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    SiteKiln, Your rights on site. In plain English.

    The 1099-NEC threshold is now $2,000 for subcontractor payments

    By SiteKiln ·

    If you pay subcontractors, the number you have had in your head for years has changed.

    The 1099-NEC reporting threshold is $2,000 in 2026. It used to be $600, and that $600 figure had been the rule for so long that most contractors treat it as permanent. It is not.

    What actually changed

    You file a 1099-NEC for each unincorporated sub you paid $2,000 or more across the year. Under the old rule that was $600. Everything else about the form works the way it always did:

    • It goes to both the sub and the IRS by January 31. That deadline did not move.
    • It applies to individuals, partnerships and single-member LLCs. Corporations are generally out.
    • It is for services performed in the course of your business, not personal work on your own house.

    The threshold gets indexed going forward, so expect it to drift upward rather than sit at $2,000 forever.

    The part that catches people out

    Raising the threshold does not raise the point at which income becomes taxable. Your sub still owes tax on every dollar, and you still owe tax on every dollar you are paid, whether or not a form was issued. A 1099 is a reporting document, not the thing that creates the liability. Plenty of people misread a higher threshold as a higher tax-free allowance. It is not that.

    And the W-9 discipline has not changed either. Get one before you pay anyone, not in January when you are trying to file. If a sub will not give you a valid taxpayer ID, or the IRS tells you the one they gave is wrong, you are required to withhold 24% of what you pay them and send it to the IRS on Form 945. That is a genuinely painful position to be in, and it is entirely avoidable with a form that takes two minutes at the start of a job.

    What to do about it

    Two things, both small:

    1. Check whatever you use to track sub payments is flagging at $2,000, not $600.
    2. Collect W-9s at onboarding, not at year end.

    Full detail, including the corporation exception and what happens when you get a TIN mismatch letter, is in How to file a 1099-NEC for subcontractors. The rest of the tax guides live in Taxes and the IRS.