Form 1099-MISC: Miscellaneous Information

You file Form 1099-MISC if you paid someone during the year in the course of your business. Personal payments are not reportable. You are in a trade or business if you operate for gain or profit. Nonprofit organizations count as engaged in a trade or business, so they report too. Payments by federal, state, or local government agencies are also reportable.

The amount that triggers a form depends on the type of payment. You also file for anyone from whom you withheld federal income tax under the backup withholding rules, no matter how small the payment was. Most payments to corporations stay off the form, but you still report fish bought for resale, medical and health care payments, substitute payments in lieu of dividends or tax-exempt interest, and gross proceeds paid to an attorney.

• $10 or more in royalties, or broker payments in lieu of dividends or tax-exempt interest
• Any fishing boat proceeds received
• $600 or more in gross proceeds paid to an attorney
• $2,000 or more in rents, prizes and awards, other income, medical and health care payments, crop insurance proceeds, section 409A deferrals, or nonqualified deferred compensation
• Sales totaling $5,000 or more of consumer products for resale, reported in box 7 here or in box 2 of Form 1099-NEC

File Form 1099-MISC with the IRS by February 28 if you file on paper, or by March 31 if you file electronically. You have to furnish the recipient statements by January 31. If any of those dates falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday in the District of Columbia or where the return is to be filed, the due date moves to the next business day. Leap years do not change the due date.

This revision is continuous use. Use the December 2026 revision to report 2026 amounts, with the first filings going to the IRS in early 2027. Keep using it for later years until a superseding revision comes out, and do not use it for prior years. One catch on direct sales: if you report sales totaling $5,000 or more on Form 1099-NEC instead of in box 7, that form is due to the IRS by January 31.

Three boxes are new. Box 13a shows cash tips that are already included in box 3. Box 13b holds up to two Treasury Tipped Occupation Codes for the occupations the tips came from. Box 14 shows qualified overtime compensation, also already included in box 3. The payer and recipient address fields are now split into individual entry boxes.

The minimum threshold for reporting certain payments and performing backup withholding went up to $2,000 for tax years beginning after 2025, and it may be adjusted for inflation beginning in calendar year 2027. Excess golden parachute payments no longer belong on Form 1099-MISC. You report those on Form 1099-NEC, box 3. If you have 10 or more information returns in the aggregate to file, you may be required to e-file.

The form comes in several copies. Copy A goes to the Internal Revenue Service Center. Copy 1 goes to your state tax department if the state requires a paper copy. Copy B goes to the recipient to keep for their records. Copy 2 goes to the recipient for filing a state income tax return. Copies 1, B, and 2 are fillable online in PDF format, so you can complete them to furnish statements and to keep in your own files.

Do not print Copy A from a downloaded PDF and file it. Copy A appears in red because the official printed version is scannable and self-printed versions are not. The IRS may impose a penalty for filing information return forms it cannot scan. E-filing through the free Information Return Intake System is easier and faster, or you can order official returns that include a scannable Copy A. The order limit for most information returns is 10.

Plenty of payments are taxable to the person who receives them and still stay off this form, either because they belong on a different form or because no reporting is required at all. Report each payment in the proper box, because the IRS uses that box to work out whether the recipient reported the payment correctly.

• Payments to a corporation, including an LLC treated as a C or S corporation, apart from the reportable types listed above
• Merchandise, telegrams, telephone, freight, storage, and similar items
• Rent paid to a real estate agent or property manager, though that agent or manager reports the rent passed on to the property owner
• Wages, military differential wage payments, and business travel allowances for employees, which go on Form W-2
• Credit card, payment card, and third-party network payments, which the payment settlement entity reports on Form 1099-K
• Canceled debt, which goes on Form 1099-C
• Scholarship or fellowship grants and employee business expense reimbursements

The payer has reported the same information to the IRS, along with your full taxpayer identification number, even if the copy you got shows only the last four digits. Rents in box 1 go on Schedule E (Form 1040), or on Schedule C (Form 1040) if you provided significant services to the tenant, sold real estate as a business, or rented personal property as a business. Box 3 other income generally goes on the Other income line of Schedule 1 (Form 1040), and you identify the payment.

Amounts shown may be subject to self-employment tax, and individuals should see the Instructions for Schedule SE (Form 1040). Corporations, fiduciaries, and partnerships report the amounts on the appropriate lines of their own returns. Use box 13a with the codes in box 13b for the qualified tip deduction in Part II of Schedule 1-A (Form 1040), and box 14 for the overtime deduction in Part III. If the form is wrong or was issued in error, contact the payer. If you cannot get it corrected, attach an explanation to your return and report your information correctly.