The figure everyone still quotes is out of date
Search for the 1099-NEC threshold and most of what comes back says $600. It was $600, for every year through 2025. It is not any more. Read directly at irs.gov, the Instructions for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC now say nonemployee compensation is reportable at "at least $2,000 in services performed by someone who is not your employee", and explain why in the same document: the minimum threshold "increased to $2,000" for tax years beginning after 2025, under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and it may be adjusted for inflation from calendar year 2027 onward. No figure for 2027 has been published yet, so this tool does not guess one. It uses $2,000 as the floor for 2026 and later, and says so.
The practical effect is a genuine flip, not a rounding change. A contractor paid $150 a month comes to $1,800 across the year. Under the old $600 threshold that needed a 1099-NEC every year through 2025. Under the 2026 threshold it does not, because $1,800 sits under $2,000. Anybody still working from the old figure will either issue forms nobody needs, or worse, assume a payment that really does need reporting is covered when it is not.
The threshold is a running total, not a per invoice test
It adds up everything paid to one payee across the whole year. Four separate payments of $550 come to $2,200 total, over the 2026 threshold, even though every individual payment sits under it. A payer who checks each invoice on its own and never totals the year can miss this. This tool keeps a running total for exactly that reason: add every payment made to the same payee, and the total, not any single line, decides the answer.
What is excluded, whatever the amount
A handful of situations take a payment out of 1099-NEC territory entirely, regardless of how large it is. Payments to a corporation, whether a C corporation or an S corporation, are generally exempt, with one specific exception: legal services. Fees paid to an attorney or a law firm are reportable at the same threshold whether or not the firm itself is incorporated, which is a different rule from gross proceeds paid to an attorney in a settlement, a Form 1099-MISC entry at its own unchanged $600 figure and outside the scope of this tool.
Paid by credit card, debit card, gift card or a service like PayPal or Stripe? No 1099-NEC either way. The payment processor reports that under a different rule, Form 1099-K, and reporting the same money again would double it up rather than add a useful second record. Merchandise, freight and storage are not services and stay off this form at any price, and wages to an employee belong on a W-2, not here.
The deadline, and why there is no later fallback
Both copies fall due the same day: the one furnished to the payee and the one filed with the IRS, whether that filing is on paper or electronic. Most other 1099 types split those two dates by weeks. This one does not, and the General Instructions for Certain Information Returns add a second point worth knowing before it becomes urgent: "For Forms W-2 and 1099-NEC, no automatic extension is available." Where the ordinary 31 January date lands on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, it moves to the next business day, which is why payments made in 2025 fall due on 2 February 2026 rather than the 31st.
What this does not decide
It does not tell you whether the person you paid is really a contractor rather than an employee. That question has its own federal test, and the test itself is currently unsettled: enforcement of one version stopped in 2025, an older test is back in the meantime, and a proposed replacement had not been finalised at the time of writing. Building a confident answer to that question into a threshold checker would mean quietly picking a side in a rulemaking that has not concluded. If classification is genuinely your question, the IRS's own page on the difference between an employee and an independent contractor is the place to start, not this tool.
It also does not certify that a return filed on the strength of this answer will be accepted, and it is not a substitute for whoever prepares your business's actual filing. It works out what the published rule says for the figures you entered.
Payment amounts and payee details stay put
The arithmetic runs in your browser. Payment amounts, years and payee details stay on your device and are gone when you close the tab. No account, nothing uploaded.
Common questions
Why does the threshold depend on the year the money was paid?
Because the figure changed. The Instructions for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC, read directly at irs.gov, put it plainly: "For tax years beginning after 2025, the minimum threshold amount for reporting certain payments required to be reported on certain information returns and/or perform backup withholding on those payments increased to $2,000 and may be adjusted for inflation beginning in calendar year 2027." That rise, from the long-standing $600 figure, comes from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and applies to payments made from 1 January 2026. A payment made in 2025 is still tested against $600. The same total paid in 2026 is tested against $2,000, so the year the money actually moved decides which number applies, not the year you happen to be filing in.
Is the $2,000 threshold a total for the year, or does each payment need to reach it?
It is a running total for the whole year, added up across every payment made to that one payee. Four payments of $550 come to $2,200, over the 2026 threshold, even though none of the four reaches it alone. Checking each invoice in isolation and never adding them together is the most common way this goes wrong in practice.
What if I paid a corporation?
Generally excluded. The instructions state that "payments to a corporation (including an LLC) that is treated as a C or S corporation" do not need a 1099-NEC. The exception is legal services: fees paid to an attorney or a law firm are reportable at the same threshold whether or not the firm is incorporated. That is a different rule from gross proceeds paid to an attorney in a settlement, which is a Form 1099-MISC entry with its own unchanged $600 figure and sits outside this tool.
What if the payment went through a credit card, PayPal, Stripe or a similar service?
No 1099-NEC either way, whatever the amount. Payments made by credit card, debit card, gift card or a third party payment network are reported by the processor on Form 1099-K under section 6050W. Reporting the same payment again on a 1099-NEC would double it up in the IRS system, which is a real problem for the payee, not a harmless belt and braces move.
Does this tell me whether someone is really an employee or a contractor?
That question sits outside this tool on purpose. It assumes the classification question is already settled and the payee really is a non-employee. The federal test for that underlying question is mid-rulemaking: the Department of Labor stopped enforcing its 2024 rule from 1 May 2025, reverted to the older economic reality test in the meantime, and a proposed replacement had its public comment period close without a final rule at the time of writing. A tool that answered both questions at once would be quietly taking a position on the harder, unsettled one. If that is your real question, start with the IRS's own page on the difference between an employee and an independent contractor, not here.
What happens if I do not have a W-9 from the payee?
Whether a 1099-NEC is owed does not change either way. What changes is backup withholding: if a payment needs reporting and there is no valid taxpayer ID on file, the current backup withholding rate of 24% may apply to the payment until a completed Form W-9 is on record. Asking for one before the first payment goes out avoids the problem entirely.
Can I get more time to file?
Not automatically. The General Instructions for Certain Information Returns are specific about this: "For Forms W-2 and 1099-NEC, no automatic extension is available," which sets these two forms apart from most other information returns. Both the copy furnished to the payee and the copy filed with the IRS fall due the same day, so there is no later, separate deadline to fall back on either.
Is the deadline different for paper filing versus electronic filing?
Not for Form 1099-NEC specifically. Both routes share the same 31 January date, which is unusual: most other 1099 types give electronic filers a later date than paper filers. Where 31 January lands on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, the rule is to file by the next business day, which is why tax year 2025 payments fall due on 2 February 2026 rather than the 31st.