Payroll & Tax
Form W-9
What is Form W-9?
Form W-9 is the IRS form a US person completes to give a business their correct name, taxpayer identification number and tax classification, so the business can report payments made to them and know whether backup withholding applies.
What the form does
Form W-9, 'Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification', is not filed with the IRS. It is exchanged between a payer and a payee and kept on file. The payee certifies three things: that the taxpayer identification number given is correct, that they are not subject to backup withholding, and that they are a US person — a citizen, resident alien, domestic partnership, corporation or estate.
The information drives downstream reporting. A business that pays an unincorporated US contractor $600 or more during the year must issue Form 1099-NEC in January, and the name, TIN and classification on that 1099 come straight from the W-9. Collecting the form before the first payment, rather than at year end when the contractor has moved on, is the single practical habit that prevents January chaos.
Filling it in correctly
Line 1 must show the name on the payee's tax return. Line 2 is the business or trade name if different. Line 3 is the federal tax classification, and this is where errors concentrate: a single-member LLC that is a disregarded entity ticks 'Individual/sole proprietor or single-member LLC' and enters the owner's SSN or EIN, not the LLC's EIN. An LLC taxed as an S or C corporation ticks the LLC box and enters the relevant tax classification letter. Corporations are generally exempt from 1099-NEC reporting, apart from legal and medical payments.
If a payee refuses to provide a W-9, or supplies a TIN that fails IRS matching, the payer must apply backup withholding at 24% of the gross payment and remit it to the IRS. That is not optional, and a payer who neither withholds nor collects the form can be assessed for the tax it should have withheld.
W-9 versus W-8BEN
Form W-9 is for US persons only. A non-US individual contractor completes Form W-8BEN and a non-US entity completes W-8BEN-E, certifying foreign status and claiming any treaty benefit that reduces US withholding. Sending a W-9 to a developer in Poland or the Philippines is a common onboarding mistake; it produces a false certification of US status and the wrong year-end reporting.
Keep a completed W-9 for at least four years after the last payment, and refresh it whenever a payee changes name, entity type or taxpayer number. The form itself does not expire.
Why it matters when hiring globally
- A W-9 only answers the reporting question. It does not establish that someone is genuinely a contractor — a worker can hold a signed W-9 and still be an employee in substance, with back taxes, FUTA and penalties attached.
- TalentStores handles the classification decision before the paperwork: we model the role as a contractor engagement or an Employer of Record employment, then run the correct documentation for the worker's country.
- For teams paying contractors across several countries, contractor payments through TalentStores consolidate W-9 and W-8 collection, invoicing and year-end reporting into one process instead of one spreadsheet per market.
Frequently asked questions
Who has to fill out a Form W-9?
Any US person — individual, sole proprietor, LLC, partnership or corporation — who receives reportable payments from a US business. The payer requests it, the payee completes it, and the payer keeps it on file rather than sending it to the IRS.
What happens if a contractor will not provide a W-9?
The payer must apply backup withholding at 24% of each gross payment and remit it to the IRS. Backup withholding continues until a valid form with a matching taxpayer number is received.