Your 1099-K doesn't match your payouts. Here's the bridge.

It arrives every January: a host opens their 1099-K, sees a number thousands higher than anything that ever reached their bank account, and concludes the platform made a mistake.

The platform almost never made a mistake. The form and the bank statement are measuring two different things — and once you see the bridge between them, the panic goes away and the number becomes checkable.

The two numbers measure different things

The 1099-K reports gross guest payments: everything guests paid through the platform for your bookings, before the platform took anything out. Your bank deposits are net payouts: what remained after the platform's cut and life's little accidents.

Four things live in the gap:

1. Platform fees. The host/service fee — typically 15–25% on the big platforms — comes out before you ever see the money. It's also a deductible expense, which is why you want it named, not netted away.
2. Refunds. A guest cancels, a trip shortens, you make a goodwill adjustment. The 1099-K counts the original payment; the refund left through the payout side.
3. Extras that flow differently. Cleaning fees, delivery charges, damage claims, and add-ons may be included in the platform's gross figure, settled separately, or both — which is why they need their own line in the reconciliation rather than a shrug.
4. Timing. Platforms report by payment timing and pay out on their own schedule. A trip that ends December 30th can easily be a January deposit. RVshare's own earnings report, notably, is built on payout dates rather than reservation dates — pull a report by trip date and compare it to the 1099-K and you will manufacture a difference out of pure calendar.

A worked example

Say your 1099-K reports $25,150, and your year's deposits from that platform total $19,840. The bridge:

• Gross per 1099-K: $25,150
• Less platform fees: −$4,722
• Less guest refunds: −$428
• Less December trips paid out in January: −$160
• Net payouts — matches the bank: $19,840

Every dollar explained, in four named lines. That's what "reconciled" means: not that the two numbers are equal, but that the difference is fully accounted for.

Why the bridge is the document that matters

An unexplained gap between what the IRS was told and what your return reports is the single most common trigger for those friendly computer-generated letters asking you to explain yourself. A one-page bridge, prepared at filing time and kept with your records, answers the letter before it's written: gross as reported, each reconciling item, net as deposited, and the same gross carried onto your return with fees and refunds claimed where they belong — as deductions and adjustments, not as quietly reduced income.

Do the bridge per platform, not in total. Outdoorsy and RVshare numbers blended together can't be checked against either form, and the IRS received them separately.

CloseFleet builds this bridge automatically: import both platforms' exports, record the 1099s you received, and the packet carries a reconciliation for each source — gross, fees, refunds, timing, net — with any variance that can't be explained flagged in red instead of smoothed over. For one rig with straightforward books, the packet is free.

The federal sources

• What a Form 1099-K reports — gross guest payments, before fees and refunds: IRS, Understanding your Form 1099-K

CloseFleet organizes records for review by your CPA; it is not a tax preparer and provides no tax advice. The worked example uses invented round numbers to show the format; your platforms' fee and timing treatment is confirmed by your CPA against your actual forms.

Upload the year — platform exports, statements, the rig's facts — and get the CPA Packet: income reconciled, expenses categorized, mileage logged, depreciation sheet built, questions flagged for your CPA. Free for one rig with straightforward books.