How to Get a W-9 From Every Contractor Before January

Ask every contractor for a Form W-9 before you pay them the first time, and chase the missing ones now, in November and December, not in late January. The 2026 1099 threshold rose to $2,000, but that changes who gets a form, not who owes you a W-9. Use the current form (Rev. March 2024), accept it electronically only through a system that meets the IRS's rules, and if a contractor refuses, the law requires you to withhold 24% of what you pay them. Four copy-ready request emails are in the W-9 request templates.

The 1099s for 2026 are due February 1, 2027. Every week of January you spend waiting on a W-9 is a week you are not reviewing the forms.

Why now, and why from everyone

The 1099 threshold for 2026 payments is $2,000 per contractor for the year. It is tempting to read that as permission to skip W-9s for small vendors. Don't, for three reasons.

• You don't know the year's total in advance. The painter you paid $800 in April gets a second job in October. By December you need a W-9 from someone you last spoke to in the spring.
• The W-9 tells you who is exempt. Payments to corporations generally aren't reportable, and an LLC can be taxed as a corporation or not. The W-9's tax classification is how you find out. Attorneys and medical or health care providers are reportable even when they are corporations.
• No tax ID means backup withholding. Without a correct tax ID on file, you are supposed to be withholding already. That is far easier to avoid at the first payment than to fix in January.

The rule that works: no first payment without a W-9.

Use the current form

The current Form W-9 is Rev. March 2024. Two changes from the older version matter:

• Line 3a now explains how a disregarded entity, such as a single-member LLC, checks its owner's tax classification instead of its own.
• Line 3b is new. A partnership, trust or estate with direct or indirect foreign partners, owners or beneficiaries checks it when it gives a W-9 to a flow-through entity it owns part of.

The IRS has also posted a draft June 2026 revision, which adds a Part II checkbox for U.S. digital-asset brokers. It is a draft, not the form. Keep using March 2024 until the IRS finalizes the new one.

Electronic W-9s are fine, with conditions

You can collect W-9s electronically, but the IRS sets requirements for the system that does it, from Announcement 98-27 and the W-9 instructions. The system has to:

1. Make sure the information received is what was sent, and keep a record of who accessed it
2. Make reasonably certain the person submitting is the person named on the form
3. Collect the same information as the paper form
4. Produce a hard copy if the IRS asks for one
5. End with the payee's electronic signature, under the same penalties-of-perjury statement as the paper form

A PDF the contractor fills in and emails back is a scanned paper form, and it carries a full tax ID. Don't ask for it as an unencrypted attachment. Offer a secure upload or a form link instead.

Ask at the first payment

Most of the January scramble comes from asking once, at year end, all at the same time. Ask instead when you set the contractor up. A short message is enough:

Before we send your first payment, we need a Form W-9 for our records. It's required for the 1099 we may file for 2026. You can fill it in securely here: [link]. Thanks, [your name]

For contractors you are already paying without a W-9 on file, send the first ask this week, a short reminder a week later, and a final note a week after that. The templates have all three, plus a note for corporations that ask why you need one.

Corporations still send one

A corporation will sometimes reply that it doesn't get 1099s, so why send a W-9. They are mostly right about the first part. Payments to corporations, including LLCs taxed as C or S corporations, generally aren't reportable on a 1099-NEC. The exceptions are payments for legal services and for medical or health care services.

But you only know a payee is a corporation because it told you so on a W-9. "Inc." in a name is a hint, not a classification, and "LLC" tells you nothing about how the entity is taxed. The W-9, with its tax classification and any exempt payee code, is what documents the exemption in your files.

When a contractor won't send one

Be factual, not threatening, and know the rules before you write the final note.

In practice, most contractors send the form once they understand the next payment will be 24% lighter. Say that plainly in the final reminder.

B-notices, briefly

If the IRS finds that a name and tax ID you filed don't match, it sends you a CP2100 (50 or more mismatches) or CP2100A (fewer than 50).

• First B notice: send the contractor the notice with a blank W-9 within 15 business days. If the W-9 doesn't come back, start backup withholding no later than 30 business days after the notice's date or the day you received it, whichever is later.
• Second B notice for the same contractor within three years: no W-9 this time. The contractor must send a copy of their Social Security card or an IRS Letter 147C, and withholding starts after 30 business days without it.

You can catch mismatches before you file. IRS TIN Matching is free through IRS e-Services for payers who file information returns.

Store them like the tax IDs they are

A W-9 holds a full Social Security or employer ID number. Keep them four years, which is what the IRS's contractor guidance says. Store them encrypted, limit who can open them, and never leave them in a shared inbox or an open folder. Track who you've asked and who has answered in one place; the free 1099 vendor tracker has a column for each.

How Poof does it

In Poof, one click emails every contractor a W-9 link, and for anyone without an email address Poof gives you a link to text them. A board shows who's in, who's been asked, and whose link ran out. Poof reminds the ones who haven't answered every 5 days, up to 3 times, with a fresh link each time, and from December 1 anyone still missing shows up in Needs Attention.

For new contractors, Poof asks for the W-9 at the first payment, and on the 1st of each month you get a line: who's been paid, how much, and how many W-9s are in. A filled-in W-9 PDF is read inside Poof and fills the contractor's record. Tax IDs are stored encrypted and shown as the last four digits, and the signed W-9 itself opens for an owner or admin only. Poof checks each tax ID's format before filing; it does not run IRS TIN Matching.

When the year ends, approve the forms with one signature and Poof files your 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC forms with the IRS, emails or mails every contractor's copy, and sends you the IRS receipt. The first 3 forms each year are free, then $2.49 a form. More on that in how to file 1099s online for 2026, and for bookkeepers, filing 1099s for your clients.

*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's W-9 board shows who's in, who's been asked and whose link ran out, and reminds the rest for you. File your 1099s with Poof: the first 3 forms each year are free.*