StubHub is only required to send you a Form 1099-K if your gross ticket sales top $20,000 and you have more than 200 transactions in the same calendar year. Below that, no form goes to you or the IRS. The catch is that the tax rule and the paperwork rule are two different things: any profit you made reselling tickets is taxable income whether a 1099-K shows up in your inbox or not.
When StubHub Sends a 1099-K
The reporting threshold has bounced around for several years. The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 tried to drop it to $600 with no transaction minimum, and the IRS floated a $5,000 transitional threshold for 2024.1Internal Revenue Service. IRS Announces 2023 Form 1099-K Reporting Threshold Delay for Third Party Platform Payments The One Big Beautiful Bill Act put the original numbers back in place retroactively. Platforms now file a 1099-K only when your gross payments exceed $20,000 and your transactions exceed 200 in a calendar year.2Internal Revenue Service. IRS Issues FAQs on Form 1099-K Threshold Under the One Big Beautiful Bill
Sell $3,000 across ten shows and StubHub owes you no tax form. That doesn’t relieve you of reporting the profit. If tickets sold for more than you paid, the gain belongs on your return.3Internal Revenue Service. Understanding Your Form 1099-K
A handful of states set their own 1099-K thresholds well below the federal one, sometimes as low as $600. If you live in one of those states, you may receive a state-level 1099-K even when your activity is nowhere near the federal cutoff.
What the Number on the Form Actually Represents
When a 1099-K does arrive, Box 1a shows gross sales for the year, meaning the full amount buyers paid before StubHub deducted its fees or commissions.4Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1099-K (03/2024) That figure is not what you took home and it is not your profit.
Consider a year where you sold $8,000 in tickets, paid $7,200 to acquire them, and lost another $800 to platform fees. Economically you broke even. The 1099-K still reports $8,000. Showing the IRS the real net is your job. StubHub delivers the form by January 31 of the following year, usually through your seller account.3Internal Revenue Service. Understanding Your Form 1099-K
The form also doesn’t sort taxable sales from nontaxable ones. A friend reimbursing you through StubHub for a ticket you bought for them can end up in the gross total even though a personal reimbursement isn’t taxable.3Internal Revenue Service. Understanding Your Form 1099-K If your 1099-K includes amounts that shouldn’t be there, account for that when you file.
Calculating Your Actual Taxable Profit
You owe tax on your net gain, not on gross proceeds. Start with your cost basis: what you originally paid to acquire the ticket, including any fees or taxes charged at purchase. A ticket bought for $300 with a $30 service fee has a cost basis of $330, regardless of what the face value says.
From the sale price, subtract StubHub’s fees and that cost basis. Sell a ticket with a $330 basis for $500 with $50 in fees and your taxable profit is $120. That number is what the IRS actually cares about.
Personal losses are where sellers get squeezed. If you paid $500 for a concert ticket and could only unload it for $350, you’re out $150, but personal-use property losses aren’t deductible against other income.5Internal Revenue Service. Publication 547 (2025), Casualties, Disasters, and Thefts You report the sale with zero gain and move on. Gains are taxable; losses on personal items give you nothing back.
Records Decide the Tax Bill
Without proof of what you paid, the IRS can treat the entire gross sale as profit. Save purchase confirmations, credit card statements, and screenshots. Keep them at least three years after filing the return that reports the sale.6Internal Revenue Service. How Long Should I Keep Records
How to Report StubHub Sales on Your Return
The right forms depend on whether you sold tickets you originally bought for yourself or you’re running a resale operation. That distinction also decides whether self-employment tax comes into play.
Selling Personal Tickets
Tickets you bought to attend and later sold when plans changed are personal capital assets. Report each sale on Form 8949 with the sale price, cost basis, and resulting gain or loss. Totals carry to Schedule D of Form 1040.7Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8949 (2025) When a 1099-K arrives, Form 8949 is also where you reconcile the gross figure on the form with the actual gain, so the IRS can see why the two numbers differ.
Sold a ticket at or below your cost? Report it anyway, with zero gain. Skipping it is what triggers automated notices when a 1099-K is on file.
Reselling as a Business
Buying tickets with the intent to flip them for profit is a trade or business in the IRS’s eyes. Consistent activity, real time and money invested in sourcing, and a profit motive rather than personal use are the markers. Income and expenses (cost basis, StubHub fees, any overhead) go on Schedule C.
Schedule C brings self-employment tax with it. Once net earnings from reselling top $400 in a year, you owe Social Security and Medicare taxes at a combined 15.3% on that net, on top of regular income tax.8Internal Revenue Service. Self-Employment Tax (Social Security and Medicare Taxes) The tradeoff: unlike personal ticket losses, losses from a legitimate resale business can offset other income.
Backup Withholding on Your Payouts
StubHub has to collect your taxpayer identification number, which for most sellers is a Social Security number. If you don’t provide one, or the number you give doesn’t match IRS records, the platform must withhold 24% of your gross payments and remit it to the IRS.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 3406 – Backup Withholding You’d recover that as a credit on your return, but you’re out the cash until then. Confirm your W-9 details are correct before you sell anything.
What Happens if You Don’t Report
The IRS’s automated matching system compares 1099-Ks against tax returns. When the numbers don’t line up, it generates a CP2000 notice proposing additional tax based on the assumption that the entire unreported amount was profit.10Internal Revenue Service. Understanding Your CP2000 Series Notice
Respond by the deadline on the notice. If you reported the income on a different line, or your cost basis wipes out the proposed profit, send documentation showing that. Ignoring the notice lets the IRS assess the tax automatically and bill you.
Intentional underreporting can also trigger an accuracy-related penalty of 20% of the underpaid amount, plus interest running from the original due date.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 6662 – Imposition of Accuracy-Related Penalty on Underpayments Reporting a few hundred dollars of ticket profit correctly is always cheaper than answering for it later.