End-of-Year Forms Small Businesses File
January is form season: W-2s to employees, 1099-NECs to contractors, transmittals to the IRS, all with mid-month deadlines. The businesses that scramble missed one thing earlier - reconciling payments before the calendar flipped.
Who gets what
| Form | Goes to | Covers |
|---|---|---|
| W-2 | Employees | Wages, withholding for the year |
| W-3 | Social Security Administration | Transmittal summarizing W-2s |
| 1099-NEC | Nonemployee compensation recipients | Contractor payments at threshold |
| 1099-MISC | Rent, other income types | Payments outside NEC categories |
The deadlines that bite
Most of these land in the last week of January, with a handful of variations by form and delivery method. The recurring failure is not the deadline itself - it is discovering in January that a vendor was paid eight hundred dollars above the reporting threshold with no W-9 collected, so no TIN exists to file against.
Collect now, not in January
- Collect a signed W-9 from every vendor before first payment, not at year end.
- Reconcile contractor totals quarterly, while corrections are cheap.
- Confirm employee names and SSNs against records before the final payroll.
Run payroll through a provider and this compresses into reviewing drafts. E-filing obligations apply sooner than you think; see the electronic filing mandate, and note penalties adjust annually - indexed reporting penalties.
Next
Frequently asked
Do I issue a 1099 to a corporation?
Corporations are generally excluded, with attorney fees a notable exception. LLCs taxed as corporations differ from LLCs taxed as partnerships - check the W-9.
What if a contractor refuses to give a W-9?
Backup withholding applies at the prescribed rate, and the payment is still reported. Refusal shifts cost to them, not to the obligation.
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