A 1099 is an income reporting document filed with the IRS to report payments made to others. It essentially acts as a tax receipt, if you have not filed one for payments to contractors and you are audited you may be denied the deduction.
1099’s are generally sent by businesses using contractors for services, landlords to their repairs and maintenance vendors, for payments to attorneys, and for other income paid in the course of business.
In the digital era 1099’s are now widely provided to the recipient (vendor/service provider) from their merchant services provider. All payments made electronically, not by cash or check, are reported by the credit card processor to IRS on form 1099-K.
If you are the business sending the 1099 you need to send it to all those whom you paid over $600 in cash/check services in the year. It goes on 1099-NEC if it was paid to a non corporation for a service. Use form 1099-MISC for rents paid (box 1), payments to an attorney (box 10), and many other miscellaneous payments that you may need to report.
Use form W-9 to request the required information from vendors and service providers.
File the form online or prepare a red form and mail it in, due 1/31/20xx.