Your 1099 is wrong — what to actually do
The IRS receives a copy of the form. That single fact determines the whole sequence.
Reporting a number lower than the form says, with nothing explaining the difference, is what produces a matching notice a year later. So the order is: check, request a correction, keep everything, then file accurately.
Check against your own records, not your memory. Your weekly totals kept during the year, plus the platform's own earnings breakdown.
Request a correction in writing, to the platform that issued the form, with your figures attached. Keep the request and any reply. That correspondence is the artefact that matters if the correction never comes.
A 1099-K being higher than what you received is often not an error. A 1099-K reports gross transaction amounts, which can include fees and commissions deducted before the money reached you. The fix is to report the gross figure and deduct the fees as business expenses, not to report a smaller gross.
No form does not mean no income. Thresholds decide whether a form is issued, never whether income is taxable.
Check it properly
Three sources should agree:
- Your own totals, recorded weekly or monthly during the year.
- The platform's earnings breakdown in its app or dashboard.
- The 1099.
Where they disagree, work out which is right before doing anything else. Common causes:
- Gross versus net. The most frequent one. A form reporting gross while you were paid net of fees is not necessarily wrong.
- Timing at the year boundary. A payment earned in late December and paid in January can land differently on the form than in your records.
- Tips. Whether and how in-app tips appear varies. Tips and taxes.
- Referral and bonus payments categorised differently from delivery earnings.
- Wrong taxpayer, or a duplicate. Rare and real, and worth ruling out immediately.
Requesting a correction
In writing, through whatever support channel the platform provides, and keep the thread.
Include: your name and the account identifier, the tax year, the figure on the form, your figure, the basis for your figure, and a clear request for a corrected form.
Tax year 2026. The Form 1099-NEC issued to me reports $X.
My records show $Y, based on the weekly earnings summaries in
your own dashboard for the year, attached. Please issue a
corrected form.Ask early. Corrected forms take time and the filing deadline does not move because you are waiting.
If the correction never arrives
Report your actual income. Not the wrong figure, and not a number chosen for convenience.
Keep the documentation: your records, the platform's own summaries, and the correction request with any reply. That package is the answer to a notice, and assembling it after a notice arrives is much harder than keeping it now.
Do not report income you did not receive to make a form match. Reporting more than you earned means paying tax you do not owe and does not fix the underlying error.
And do not file late over it. File accurately and on time with the evidence retained. If you are unsure how to present a discrepancy, that is a good use of a tax professional for one year.
The 1099-K case, worked
Suppose a 1099-K reports $18,400 and you received $16,100, the difference being platform fees deducted before payout.
- Report $18,400 as gross receipts.
- Deduct $2,300 of platform fees as a business expense.
- Net effect: $16,100, and the reported gross matches the form.
Same tax, no discrepancy. Reporting $16,100 as gross gets you to the same tax and creates a mismatch against a form the IRS already has, which is the version that generates a letter.
Schedule C for gig drivers. · A W-2 job and gig driving in the same year.
The habit that prevents this entirely
Record your own gross earnings per platform, weekly, during the year. It takes a minute and it means that in January you are checking the forms rather than believing them.
That is the same habit as the mileage log, for the same reason: the party with contemporaneous records is the one whose numbers hold, and reconstruction in April is always worse than a note made at the time.
The end-of-year checklist. · What happens if the IRS questions your mileage.
This page describes the general process, not your situation. A form that is wrong in an unusual way is worth a professional's half hour.
More in this section
About MileTruth
MileTruth is an iOS app from Baker Ventures LLC that tracks deductible business mileage for gig and delivery drivers and shows true net pay: what is left after mileage, fuel and self-employment tax, not what the platform showed you at acceptance. It is built for people driving several platforms in the same shift, and for anyone who needs a mileage log that would hold up if the IRS asked for it. The app is in development.
Everything on this site is free and needs no account: the mileage deduction calculator, the per-platform pay breakdowns, and the answers, each one linked to the IRS publication or platform document it came from. MileTruth publishes the source for every number, including the 2026 split-year standard mileage rate, because a deduction you cannot substantiate is not a deduction.
Questions and answers
What should I do if my 1099 shows the wrong amount?
Request a corrected form from the platform that issued it, in writing, with your own figures attached. The IRS receives a copy of the original, so simply reporting a different number without addressing the discrepancy is what produces a matching notice.
What if the platform will not issue a corrected 1099?
You report your actual income, keep the evidence of what you earned and of your correction request, and be ready to explain the discrepancy. Reporting income you did not receive to make a form match is not the answer, and neither is silently reporting less with no record of why.
Why is my 1099-K higher than what I was paid?
A 1099-K reports gross transaction amounts, which can include amounts later deducted as fees or commissions before they reached you. That is a reason to report gross and then deduct the fees as business expenses, rather than to report a smaller gross figure.
What if I never received a 1099 at all?
You still report the income. Thresholds determine whether a form is issued, not whether income is taxable, and your own records are the reference either way.
How do I check whether a 1099 is right?
Against your own weekly or monthly totals kept during the year, plus the platform's own earnings breakdown. Checking a form against memory is not checking it.
How long do I have to fix it?
Ask for the correction as soon as you spot it, because corrected forms take time to issue and the filing deadline does not move for you. If a correction has not arrived, file accurately on time with your documentation kept rather than filing late.
MileTruth. “Your 1099 is wrong — what to actually do.” Baker Ventures LLC, September 7, 2026. https://miletruth.bakerventuresstudio.com/answers/what-to-do-if-your-1099-is-wrong/