For most contractors and small business owners, the 1099-NEC is the form you’ll file most often. You send this to any non-employee you paid $600 or more during the year for services. That includes subcontractors, freelancers, consultants, and independent tradespeople. If you hired a framing crew, an electrician, or a cleaning service and paid them as a business rather than as employees, they get a 1099-NEC.

The $600 threshold applies per recipient for the full year. Pay someone $400 in March and $300 in October, and they’ve crossed the threshold. You owe them a 1099-NEC.

You file 1099-NEC for payments to individuals, sole proprietors, partnerships, and LLCs taxed as sole proprietors or partnerships. You generally don’t file for payments to S-corporations or C-corporations. The W-9 form tells you how the payee is classified. If you don’t have a W-9 on file, you don’t know whether you need to file a 1099 for them.

1099-MISC covers a different set of payments. The most common for contractors is rent. If you paid $600 or more in rent for office space, a shop, storage, or equipment, file a 1099-MISC to your landlord. Other 1099-MISC situations include prizes, awards, and certain legal settlements, but rent is what most small businesses encounter.

The deadline for 1099-NEC is January 31. That’s the date by which recipients must have their copy and the date by which you must file with the IRS. There’s no extension. Miss the deadline and penalties start at $60 per form. File more than 30 days late and it increases to $130. Intentionally ignore the requirement and you’re looking at $330 per form or more.

The information you need for each 1099 is the payee’s legal name, address, taxpayer identification number, and total amount paid. Get a W-9 from every subcontractor before you make the first payment. Trying to collect tax IDs in January when you’re up against a deadline is stressful and sometimes impossible if someone has changed their contact information.

Full-service bookkeeping that tracks vendor payments throughout the year makes 1099 filing straightforward. Your books already show exactly who you paid and how much. Without that, you’re digging through bank statements in January trying to piece together twelve months of transactions.

You may also receive 1099 forms from customers who paid you $600 or more, from your bank for interest earned, or from payment processors. Keep these for your tax preparer. They report income you need to include on your return.

If you pay a lot of subcontractors, which is common in construction, staying organized is essential. A construction bookkeeper American Fork who understands how trades work can help you track payments properly so January doesn’t become a scramble. The goal is accurate records throughout the year so filing is just a matter of generating the forms.