Financial Glossary
How to 1099 Someone
To 1099 someone means to issue an information return, typically Form 1099-NEC, reporting payments your business made to a non-employee such as an independent contractor. Before paying, you collect a completed Form W-9 from the payee to capture their legal name and taxpayer identification number, then track total payments through the year. If payments to that contractor reach the IRS reporting threshold, you must file the 1099 with the IRS and furnish a copy to the contractor by the required deadlines.
Problem & Application
Campground, STR, and hospitality owners frequently pay cleaners, maintenance crews, and freelancers who require 1099s, and missing them invites penalties and backup withholding headaches. The most common failure is not getting a W-9 up front, which leaves you scrambling for tax IDs at year-end. Capturing contractor information at onboarding and tracking payments cleanly in your books makes January filing routine instead of a fire drill.
In Short
The work of 1099ing someone is really front-loaded: collect the W-9 early and track payments all year, and issuing the form becomes the easy part.