By ShowMeStepByStepPublished
Based on a video by FormsPal.
Somebody paid you and now they want a W-9 before they will send the money. It looks like a tax form, which makes it feel scarier than it is.
The W-9 has exactly one job: it hands your taxpayer ID number to whoever is paying you, so they can issue a 1099 at the end of the year. It is one page, most of it optional, and it takes about five minutes once you know which lines actually apply to you.
This walks every line in order, including the optional fields most guides skip over.
Any client who pays you $600 or more in a year needs one so they can file a 1099-NEC. Banks and lenders ask for one too, so they can report mortgage interest on a 1098.
Two things worth knowing up front. The completed form goes back to the person who asked for it, not to the IRS. And if you do not return it, the payer is required to hold back 24% of your payment as backup withholding.
If you are an employee rather than a contractor, you want a W-4 instead. We have a line-by-line guide to the W-4 as well.
9 steps · about 4 minutes.Check off each step as you go and your progress saves automatically.
Line 1 is your full legal name, written exactly as it appears on your income tax return. Not a nickname, not the name of your business.
This one is required for everyone, no exceptions. If the name here does not match what the IRS has on file, the 1099 that gets generated from this form will not match either, and that is how mismatch notices start.
Tip
Married and filing under a different name than the one on your ID? Use whatever is on your tax return.
Line 2 is optional. It is for a business name, trade name or DBA that is different from the name you put on line 1.
A freelancer operating as, say, Anna Baker Designs would put that here while still having their personal legal name on line 1. If you do not have a separate business name, leave it blank and move on.
Tip
Line 2 never replaces line 1. It sits alongside it.
Check exactly one box. Most freelancers and independent contractors want the first one, individual or sole proprietor.
If you run an LLC, look at the LLC box and write C, S or P in the small space beside it to show how the LLC is taxed. Here is the exception that trips people up: a single-member LLC usually still checks the first box, not the LLC box, because the IRS disregards it as a separate entity.
Tip
One box only. Checking two is the fastest way to get the form sent back to you.
Line 3b is narrow. It only applies if you checked partnership, trust or estate, or an LLC taxed as a partnership, and you have foreign partners, owners or beneficiaries.
For almost everyone filling out a W-9 as an individual or sole proprietor, this box stays empty.
Tip
If you are not sure whether this applies to you, it almost certainly does not.
Two small boxes: an exempt payee code and a FATCA exemption code. Both are optional and both are mostly for businesses and institutions.
As an individual you will nearly always leave both blank, and that is completely fine. Blank is a valid answer here, not an oversight.
Tip
Exempt payee codes cover things like tax-exempt organisations and government bodies. The codes are listed on page 3 of the form's instructions.
Your street address, including any apartment or suite number.
Use an address you will still be checking at tax time, because this is where the 1099 gets mailed. The box to the right is for the requester's name and address. That one is optional, but filling it in is genuinely useful if you send out several W-9s a year and want a record of who asked.
Tip
Moving soon? Use the address where you will actually receive mail in January, not necessarily where you live today.
Line 6 is your city, state and ZIP code. Straightforward.
Line 7 is for account numbers, and only if the requester specifically asked you to list them. Most of the time you skip it.
Tip
Some companies use line 7 to match your W-9 to an internal vendor record. If they did not ask, leave it alone.
This is the part the whole form exists for, so slow down here.
As an individual or sole proprietor, enter your nine-digit Social Security number, one digit per box. If you are filling this out for a business, use the employer identification number boxes underneath instead. The rule is one or the other, never both.
A sole proprietor who has an EIN may use either one. A single-member LLC that is disregarded should generally use the owner's SSN.
Tip
Do not have an EIN yet and need one? You can apply free on IRS.gov in about ten minutes.
Read the four certification statements and check that they are actually true for you. They cover your TIN being correct, not being subject to backup withholding, being a US person, and FATCA reporting.
Then sign and date. Once it is signed, send the completed W-9 back to whoever requested it. It goes to them, not to the IRS. That catches a surprising number of people.
Tip
Skip the W-9 and the payer has to withhold 24% of what they owe you as backup withholding. Filling it in is what stops that.
Keep going
How to Fill Out a W-4
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