Collect Your W-9s Now, Not in January

Every January the same thing happens. The 1099 deadline is days away, and three contractors have not replied, one has changed address, and one has stopped responding entirely.

None of that is a January problem. It is an onboarding problem that shows up in January.

Ask before the first payment, not after the last

A contractor who has not been paid yet answers quickly. A contractor whose final invoice cleared in March has no particular reason to reply in January.

Making a completed W-9 a condition of the first payment solves almost the entire problem, and nobody finds it unreasonable when it is asked at the start.

Know which payments actually need reporting

Not every payment generates a form. Payments for services to individuals and unincorporated businesses generally do. Payments for physical goods generally do not, and most payments to corporations are excluded.

Card and third-party platform payments are reported by the processor instead, so issuing your own form for those creates a duplicate. If you pay the same contractor by both bank transfer and card, only one of those is yours to report. The rules around platform reporting have moved more than once, so it is worth confirming which payments sit where before the forms go out.

A missing form is cheaper than a wrong one

Filing with an incorrect name or tax ID triggers a mismatch notice, and fixing it means contacting the contractor anyway, just later and under more pressure.

The W-9 exists so the details come from the contractor in writing rather than from your memory of an email. That is the whole point of the form.

Classification is the question underneath

Collecting a W-9 assumes the person is a contractor. If they work set hours, use your equipment and take direction day to day, the form does not make them one.

Getting classification wrong is far more expensive than a late form, and January is a bad time to discover the question exists.

How Exemplary Helps

Exemplary collects contractor details at onboarding and keeps them current through the year, so January is a filing exercise rather than a search.

The deadline does not move, and neither do contractors who have already been paid.