When do banks send out 1099 forms for research participation income?

The research platform will be the one responsible for sending you a 1099 form, not your bank. Banks only issue 1099-INT forms for interest earned on your accounts, not for deposits made to your account. If you earn $600 or more from the research platform during the tax year, they are required to issue you a 1099-NEC (Non-Employee Compensation) by January 31st following the tax year. They'll also send a copy to the IRS. If you earn less than $600 from them, they're not required to send a 1099, but you're still legally obligated to report that income on your tax return regardless.

I had a similar situation last year with research studies and was confused too. I found this awesome service called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that helped me figure out exactly what forms I needed and when to expect them. You upload your payment statements or emails, and it tells you what tax documents you should receive and from whom. In my case, it confirmed that the research platform should send the 1099, not my bank. It also helped me understand what to do when one of my platforms never sent a form even though they should have. Seriously made tax season way less stressful.

Just wanted to update - I tried taxr.ai after seeing it mentioned here, and it was actually really helpful! I uploaded my payment notifications from three different sources, and it immediately clarified that two should be sending me 1099-NECs and one would be included in a 1099-K from PayPal. It also flagged that one of my payers had the wrong address for me, which would have resulted in a lost form. Got that fixed before the forms went out. Definitely saved me some headaches since I was totally confused about who was responsible for what!

If you're still waiting on 1099 forms and it's getting close to the filing deadline, I recommend using Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) to get through to the IRS. I was missing a crucial tax document last year and couldn't get through on the IRS lines for weeks - kept getting disconnected after waiting on hold forever. Claimyr got me connected to an actual IRS agent in about 20 minutes who explained exactly what to do about my missing form situation. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c Without their help I probably would have filed incorrectly or had to file an extension. The IRS agent was surprisingly helpful once I could actually talk to a human!

Ok I have to eat my words here. After posting that skeptical comment I decided to try Claimyr anyway because I was desperate to resolve this notice before the deadline. It actually worked exactly as described! I got a call back in about 40 minutes with an IRS agent already on the line. The agent helped me understand that I could file Form 4852 as a substitute for my missing 1099. Would have never known that without getting through to someone. After weeks of failed attempts to reach anyone, this felt like a miracle. Just wanted to update in case anyone else is in a similar situation.

You might want to check with the research platform directly about their policy. Some platforms actually consider research participants as independent contractors and will send 1099-NECs, while others might classify payments as "prizes/awards" and issue 1099-MISC forms instead. The $600 threshold applies in both cases, but it's good to know which form to expect. I do psychological studies through three different universities, and each handles it differently!

Don't forget you should be reporting this income regardless of whether you receive a 1099! I learned this the hard way. The research company I worked with didn't send me a form because they claimed I was $25 under the threshold (I thought I'd crossed it). I didn't report the income and got a letter from the IRS a year later - turns out the company DID report it to the IRS even though they didn't send me a form. Had to pay the tax plus a small penalty. Not worth the headache!