Beware: new IRS rules will lead a wave of phishing frauds | Gene Marks

Services like PayPal and Square now need your tax information. Scammers are going to be on the prowl to get it too

Thanks to new legislation that went into place at the beginning of this year, I predict that a lot of unsuspecting small business owners are about to fall victim to a fresh scam.

The scam will relate to legislation around new tax reporting rules that will affect millions of freelancers and small businesses. As I explained in an earlier column, beginning for the 2022 tax year, if you receive more than $600 in total payments during the course of the year from a payment service like PayPal, Venmo (which is owned by PayPal), Square, Stripe or online sales of your products made through Amazon, Etsy and other marketplaces - regardless of how many customers are paying - that payment service is required to report that amount to the IRS and to you by sending a Form 1099-K - used for reporting payments via these third parties - in early 2023.