1099-NEC vs 1099-MISC: Which Form for Which Payment (2026)

Form 1099-NEC is for work; Form 1099-MISC is for almost everything else. Pay a contractor, a sub, a freelancer, or an attorney for their services, and it goes on a 1099-NEC. Pay rent, royalties, a prize that isn't for work, medical payments, or a settlement through a lawyer, and it goes on a 1099-MISC. For payments made in 2026, most boxes on both forms start at $2,000, up from $600. The NEC is due February 1, 2027, to the IRS and the recipient. The MISC goes to the recipient by the same day and to the IRS by March 31, 2027 if you e-file.

Most small businesses only ever file NECs. The MISC shows up when you rent a building or a machine, pay a settlement, or give away a prize. Here is how to tell them apart for 2026.

The short version

The test underneath every row is the same: was the payment for someone's services? If yes, it is nonemployee compensation, and it goes on the NEC. If it was for the use of property, a prize, or money passing through, it goes on the MISC.

Two older rules still apply to both forms. Only business payments count, not personal ones. And payments by credit card, debit card or a payment app like PayPal are reported by the processor on a 1099-K, not by you.

Form 1099-NEC, box by box

The 2026 NEC has new boxes. Box 1 is now box 1a.

For most businesses, box 1a and possibly box 4 are the whole form. If you backup withheld from a contractor who never sent a W-9, you file an NEC for them whatever the amount, with the withholding in box 4.

Form 1099-MISC, box by box

Notice what did not move to $2,000: royalties ($10), substitute payments ($10), attorney gross proceeds ($600), and fish purchases ($600). Nonqualified deferred compensation and the state boxes moved down two numbers to make room for the new ones.

The cases that trip people up

Equipment with an operator. Renting a skid steer is rent, MISC box 1. Renting a crane and its operator is two payments: prorate the bill between the machine, on the MISC, and the operator's charge, which is nonemployee compensation on the NEC.

Parts and labor on one bill. A sub who bills you for labor and the materials on the job gets an NEC for the whole bill, when supplying the materials was incidental to the service. Parts you buy on their own from a supply house are merchandise and aren't reported at all.

Attorneys. The lawyer who drafted your contracts gets an NEC for their fees. The plaintiff's lawyer you pay a $15,000 settlement to gets a MISC, box 10, for $15,000. Both are reportable even if the firm is a corporation, which is the exception to the usual rule that corporations don't get 1099s.

Rent through a property manager. Rent paid to a real estate agent or property manager isn't reported by you. The agent reports what it passes to the owner. Rent paid straight to the owner, if the owner isn't a corporation, is MISC box 1.

Prizes and awards. A $2,500 prize in a customer drawing is MISC box 3. An award to a nonemployee for their work, like a bonus to your top outside salesperson, is NEC box 1a.

Travel reimbursements. If a contractor's travel costs are reimbursed without the contractor accounting to you for them, the reimbursement goes in NEC box 1a with their fee.

Medical payments. A shop that pays a clinic for pre-employment drug tests or physicals reports it in MISC box 6 at $2,000 or more, and that includes clinics that are corporations.

Who doesn't get either form

• Corporations, including LLCs taxed as C or S corporations, except for attorneys and medical providers
• Employees, whose pay is on the W-2
• Anyone you paid by card or payment app, who gets a 1099-K from the processor
• Merchandise, freight, storage, telephone and similar items
• Tax-exempt organizations and government agencies
• Personal payments, like the plumber at your house

The details on LLCs, partnerships, foreign contractors and the rest are in who gets a 1099.

Different forms, different due dates

The usual NEC date is January 31; in 2027 it is a Sunday. The MISC's later IRS date is why getting the form right matters: an NEC filed on the MISC's schedule is two months late. If you file 10 or more information returns of all kinds in total, you must file them electronically, and from 2027 that means through IRIS or a filer that uses it.

The 2026 threshold post has a full worked example and the penalties, and what to do if a 1099 is late or wrong has the fixes.

How Poof picks the form

In Poof, each vendor's payments for the year are sorted by how you paid them, so card and PayPal payments come out of the total, and checked against the year's threshold. Poof prepares the 1099-NEC or 1099-MISC for each one who crosses it, from the books or from a list you type in or upload.

Approve them with one signature and Poof files both forms with the IRS, emails each contractor who agreed their copy and mails the rest, and sends you the IRS receipt. The first 3 forms each year are free, then $2.49 a form, and $1.79 for each copy Poof mails. You never need an IRS filer code. More on the ways to file in how to file 1099s online for 2026.

*General information, not tax advice; your CPA has the final word.*

*Written by Austin Semple, a former controller: two years in audit, seven running the books for small businesses, and the founder of Poof. Poof files your 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC forms with the IRS; the first 3 forms each year are free. File your 1099s, no card required.*