The Difference Between a 1099 and a W-2 Tax Form
Both the Form W-2 and Form 1099 serve a similar purpose—to report income you earned from sources throughout the tax year—but each is issued under different circumstances and requires slightly different approaches for tax season planning. Here are some tips to decode these two forms and what to expect when preparing your taxes.
Key Takeaways
- If you work as an employee, you’ll receive a W-2 form from your employer that shows your tax information for the year, but if you’re an independent contractor or own your own business, you’ll receive 1099 forms from clients with your tax information.
- If you’re an independent contractor or own your own business, you may receive several 1099 forms from clients.
- Taxes are not usually withheld by the clients of independent contractors and small businesses, so self-employed people are responsible for estimating your taxes and paying the self-employment tax in addition to your income tax.
- You’re required to report all of your income on your tax return, even if you do not receive a 1099 or W-2 form.
Your W-2 Form: The Basics
You'll receive a W-2 form if you're an employee. The IRS requires your employer to record your salary and tax information and report it to you on a W-2. The form shows how much money you earned from that employer during the year, which you can use in calculating your adjusted gross income, or AGI. The form also shows your tax withholdings for the year, including federal and state taxes.
Essentially, the W-2 will give you a sense of how much you were paid and how much you've already submitted to the IRS and your state in taxes.
Your Form 1099: The Basics
The 1099 form, by contrast, records income you received as an independent contractor or for some other source of income. For example, if you're a freelancer or own your own business, you’ll likely receive several 1099 forms from your clients. The IRS requires businesses to issue a form 1099 if they've paid you at least $600 that year.
Depending on your money-making activities, you may receive a few different 1099 forms to track your income. For example, you might receive a 1099-K form, which is used for payments via settlement entities (like PayPal) to record your business transactions for the year. Use the sum total of your 1099 forms to calculate your total income and AGI.
The IRS is gradually phasing in new 1099-K reporting requirements for payments from third-party processors like Venmo and Paypal. In 2021, Congress changed the reporting threshold from over $20,000 in payments and more than 200 transactions to over $600 in payments regardless of the number of transactions. But instead of using the new $600 threshold right away, the IRS applied the previous reporting threshold for the 2022 and 2023 tax years. For the 2024 tax year, the IRS is using a $5,000 threshold, regardless of the number of transactions. The threshold will drop to $2,500, regardless of the number of transactions, for the 2025 tax year. Starting in 2026, the $600 threshold will apply.
Where 1099 forms differ from W-2 forms is in tax withholdings.
- Taxes are not usually withheld by the payer for 1099 forms.
- As a freelancer, you're responsible for estimating your taxes and paying the self-employment tax in addition to your income tax.
- Instead of withholding taxes with each payment, you'll typically make tax payments quarterly based on your estimated annual tax liability.
As a result, your 1099 form won't show the taxes you've already paid to the government—just your income from each client.
TurboTax Tip:
Compare the income information on both your 1099 and W-2 forms with your own records for accuracy when filing your taxes.
Using the W-2 and 1099 Forms to File Your Taxes
It's simple to file your taxes, whether you received W-2s, 1099s, or both. Compare the income information on both forms with your records for accuracy. And remember that just because you did not receive a 1099 or W-2 form for certain income doesn't mean that you can leave it off of your tax returns. You are required to report all of your income.
If you file your taxes with TurboTax, you’ll have the option to record or import your W-2 form right away, and easily search for each of the other Form 1099 options.
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