, with additional room for account holders who work and are not in an employer retirement plan.
If you or the intended beneficiary receives any means-tested benefit, talk to a benefits planner or special needs attorney before the campaign launches. Fixing the structure up front is much cheaper than trying to restore lost coverage later.
Keep Your Records for at Least Three Years
The IRS advises anyone raising or receiving crowdfunding money to keep complete records of the fundraising and how the money was spent, and to hold those records for at least three years.2Internal Revenue Service. Money Received Through Crowdfunding May Be Taxable Save a copy of the campaign page, donor messages, platform payout statements, and receipts for what you did with the funds. If it was a medical campaign, keep the bills and the proof of payment. The stronger the paper trail tying donations to real personal need, the easier it is to show that contributors were giving, not buying.
A Note on Donors
One boundary worth naming: contributions to a personal GoFundMe are personal gifts to the recipient, and donors cannot deduct them as charitable contributions. The exception is a campaign that GoFundMe routes directly to a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, in which case standard charitable deduction rules apply, including the written acknowledgment required for gifts of $250 or more.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 170 – Charitable, Etc., Contributions and Gifts If someone told you their donation to your personal campaign is tax-deductible, that is not how the IRS sees it.