Do I send a 1099 to an LLC?

It depends on how the LLC is taxed, which its Form W-9 tells you. A single-member LLC that is disregarded gets a 1099, issued in the owner's name with the owner's tax ID. A multi-member LLC taxed as a partnership gets a 1099. An LLC that elected to be taxed as an S or C corporation generally does not, unless you paid it for legal or medical services.

Do S corporations get a 1099?

Generally no. Payments to corporations, including S corporations and LLCs taxed as corporations, are exempt from 1099-NEC and most 1099-MISC reporting. The exceptions are attorneys' fees, gross proceeds paid to an attorney, and medical or health care payments, which are reportable even when the payee is a corporation.

Do I need to send a 1099 if I paid by credit card, PayPal or Venmo?

No, not for those payments. Payments by credit or debit card, or through a payment app or marketplace like PayPal, are reported by the payment company on Form 1099-K, so they are not reported on your 1099-NEC or 1099-MISC. Leave them out of the contractor's total. Payments by check, ACH, cash or Zelle are yours to report.

Do I send a 1099 to a contractor in another country?

Not if they are a foreign person who gives you a valid Form W-8BEN (or W-8BEN-E for a business) and does the work outside the United States. That income isn't from U.S. sources, and a foreign person with a valid W-8 is exempt from 1099 reporting. Work a nonresident performs inside the United States is different: it is reported on Form 1042-S, generally with 30% withholding unless a treaty applies.

Whose name goes on a 1099 for a single-member LLC?

The owner's. For a disregarded single-member LLC, the IRS says to enter the owner's name on the first name line and the LLC's name on the second line, and to use the tax ID the W-9 gives, which for a disregarded LLC is the owner's Social Security number or the owner's EIN, not an EIN the LLC has for payroll.

Who Gets a 1099? LLCs, Corporations, Attorneys and Card Payments (2026)

For payments made in 2026, you send a 1099 to a person or unincorporated business you paid $2,000 or more for services, rent or other reportable payments, by check, ACH, cash or Zelle. That includes sole proprietors, partnerships, and LLCs that are not taxed as corporations. It generally does not include corporations, with three exceptions that catch people every January: attorneys' fees, money paid through an attorney, and medical payments are reportable even when the payee is a corporation. Card and PayPal payments are left out, because the processor reports them. The W-9 is how you tell which is which.

The most common question in January is about LLCs, so start there.

LLCs: the W-9 decides

"LLC" in a vendor's name tells you nothing about how the vendor is taxed. An LLC can be taxed three ways, and each gets different treatment.

The LLC's W-9 says	Gets a 1099?	Name and tax ID on the form
Single-member LLC, disregarded	Yes	The owner's name on line 1, the LLC's name on line 2; the owner's SSN or EIN
LLC taxed as a partnership	Yes	The LLC's name and EIN
LLC taxed as an S corporation or C corporation	No, unless legal or medical

A disregarded single-member LLC is reported under its owner, because for tax purposes the owner is the business. The W-9 tells the LLC to give you the owner's Social Security number, or the owner's EIN if the owner has one. An EIN the LLC got only to run payroll is not the number to use; the W-9 is.

On the Rev. March 2024 W-9, the classification is on line 3a. An LLC checks the box and writes in its tax classification: C for C corporation, S for S corporation, or P for partnership. A single-member LLC that is disregarded checks its owner's classification instead.

Corporations, and the three exceptions

Payments to corporations are generally exempt from 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC reporting. That covers C corporations, S corporations, and LLCs taxed as either.

Three kinds of payment are reportable anyway:

Attorneys' fees for legal services, on a 1099-NEC, at $2,000 or more. The law firm being a professional corporation doesn't matter.
Gross proceeds paid to an attorney, like a settlement paid through the other side's lawyer, on a 1099-MISC box 10, at $600 or more.
Medical and health care payments, on a 1099-MISC box 6, at $2,000 or more, including to professional corporations. Tax-exempt and government hospitals are excluded.

"Inc." on an invoice is a hint, not a classification. Get the W-9 and rely on what it says, not on the name.

Card, PayPal and Venmo payments

Payments made by credit card, debit card, or through a third-party network like PayPal or Venmo for business are reported by the payment company on Form 1099-K, and they are not reported on your 1099-NEC or 1099-MISC. Leave them out of the contractor's total.

That means one contractor's year can split in two. A sub you paid $1,500 by check and $1,500 by card has $1,500 of reportable payments, under the $2,000 line. A sub paid $2,400 by Zelle has $2,400, because Zelle is a bank transfer and doesn't issue 1099-Ks.

For payment apps and marketplaces, the 1099-K threshold is back to more than $20,000 and more than 200 transactions. Card processors report every card payment. Neither changes your rule: card and app payments are someone else's to report.

Foreign contractors

A designer in Canada or a developer in the Philippines who works for you from there doesn't get a 1099. Ask for Form W-8BEN (for an individual) or W-8BEN-E (for a business) instead of a W-9. A foreign person with a valid W-8 is exempt from 1099 reporting, and pay for work done outside the United States isn't U.S.-source income.

Where the work is done is what counts, not where the contract was signed or where you pay. A nonresident who comes to the United States to do the work is reported on Form 1042-S, with 30% withholding unless a treaty exemption is claimed on Form 8233. That is a separate set of rules and worth a call to your CPA before the first payment.

Everyone else

Payee or payment	Gets a 1099?
Sole proprietor or freelancer	Yes, at $2,000 for services
Partnership	Yes
Your employees	No; their pay is on the W-2
A landlord who isn't a corporation	Yes, 1099-MISC box 1 for rent of $2,000 or more
A real estate agent or property manager you pay rent to	No; the agent reports it
Supply houses, for parts and merchandise	No
Freight, storage, telephone and similar	No
Tax-exempt organizations, government agencies	No
Personal payments, like your own house's plumber	No
Anyone you backup withheld from	Yes, regardless of the amount

A shop's vendor list, worked through

Vendor	W-9	Paid in 2026	Gets a 1099?
Cruz Plumbing LLC	Single-member, disregarded	$6,800 by check	1099-NEC in Ana Cruz's name, with her SSN
Westside Mechanical LLC	Taxed as a partnership	$12,400 by ACH	1099-NEC to the LLC, with its EIN
North Star HVAC LLC	Taxed as an S corporation	$18,000 by check	No
Baker & Lin PC	Professional corporation	$4,200 in legal fees	1099-NEC; legal services are the exception
Okafor Painting	Sole proprietor	$1,600 check, $900 card	No; $1,600 reportable is under $2,000
Ferguson	Corporation, for parts	$41,000	No; merchandise from a corporation

The two lines people get wrong are the third and fourth. North Star's name says LLC, but its W-9 says S corporation. The law firm is a corporation, and it still gets a form.

The W-9 first, every time

Every row above depends on a W-9 you already have. Ask for one before the first payment, keep it four years, and if a contractor won't send one, backup withholding of 24% starts right away. The whole process, with copy-ready emails, is in how to get a W-9 from every contractor.

Which form each payment goes on is in 1099-NEC vs 1099-MISC, and the threshold, deadlines and penalties are in the 2026 threshold post.

How Poof sorts who gets one

In Poof, W-9s go out by link and come back filled in, with the tax classification on the vendor's record and the tax ID stored encrypted. Each vendor's year is split by how you paid, so card and PayPal payments come out on their own, and Poof prepares a form only for the ones who cross the line. A vendor whose W-9 says it is an S or C corporation, or an LLC taxed as one, is marked exempt. Poof doesn't yet tell law firms and medical providers apart from other corporations, so check those yourself. Poof checks each tax ID's format before filing; it does not run IRS TIN Matching.

Approve the forms with one signature and Poof files your 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC forms with the IRS, sends every contractor their copy, and emails you the IRS receipt. The first 3 forms each year are free, then $2.49 a form.

*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 reads each W-9 and sorts who gets a 1099 from how you paid them. File your 1099s: the first 3 forms each year are free.*