Who needs a 1099 or W-9

Which payees give you a W-9, who gets a 1099-NEC and by when, and where Every collects W-9s and files 1099s

A business files a Form 1099-NEC for each person who isn’t its employee and whom it paid for services, once their payments for the year reach the IRS’s reporting threshold. The form goes to the IRS and to the payee by January 31, with the name and TIN from the payee’s Form W-9.

This page explains general rules, not legal or tax advice for your company. Rules change, and they depend on where your company is registered and where your people work. Before you act, check with your own lawyer, accountant or tax advisor.

Who gives a W-9

A business that has to file an information return, such as a 1099, uses Form W-9 to get the payee’s correct name and TIN. The payee fills it in and gives it to the business.

A W-9 comes from a U.S. person. For federal tax purposes, that includes:

• a U.S. citizen or U.S. resident alien
• a partnership, corporation, company or association created or organized in the United States
• an estate, other than a foreign estate
• a domestic trust

A foreign person can’t give a W-9. A foreign business documents its status for U.S. tax withholding and reporting on Form W-8BEN-E instead, and a nonresident alien individual uses Form W-8BEN, or Form 8233 where it applies. A foreign business gives its Form W-8BEN-E to the business that asks for it, before the payment is made, and doesn’t send it to the IRS.

When a payee doesn’t give its TIN, the payer has to start backup withholding: it holds back part of each reportable payment and deposits it with the IRS until that’s fixed. For nonemployee compensation it starts right away, even while the payee waits for a TIN. The IRS gives the rate in its Instructions for the Requester of Form W-9.

Who gets a 1099-NEC

Apart from the exceptions in its instructions, the IRS requires a payment to be reported on Form 1099-NEC when all four of these are true:

• It went to someone who isn’t your employee.
• It was for services in the course of your trade or business.
• It went to an individual, a partnership, an estate or, in some cases, a corporation.
• Your payments to that payee for the year reached the IRS’s reporting threshold.

The threshold is in the IRS’s Instructions for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC. It went up for tax years beginning after 2025, and it may be adjusted for inflation from 2027.

Payments to a corporation, including an LLC treated as a C or S corporation, don’t go on a 1099-NEC. Payments for legal services are an exception: attorneys’ fees are reported even when the law firm is a corporation.

Personal payments aren’t reported, and neither are payments for merchandise, freight, storage and similar items. An employee’s wages go on their W-2, not on a 1099-NEC, and IRS Publication 15-A helps you tell an employee from an independent contractor.

Rent and medical and health care payments go on Form 1099-MISC instead, which the same IRS instructions cover. Medical and health care payments are reported even when they go to a corporation.

Payments by card or payment network

Payments made by credit card or payment card, and third-party network transactions, don’t go on a 1099-NEC or 1099-MISC. The payment settlement entity that settles them reports them on a 1099-K instead.

Which year a payment counts in

A 1099 reports what was paid during the calendar year, so a payment counts toward the year it was made.

When the forms are due

A business files each 1099-NEC with the IRS, and gives the payee their copy, by January 31 after the year of the payments: 2026 payments are filed in early 2027. When the date falls on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, it moves to the next business day.

For a 1099-MISC, the payee’s copy is due by January 31 too, and the IRS copy by February 28 on paper or March 31 if filed electronically.

A business that files late, leaves out information, or reports an incorrect TIN or no TIN may be subject to a penalty unless it can show reasonable cause. A late or incorrect payee copy may bring a separate penalty. The amount depends on when the correct form is filed or given, and the IRS publishes it in its General Instructions for Certain Information Returns.

In Every

Company Admins and Bookkeepers can collect W-9s and request 1099s once your company finishes onboarding, and so can Accounts Payable users once Every has turned that role on for your company.

Collect W-9s from vendors

When you pay a vendor with Send money on Payments → All payments, the Accounting Details step asks Can Every collect a W-9 from this vendor for tax purposes? Its first answer, Yes, I want Every to collect a W-9, is marked Recommended and selected by default. Keep it and enter the Vendor Email.

For a payment with no approvers, Every then emails the vendor a link to a form for their name, entity type, TIN and address. Every sends no invitation to a vendor whose W-9 details are already on file.

Send money doesn’t ask the W-9 question for a Request from vendor, International via Pershing or International via Visa payment. It also skips the question for a vendor that already has an invitation, is marked as a transfer or has its W-9 marked collected.

To ask a vendor you’ve already added, go to Payments → Vendors, open the vendor’s row menu and select Request vendor information. Edit vendor in the same menu opens the vendor’s details, where the Missing tax information card has Invite vendor too. See Collect vendor details.

W9 status on Payments → Vendors reads Completed once Every has the vendor’s TIN, address and entity type, and Missing information until then.

Request 1099s for vendors

On Payments → Vendors, turn on the switch in the vendor’s Request 1099 column, or answer Yes to the 1099 question when you add the vendor. Every files the vendor’s 1099-NEC, and Download 1099 in the same column opens it once it’s ready. Company Admins and Bookkeepers can download it. See Request 1099s.

A request on Vendors is for the current year from February to December, and for the previous year in January.

Each January, the Annual 1099s review card on Payments → Vendors and on Home asks you to confirm the final list of vendors and contractors by January 31, and Every does the rest. It shows when your accounting software is connected and your company has an active Every bookkeeping plan.

Contractors

Contractors are in your pay runs on Payroll with your employees (see Run payroll). When a person has 1099 forms in Every, they’re under 1099 Documents on the person’s Docs tab in People. The person sees their own on My profile → Docs (see Paystubs and tax forms).

When you hire an International contractor and they complete their own onboarding, they sign Form W-8BEN as an individual or Form W-8BEN-E as a business (see Add people).