In many jurisdictions, the money you receive from your members is considered taxable income. Navigating tax season isn’t always straightforward, but we’re here to help you understand how your Patreon earnings fit into taxes.
If you are a legally recognised not-for-profit company (for example, a USA 501(C)(3) charity), then you might be subject to specific tax rules. A local tax advisor would know for sure, so we encourage you to reach out to one for additional information. Learn more about being a non-profit creator.
The IRS tax withholding estimator may be helpful to you as you plan for the US tax season.
Preparing for US tax season checklist
1. Submit a W-9 Form
Before the end of each year, we recommend ensuring that you’ve submitted accurate information on a W-9 via your Payouts and taxes settings page. If you’ve moved or the W-9 you filed with us is otherwise outdated, you’ll need to submit a new W-9 form to update our records. If you aren’t sure if the W-9 on file is up to date, you can submit a new one to be safe!
If you submitted your W-9 before 2016, please submit the form again to confirm your information.
Learn more about and get tips for filing your W-9 form in this guide: Submitting a W-9.
2. Sign up to receive 1099-K statements electronically instead of paper copies
You can enable paperless statements from the tax section of your Payout settings page. We generate a 1099 Form for all US creators who reach certain thresholds in a calendar year between January and February.
Learn more about the 1099-K form in this guide: Will I receive a 1099-K form?
3. Find your gross earnings
Your gross earnings for a given year will be available on the Documents page of your Payouts section.
If you or your tax advisor needs more detailed information about your monthly earnings, you can download a CSV file of your earnings and payouts from the same Documents tab.
Per IRS guidance FAQ FS-2023-06 issued March 2023, in order to calculate your gross earnings, we take the total amount of processed payments from your members on a gross basis before refunds and without regard to any adjustments for credits, cash equivalents, discount amounts, fees, refunded amounts or any other amounts.
Potential Tax Benefit on Tip Income
Beginning in tax year 2025, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) introduced a new federal income tax benefit for workers who earn tips. Relevantly:
- For tax years 2025 to 2028, workers who receive qualified tip income may deduct up to $25,000 per year of those tips from their federal taxable income
- Qualified tips generally include voluntary cash or credit card tips earned in occupations the IRS considers customarily and regularly tipped
- The deduction phases out at higher income levels, generally beginning around $150,000 for single filers and $300,000 for joint filers
- Tips must still be reported to the IRS and remain subject to self-employment taxes – the deduction applies only for federal income tax purposes
Ultimately, which portion of income earned on Patreon qualifies as “tips” is your decision. However, it is worth considering that earnings from pledges in excess of your tier price may qualify. As an example, if a tier is listed at $5, but a member pledged $8 and sales tax was $1, the extra $2 may qualify as a deductible tip under IRS guidelines.
On a per-transaction basis, we calculated this number by calculating the portion of each payment that exceeded the tier price at the time of the charge. Note that any payment in a currency other than USD was converted to USD based on a 12/31 rate.
You can download a CSV from the Documents tab to see this broken down at the transaction level.
Our goal in sharing the above is to help you prepare to file your taxes. As always, we recommend consulting a tax professional for specific guidance.