Contractors
People you pay without withholding, and the classification that has to be right.
A contractor gets gross pay, no withholding, and a 1099 at year end. An employee gets withholding, employer taxes and a W-2. Getting the classification wrong is expensive and the liability runs backwards.
Each contractor holds their tax form, payment details and payment history against the annual reporting threshold.
Where everything sits
How to work this page
A W-9 domestically. Without it, backup withholding applies and recovering it is difficult.
Control over how and when work is done is what determines it, not what the agreement is called.
It is cumulative across the year, and crossing the threshold is what triggers reporting.
Contractors are vendors. Terms, references and approvals work the same way.
On a phone
Every figure from the desktop appears here, stacked rather than reduced. Tables scroll inside themselves so the page never moves sideways, and figures keep their separators and their alignment at every width.
Questions people actually ask
Rarely, and it invites scrutiny. If it happens the two relationships are kept entirely separate.
A W-8 rather than a W-9, and generally no 1099. Withholding rules differ by country and treaty and the form records the position.