Question

Hey guys, California here.  Does anyone know about W9's?Hey guys, California here. Does anyone know about W9's? Getting a fence installed between me and my neigbor and the neighbor keeps asking me to get the W9. Is that something to worry about? Also, Do I just request it from the company or do I send them a form? Right now Im just worried that if I get the W9, I might get cheated somehow but thats just coming from a place of me not knowing anything about it.  

Answer 1

I manage a business and get W9s from any subcontractors, like our handy man. But if it's an incorporated company (which I suspect they are unless it's just one guy, and even then he might be), you shouldn't need it anyway as they wouldn't get 1099'd. But there's no harm in getting it if he usually gets 1099s.  

Answer 2

A W-9 is an information form used to send a 1099 to anyone you pay more than $600 to. There’s no way to get screwed by asking for the W-9 (and yeah, you’d just say “hey will you give me a W-9? Thanks” and they’ll email/Gand you one with their info filled out. ) You could, in theory, get it and do nothing with it. I’d ask your neighbor if they’re going to send the contractor a 1099. Are YOU paying for it or are they? Why are they asking you to get it? As someone who no longer works for a CPA firm. I’d NEVER send a 1099 to someone putting up a new fence. No way. Way too much hassle, and let me emphasize that I do this for a living (just, for a private company now). Are you supposed to? Yeah. Can they enforce it? I mean. I guess if you were audited and they picked that charge. or if the contractor was audited and they picked YOUR invoice and also demanded to see the 1099 associated and then tracked it back to you. I don’t work for the IRS but like, eh.  

Comments

@vitellus3 I am paying the fence but the neighbor is supposed to pay me his half. I’m afraid he will balk on paying me his half if I don’t give him the w9 though and I’m afraid of being cheated out of something if I do give him a copy of the w9

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@voluntary he might want the W-9 to have the contractor’s info in case things go wrong. That’s like the best case, benefit of the doubt scenario. When you say cheated out of something, what do you mean by that? Where are your thoughts going with this?  

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@vitellus3 honestly I don’t know. My mind goes to not being able to claim anything on taxes, but like I said earlier I have no idea what the w9 is for

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@voluntary the W-9 is honestly just informational. It’s not something that’s submitted to the IRS. If you were a company paying this and using it as a business deduction, you WOULD WANT to send a 1099 (you get the W-9 to get the info to send the 1099) because then you could take the deduction in your business. But as an individual, there’s really nothing to claim in the first place.  

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@vitellus3 thank you!  

Answer 3

I can't think of any way to be cheated over this.