How to Fill Out a W-9 Tax Form: Name, TIN, and Certification

Filling out a W-9 comes down to six pieces of information: your legal name, any business name, your tax classification, your address, your taxpayer identification number, and your signature. The form goes back to the client or business that asked for it, never to the IRS. Most freelancers and sole proprietors can complete it in under five minutes once they know which boxes apply to them, but two lines — the classification box and the taxpayer ID number — cause almost every problem people run into later.

Line 1: Your Legal Name

Line 1 is the name shown on your income tax return. For an individual, that means your full legal name exactly as the Social Security Administration has it on file. Spelling matters here because the IRS matches this name against the taxpayer ID number you enter in Part I. A mismatch can trigger backup withholding or a notice to the payer.¹

If you’re a single-member LLC that the IRS treats as a disregarded entity, the owner’s name goes on line 1, not the LLC’s name.²

Line 2: Business or DBA Name

Line 2 is only for a “doing business as” name, or for the name of a single-member LLC when the owner is on line 1. If you operate under your own legal name and nothing else, leave it blank.²

Line 3: Federal Tax Classification

Check one box that matches how you file taxes. For most individuals the choice is simple.

Freelancers, independent contractors, and sole proprietors check “Individual/sole proprietor.” Owners of a single-member LLC that hasn’t elected corporate tax treatment also check this box, because the IRS ignores the LLC and taxes the owner directly. A disregarded entity should not check the LLC box.³

If your business is a separate legal entity, pick the box that matches how it files:

C corporation — a corporation taxed at the entity level on its own profits.
S corporation — a corporation that passes income through to shareholders’ personal returns.
Partnership — a business with two or more owners sharing profits and losses.
Trust or estate — a fiduciary arrangement managing assets for beneficiaries.
Multi-member LLC — check the LLC box and enter the letter code for how it’s taxed: C for C corporation, S for S corporation, or P for partnership.¹

Line 4: Exemption Codes

Line 4 has two small fields, one for exemption from backup withholding and one for exemption from FATCA reporting. Most individual contractors and freelancers leave both blank. The codes apply to specific payees like tax-exempt organizations, government agencies, and certain financial institutions. If you don’t already know you qualify, you almost certainly don’t.¹

Lines 5 Through 7: Address and Account Numbers

Enter your street address, city, state, and ZIP on lines 5 and 6. This is where the requester will mail your 1099 at the start of the following year, so use an address where you reliably receive mail. If you’re updating an address the requester already has, write “NEW” at the top of the form.¹

Line 7 is optional. It’s space for any account or client ID the requester uses to identify you internally. If they haven’t asked for one, leave it blank.

Part I: Your Taxpayer Identification Number

Part I is the nine-digit number the IRS uses to track your tax obligations.⁴ Which number you enter depends on your entity type:

Individuals and sole proprietors use their Social Security number. The 2026 instructions are explicit: sole proprietors must furnish their SSN, not an EIN for the sole proprietorship.³
Single-member LLCs (disregarded entities) use the owner’s SSN or EIN, not the LLC’s own EIN.⁵
Corporations, partnerships, trusts, and multi-member LLCs use the entity’s EIN.

The TIN must match the name on line 1. If it doesn’t, the payer may be required to start withholding taxes from your payments.¹

Part II: Signing the Certification

Signing carries more weight than most people realize. By signing, you certify under penalty of perjury that:

The TIN you provided is correct.
You are not subject to backup withholding, or you are exempt from it, or the IRS has told you that you are no longer subject to it.
You are a U.S. citizen, U.S. resident alien, or other U.S. person.
Any FATCA code you entered is correct.¹

If the IRS has notified you that you’re currently subject to backup withholding for underreporting interest or dividends, you must cross out item 2 before signing. Don’t skip this. Signing the full certification when you know you’re subject to withholding creates problems with the payer and the IRS.

Electronic signatures are accepted when the requester has set up a compliant system, including submission by fax.⁶

Getting the Form Back to the Requester

The completed form goes directly to the person or business that asked for it. Do not send it to the IRS.¹ Because the form contains your Social Security number, how you deliver it matters. Emailing an unencrypted PDF is a bad idea. Use a secure client portal, a password-protected file with the password sent separately, or hand-deliver a paper copy.

The requester keeps your W-9 on file for at least four years and uses it to prepare your 1099-NEC for nonemployee compensation, or a 1099-MISC for income like rent or prizes.⁷¹ Keep your own copy so you can check the 1099 against what you submitted.

What Happens If You Don’t Return It or Fill It Out Wrong

The immediate consequence is money. If you don’t return a completed W-9, the payer must withhold 24% of every payment they make to you and send it to the IRS.⁸ The same backup withholding kicks in when the name and TIN on your form don’t match IRS records. You can recover the money when you file your return, but you’re out nearly a quarter of your income in the meantime. Some freelancers don’t notice what happened until several checks have come in short.

There’s also a penalty for providing an incorrect TIN: $50 per failure, capped at $100,000 per calendar year.⁹ The IRS can waive it if you show reasonable cause and the failure wasn’t due to willful neglect.¹⁰

When to Submit a New W-9

The form doesn’t expire on a fixed schedule, but you need to send a new one when your information changes. The IRS specifically calls out three situations:

Your name or TIN changes, such as a name change after marriage, or a grantor trust that gets a new TIN after the grantor dies.
Your exempt payee status changes. A C corporation that elects S corporation status, for example, must notify any payer holding the old W-9.
Your address changes. Write “NEW” at the top of the updated form.¹

Many companies also request a fresh W-9 every few years or at the start of a new contract, even when nothing has changed. It takes less time to fill one out than to argue about it.

If You’re Not a U.S. Person

Form W-9 is only for U.S. persons: citizens, resident aliens, and domestic entities. Foreign individuals and entities receiving U.S.-source income use the W-8 series instead. The two most common are Form W-8BEN for foreign individuals who are the beneficial owner of the income¹¹ and Form W-8BEN-E for foreign corporations, partnerships, and other non-individual foreign entities.¹²

Filing the wrong form creates real problems. A foreign person who submits a W-9 falsely certifies under perjury that they’re a U.S. person, and a U.S. person who submits a W-8 may trigger unnecessary withholding at rates up to 30%. If a requester hands you a W-9 and you’re not a U.S. person, tell them you need the appropriate W-8 instead.

1
Internal Revenue Service. Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification
2
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for the Requester of Form W-9
3
Internal Revenue Service. Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification (Rev. January 2026)
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6109 – Identifying Numbers
5
Internal Revenue Service. Single Member Limited Liability Companies
6
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for the Requester of Form W-9
7
Internal Revenue Service. Recordkeeping
8
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 15 (2026)
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6723 – Failure to Comply With Other Information Reporting Requirements
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6724 – Waiver; Definitions and Special Rules
11
Internal Revenue Service. About Form W-8 BEN
12
Internal Revenue Service. About Instructions for the Requester of Forms W-8 BEN, W-8 BEN-E, W-8 ECI, W-8 EXP, and W-8 IMY