Three forms, three different payment routes. The form you get, if any, is decided by how the money moved, not by the kind of work you did.
The side-by-side
1099-K covers payments settled by a third party: marketplaces, platforms and payment apps, plus payment cards. Platform and app payments are reported when they exceed $20,000 across more than 200 transactions; card payments are reported with no threshold. The platform or processor issues it.
1099-NEC covers nonemployee compensation paid directly by a business to a contractor: the client issues it. Threshold $600 for payments through 2025, $2,000 for payments from 2026.
1099-MISC covers the rest: rents, royalties, prizes, medical payments and other income categories, with its own per-category thresholds ($10 royalties, $600 attorney gross proceeds, $2,000 standard categories from 2026). The payer issues it.
Same worker, different forms
A delivery driver paid through an app is in 1099-K territory. A designer paid directly by three clients gets a 1099-NEC from each client who crosses the threshold. A landlord receives a 1099-MISC for rent. One person can receive all three in a year, for different income, and each is reported on the tax return in its own place.
Tips connect here too
Tips received in your own trade or business can arrive on these forms: 1099-NEC box 1, 1099-MISC box 3 or 1099-K box 1a, and Schedule 1-A caps the tips deduction at that business’s net profit. See no tax on tips. For any single payment, the threshold checker gives the yes or no.