How to Get a 1099 From an Employer If It Never Arrived

If a 1099 you were expecting never showed up, start with the payer, then work up to the IRS if they won’t respond. Here is how to get a 1099 from an employer or client when it never arrived, plus what to do if it never comes at all. Payers must send Form 1099-NEC by January 31, so if early February passes with nothing in your mailbox or inbox, something has gone wrong and it is on you to chase it.¹

One note on wording. A 1099 comes from a client or payer, not an employer in the technical sense. If a company treated you as a W-2 employee, you should be looking for a W-2 instead. The steps below work either way when you are trying to track down a missing form.

When the Form Is Due and Who Has to Send One

Form 1099-NEC reports nonemployee compensation, which covers most freelance, contract, and gig income.² Form 1099-MISC covers rent, prizes, and certain royalties.³ Both are due to you by January 31.¹

The reporting threshold matters. For tax year 2025 forms arriving in early 2026, a payer only has to issue a 1099-NEC if they paid you $600 or more during the calendar year. For payments made after December 31, 2025, that threshold rises to $2,000.⁴ If a single client paid you less than the applicable threshold, they were never required to send one. The income is still taxable, but no form is coming.

Why Yours May Not Have Arrived

Before you make any calls, run through the likely reasons:

You earned below the reporting threshold with that payer.
The payer has the wrong mailing address on file. A stale apartment number or zip code is the single most common failure.
You provided a W-9 showing your business as a C-corporation or S-corporation. Payments to corporations are generally exempt from 1099-NEC reporting, with narrow exceptions like legal services.¹
You never submitted a W-9, so the payer has no taxpayer identification number to put on the form.
The payer, especially a small business or individual, simply doesn’t realize they have a filing obligation.

If the payer has been withholding 24% from your checks, a missing W-9 is almost certainly why. That is backup withholding, and it continues until you provide a correct Form W-9.⁵ Download the current W-9 from irs.gov, fill it in with your legal name, taxpayer identification number, and federal tax classification, and send it over.⁶

Step 1: Ask the Payer for a Copy

Contact the payer’s accounts payable or payroll team directly. Those are the people who handle information returns. Confirm the address they mailed to. If it’s wrong, that alone probably explains everything.

Ask for a duplicate. Most businesses can email a password-protected PDF or repost the form to their payroll platform within a few days. Keep notes: when you called, who you spoke with, what they promised. That record matters if you have to escalate to the IRS later.

Step 2: Check Any Online Portals

Many companies distribute 1099s through payroll platforms like Gusto, ADP, or Stripe. If you were paid through one of these during the year, log in and look for a tax documents section. Digital copies often post a few days before the paper version goes out. Some platforms default to paper-only unless you have opted in to electronic delivery, so check that setting while you are in there.

Step 3: Pull Your IRS Wage and Income Transcript

The IRS keeps a record of every information return filed under your Social Security Number. You can pull the transcript through your online IRS account or by submitting Form 4506-T.⁷ Transcripts cover the past ten tax years, though data for the most recent year may not be complete until payers finish their filings.

This tells you two useful things. If the 1099 shows on the transcript, the payer did file it and only your copy went astray — you now know the amount they reported and can match your records against it. If it doesn’t show, the payer never filed, and you know you are dealing with a compliance problem, not a mail problem.

Step 4: Call the IRS

If the payer won’t cooperate or you can’t reach them, wait until the end of February to give them a fair chance, then call the IRS at 800-829-1040.⁸ Have this on hand:

Your name, address, phone number, Social Security Number, and the dates you worked for the payer.
The payer’s name, address, and phone number.

The agent will send an official notice to the payer reminding them of their filing obligation. That notice carries weight because the payer faces real penalties for noncompliance. The IRS cannot force the form to appear before your filing deadline, though, so this is not a reason to delay filing your return.

If the 1099 You Got Is Wrong

Sometimes the form does arrive, but the number on it doesn’t match what you were actually paid. Contact the payer with your invoices and payment records and ask for a corrected form. If they refuse or don’t respond by the end of February, call the IRS at 800-829-1040 and report the discrepancy.⁸ File using the correct figure from your own records. Your documentation supports your position if the IRS follows up on the mismatch.

Filing Your Return When the 1099 Never Comes

You owe tax on the income whether or not the 1099 shows up. The form is a reporting document to the IRS, not a precondition for your tax liability. If April 15 arrives and you still don’t have it, file anyway using your own records.⁹

Pull together your bank statements, invoices, payment app records, and any contracts showing your rate. Report the nonemployee compensation on Schedule C (Profit or Loss from Business), where sole proprietors and independent contractors report self-employment income. Attach Schedule SE for the self-employment tax that covers Social Security and Medicare at a combined 15.3%.¹⁰

One point of confusion worth clearing up. Form 4852 is a substitute for a missing W-2 or 1099-R. It does not cover a missing 1099-NEC.¹¹ For a missing nonemployee compensation form, you just report the income directly on Schedule C using your records. No substitute form is needed.

If the 1099 finally shows up after you have already filed and the amount differs from what you reported, file Form 1040-X to correct the difference.⁸

Leverage You Have With a Reluctant Payer

If the payer tells you it isn’t worth their time, the numbers say otherwise. Federal law imposes a penalty of $250 per return for failure to file correct information returns with the IRS, up to $3 million per year. Correcting within 30 days of the deadline drops it to $50 per return; correcting by August 1 drops it to $100.¹² A separate $250-per-statement penalty, also capped at $3 million a year, applies for failing to furnish the correct statement to you as the payee.¹³ If the failure is intentional, the penalty jumps to $500 per return or 10% of the unreported amount, whichever is greater. Mentioning these on your next call tends to move things along.

1
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC
2
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 1099-NEC, Nonemployee Compensation
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Internal Revenue Service. About Form 1099-MISC, Miscellaneous Information
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Internal Revenue Service. Form 1099 NEC and Independent Contractors
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Internal Revenue Service. Backup Withholding
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Internal Revenue Service. About Form W-9, Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification
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Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 159, How to Get a Wage and Income Transcript
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Internal Revenue Service. What to Do When a W-2 or Form 1099 Is Missing or Incorrect
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Internal Revenue Service. IRS Announces First Day of 2026 Filing Season
10
Internal Revenue Service. Self-Employment Tax (Social Security and Medicare Taxes)
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Internal Revenue Service. About Form 4852, Substitute for Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6721 Failure to File Correct Information Returns
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6722 Failure to Furnish Correct Payee Statements