Do You Have to 1099 Someone Who Did Work at Your House?

The short version

1099-NEC reporting is generally a business requirement. A homeowner paying somebody to clear a yard or help with a move, for personal reasons and not as part of a trade or business, usually does not issue one.

If you are running a business, or the property is a rental you treat as a business, the picture changes and the 600 dollar threshold for the year starts to matter.

This is general information rather than tax advice, and an accountant will answer it for your situation in about five minutes.

Where the line usually sits

Two questions decide most cases.

• Was the work for your household, or for a business you run?
• Across the whole year, did you pay that one person 600 dollars or more?

The household employee question is different

There is a separate set of rules for household employees, the nanny tax rules, which can apply to somebody who works in or around your home under your direction on an ongoing basis.

A one day helper is rarely that. Somebody who cleans your house every week on your schedule might be. If you are close to that line, ask an accountant rather than guessing, because the answer changes what you owe.

What to do either way

Keep a record of the date, the person, the hours, and the amount, whether or not any form is coming. It costs nothing and it settles any later argument about what was paid.

If you might cross the business line, collect a W-9 when you hire rather than chasing somebody in January. Once a person has been paid and gone, your leverage is zero.

What the worker owes regardless

The income counts for them whether a form is issued or not. That is their responsibility, not yours, and a worker who is treating this properly is already setting aside about a quarter of it.

So nobody is being helped by leaving the payment undocumented. A written record protects both sides.

If you hire regularly, get it right once

Somebody who hires help a few times a year for a rental, a shop, or a side business is on the business side of this and should have a simple system: a W-9 at hire, a note of every payment, and a look at the totals each January.

Our guide on W-9, W-2, and when you issue a 1099 lays out which form goes which direction and when.