What Form to Give an Independent Contractor: W-9, 1099-NEC, 1099-MISC

Before you pay an independent contractor, have them complete Form W-9. After the calendar year ends, if you paid that contractor $600 or more for services, send them and the IRS a Form 1099-NEC. Those are the two forms to give an independent contractor in almost every domestic arrangement, and the rest of the rules exist to handle the edge cases.

Form W-9 Comes First

Give the contractor a blank Form W-9 (Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification) before any money changes hands. The form captures the information you’ll need at year-end: the contractor’s legal name as it appears on their tax return, their business type (sole proprietorship, LLC, corporation, partnership, or trust), a current mailing address, and their taxpayer identification number. For an individual, the TIN is usually a Social Security Number. For a business entity, it’s an Employer Identification Number.¹

The contractor signs the W-9 under penalty of perjury, certifying the TIN is correct and that they are not subject to backup withholding.¹ You keep the completed form in your records. Do not send it to the IRS. Download the current version straight from IRS.gov so you’re working from the latest revision.

If you want to catch problems before filing season, the IRS runs a free TIN Matching service that verifies name-and-TIN combinations against IRS records. You’ll need to register as a payer on the IRS Payer Account File database first, and you can submit checks one at a time or in bulk.² Catching a mismatch now is much cheaper than correcting a filed return later.

Form 1099-NEC After Year-End

When your total payments to a contractor for services reach $600 or more in a calendar year, you owe them a Form 1099-NEC.³ The threshold is cumulative across the year, not per invoice. Ten payments of $75 each add up to $750 and trigger the filing even though no single payment cleared $600.

Report the gross amount in Box 1 before any expense deductions. Reimbursements you made outside of an accountable plan count toward the total. Pull the contractor’s name, address, and TIN directly from the W-9 you already have, and make sure those fields match exactly. Mismatches are the most common reason the IRS sends a notice.

Payments That Don’t Belong on a 1099-NEC

Several categories look like they should be reported and aren’t:

Payments to a C corporation or S corporation, including LLCs taxed as either, generally do not get a 1099-NEC. The two standing exceptions are payments for legal services and payments for medical or health care services, which get reported regardless of the recipient’s structure. This is why the W-9 matters so much; without it you don’t know how the contractor is organized.³
Payments made by credit card, debit card, or a third-party network such as PayPal or Venmo are excluded. The payment processor reports those on Form 1099-K. The current 1099-K threshold is $20,000 and 200 transactions.³⁴
Contractors you paid less than $600 for the whole year. They still owe income tax on what you paid them, but you have no reporting duty.

When Form 1099-MISC Is the Right Form Instead

Form 1099-MISC covers payments to a contractor that aren’t direct compensation for services performed.⁵ The categories that most often come up:

Rent of $600 or more, reported in Box 1.
Prizes and awards not tied to services, reported in Box 3.
Other income of $600 or more, reported in Box 3.
Gross proceeds to an attorney, meaning payments connected to legal services but not for the attorney’s own work, such as settlement proceeds, reported in Box 10.³

Sorting a payment into the right form matters because the IRS filing deadlines are not the same.

Deadlines and How to Send Both Copies

Form 1099-NEC is due January 31 for both the contractor’s copy and the IRS copy, whether you file on paper or electronically.³ No automatic extension is available. You can ask for a nonautomatic extension by mailing Form 8809 with a written justification by January 31, but the IRS is not required to grant it.⁶

Form 1099-MISC splits its deadlines. The contractor’s copy is due January 31. The IRS copy is due February 28 on paper or March 31 electronically, and a 30-day automatic extension is available through Form 8809.³⁶

Missing a deadline triggers per-return penalties that climb the longer you wait, with the steepest tier reserved for returns filed after August 1 or never filed at all. Intentional disregard raises the floor to $500 per return or a percentage of the unreported amount, whichever is greater.⁷

If your business files 10 or more information returns of any type during the year, electronic filing is mandatory. The IRS counts all information returns together across form types, so four Forms 1098 plus six Forms 1099-NEC crosses the threshold and everything must go in electronically.⁸⁹ The main portal is the IRS Information Returns Intake System (IRIS). The older FIRE system still works but is scheduled to retire after filing season 2027.¹⁰

If you file fewer than 10 on paper, include Form 1096 as a transmittal cover sheet. Group forms by type and use a separate 1096 for each group.¹¹

Foreign Contractors Get Different Forms

If the contractor is not a U.S. person, W-9 and 1099-NEC do not apply. Collect Form W-8BEN (Certificate of Foreign Status of Beneficial Owner for United States Tax Withholding and Reporting) instead of a W-9 from a foreign individual.¹² Report payments on Form 1042-S (Foreign Person’s U.S. Source Income Subject to Withholding), which has a March 15 deadline.¹³ Payments to foreign contractors for U.S.-source income are generally subject to a default 30% withholding rate, which a tax treaty between the U.S. and the contractor’s home country may reduce. The W-8BEN is where the contractor claims any treaty benefit.

If the Contractor Won’t Give You a W-9

When a contractor refuses to submit a W-9 or gives you an incorrect TIN, you are required to withhold 24% of every payment and remit it to the IRS.¹⁴ The rate is pegged to the fourth-lowest individual income tax bracket, which stays at 24% for 2026 under the rates made permanent by the One, Big, Beautiful Bill.¹⁵

Deposit backup withholding through the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS) and report it once a year on Form 945 (Annual Return of Withheld Federal Income Tax), due January 31 of the following year.¹⁶ If you made all deposits on time and in full, the Form 945 filing deadline extends by about two weeks.¹⁷ Collecting the W-9 upfront is what keeps you out of this whole track.

Confirm the Worker Really Is a Contractor

Every form on this page assumes you’ve classified the worker correctly. Get that wrong and you owe back employment taxes, penalties for failing to withhold, and potentially penalties for filing the wrong information returns. The IRS weighs three categories of evidence:¹⁸

Behavioral control: does your business direct what the worker does and how they do it? A contractor who sets their own methods and schedule looks different from one following step-by-step instructions.
Financial control: who provides the tools, how is the worker paid, can they take on other clients, and are expenses reimbursed? More financial independence points to a true contractor relationship.
Type of relationship: is there a written contract, does the worker get insurance or vacation pay, is the work a core part of your business, and does either side expect the relationship to continue indefinitely?

No single factor decides it. A worker who uses their own equipment but follows your daily schedule, works only for your company, and receives health insurance starts to look like an employee regardless of what the contract says. If you’re unsure, either party can file Form SS-8 to request an official determination from the IRS.¹⁹ The wait is worth the certainty.

Don’t Forget Your State

Most states require businesses to report newly hired or contracted workers to a state directory, mainly for child support enforcement. These reports typically must be filed within 20 days of the first payment or the start of services, though timelines vary. State employment or labor agency websites usually accept the reports through an online portal.

Many states also want copies of your 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC filings. Some participate in the IRS Combined Federal/State Filing Program, which forwards your federal filings automatically. Others require a separate submission with their own deadlines and their own penalties. Check with your state tax agency or department of revenue, because a clean federal filing does not shield you from state-level fines or labor department scrutiny.

1
Internal Revenue Service. Form W-9 (Rev. March 2024) Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification
2
Internal Revenue Service. Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) Matching
3
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC (04/2025)
4
Internal Revenue Service. IRS Issues FAQs on Form 1099-K Threshold Under the One, Big, Beautiful Bill
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Internal Revenue Service. About Form 1099-MISC, Miscellaneous Information
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Internal Revenue Service. Form 8809 Application for Extension of Time To File Information Returns
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 6721 – Failure to File Correct Information Returns
8
Internal Revenue Service. E-File Information Returns
9
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 1099 General Instructions for Certain Information Returns – For Use in Preparing 2026 Returns
10
Internal Revenue Service. Filing Information Returns Electronically (FIRE)
11
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 1096, Annual Summary and Transmittal of U.S. Information Returns
12
Internal Revenue Service. About Form W-8 BEN, Certificate of Foreign Status of Beneficial Owner for United States Tax Withholding and Reporting (Individuals)
13
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 1042-S, Foreign Persons U.S. Source Income Subject to Withholding
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 3406 – Backup Withholding
15
Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026
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Internal Revenue Service. Important Backup Withholding Deadlines
17
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 945, Annual Return of Withheld Federal Income Tax
18
Internal Revenue Service. Independent Contractor (Self-Employed) or Employee?
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Internal Revenue Service. About Form SS-8, Determination of Worker Status for Purposes of Federal Employment Taxes and Income Tax Withholding