If you pay independent contractors, the IRS expects a 1099 for each one you paid enough in a year, and the 1099 needs their legal name, address and taxpayer ID. kBooks keeps all three on the contact and gets them from the contractor directly, on a W-9 they fill in online.
Mark a contractor for 1099s
Open the contact on Contacts and tick Track for 1099 (independent contractor). From then on, what you pay them counts toward their 1099.
Ask for their W-9
In the same contact, under the tax ID box, the W-9 panel sends them the form:
- Check the email address and press Request W-9.
- They get a private link. No account is needed, and the link works once, for 30 days.
- They fill in the IRS Form W-9 online: their legal name, their tax classification, their address and their Social Security Number or EIN. Then they tick the certification and type their name to sign it.
- The moment they sign, their tax ID and address are filled in on the contact, and you get an email saying so.
The panel shows where it stands: Sent, not opened yet, Opened, not signed yet, W-9 on file with who signed and when, Link expired, or Withdrawn. Send again mails a fresh link and stops the old one; Withdraw stops it without sending another.
If email for W-9 requests is not switched on for your account, kBooks still makes the link and shows it to you with a Copy link button, so you can send it yourself.
What happens to the number
The tax ID is encrypted the moment it is saved, whether the contractor signed a W-9 or you typed it in yourself. You only ever see the last four digits again, and it is left out of every export of your books. The signed W-9 is kept on file with the contractor's answers, the time and the address it was signed from.
Check who is ready for a 1099
On Reports, the 1099 summary lists every contractor you paid in the year with what is reportable, whether they reach the filing threshold, and a Tax ID column. Once your expense accounts are mapped to 1099 boxes, each form is checked against its own threshold and the row shows the split (for example "MISC $400.00 / NEC $300.00"), so two forms that each fall short are not flagged just because they add up past the line. A box with its own figure is checked against that figure: royalties are reported from $10.
- W-9 signed: they filled in and signed their W-9.
- Typed in: someone entered the number by hand.
- W-9 sent: you asked, and they have not signed yet.
- Missing: open the contact and press Request W-9.
Print each contractor's copy
The 1099 summary has a Recipient copies button. It opens every copy the year owes: one line per contractor and form (a contractor paid both rent and for their work gets a 1099-MISC and a 1099-NEC), with the boxes and the amount on each.
- Copies that are ready start ticked. Print puts each one on its own page: the 1099 the IRS accepts in place of its printed form (Copy B, For Recipient), with your company's name, address, EIN and phone number, the contractor's name and address, their tax ID showing only its last four digits, the boxes as that year's IRS form numbers them, and the IRS's instructions for the contractor underneath. Save it as a PDF from the print window to email it.
- A copy that is missing something cannot be ticked and says what it needs, usually their tax ID or their address. A signed W-9 fills in both.
- If your company's details are missing (legal name, address, EIN or a business phone, which the IRS requires on the copy), the window says so and nothing prints until you add them in Settings > Company > Company information.
The copy uses the name the contractor certified on their W-9, with their business name on the line under it. Filing the 1099s with the IRS is a separate step.