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I worked for an employer for around 5 months receiving a total of $39,000. When I started working with them, I signed a job offer but that was it. All payments were made via. wire transfer.

Since leaving the employer, I've yet to receive either a W-2 or a 1099-NEC. I obviously still need to report these earnings when filing my tax paperwork, but I'm not sure how I go about filing it if I've not received either a 1099-NEC or a W-2.

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  • Have you contacted the employer about this? Maybe it's an error in their system or the form just got lost in the mail.
    – user19035
    Commented Apr 6, 2022 at 17:43
  • @AxiomaticNexus I've reached out about 15 times over both SMS and Email requesting both the tax documents as well as the last paycheck i was never paid. They still owe me around $7,500 on top of not giving me this tax paperwork.
    – Nathan F.
    Commented Apr 6, 2022 at 17:51
  • And what has been their excuse? Sounds like a great opportunity for a lawsuit.
    – user19035
    Commented Apr 6, 2022 at 17:54
  • @AxiomaticNexus Well they haven't responded to me, so I don't know what their excuse is lol
    – Nathan F.
    Commented Apr 6, 2022 at 17:55
  • Besides SMS and e-mail, have you actually called?
    – user19035
    Commented Apr 6, 2022 at 17:56

3 Answers 3

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It's actually a pretty big problem.

Has the employer withheld payroll taxes? (Social Security, Medicare) Have you been considered an employee according to the State law or the IRS guidance?

If you're considered a contractor according to the law/guidance, then report as if you've received 1099-NEC and pay the self-employment tax.

If you're considered an employee, then your employer should have paid payroll taxes (which include FICA, FUTA, State taxes and other mandatory payments), and should have reported them timely and properly on various forms, including W2. If they didn't - you can complain to your State labor board or other regulatory agency responsible for oversight of labor laws, and the IRS. The IRS instructions are at the same link I posted above.

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  • Based on the number that was provided in the job offer i signed, they were paying me without deducting taxes from it. I assumed this just meant I was supposed to pay taxes on in myself. But i wasn't technically a contracted employee, the only paperwork I ever signed with them was a job offer.
    – Nathan F.
    Commented Apr 4, 2022 at 18:15
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    @NathanF. you're responsible for your income taxes, but if you're an employee then the employer is responsible for payroll taxes. That's the law. What piece of paper you signed doesn't matter, what matters is what you have factually been doing. Read the IRS site carefully, and check your own State laws.
    – littleadv
    Commented Apr 4, 2022 at 18:17
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    @NathanF. fyi - employers messing with payroll taxes is a huge action target for the IRS. Just saying...
    – littleadv
    Commented Apr 4, 2022 at 18:19
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    Just to make sure it's clear, it's the employer that's done wrong here in the IRS's eyes, not you. You definitely have some obligations, whether or not the employer cooperates, but they're the ones who have royally screwed the pooch if they were supposed to be paying payroll taxes and didn't do so.
    – Glenn Willen
    Commented Apr 5, 2022 at 2:26
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    How come no one is asking the obvious question: "did you contact the employer and if so, what did they say?" The OP only mentions that he's "yet to receive" the forms. For all we know they could have just gotten lost in the mail.
    – user19035
    Commented Apr 6, 2022 at 17:46
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Note that you can report income without having a 1099. So long as you know how much money you got you can go ahead and file.

While it seems they painted a big IRS target on their posterior note that it's on them, not on you.

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If they should have given you a W-2 and did not, the IRS has a page with instructions on what to do: https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc154 Basically, notify the IRS and use form 4852 to report the income that would have been on a W-2.

I'm not sure about not getting a 1099. Independent contractors and small businesses often collect income not reported on a 1099, and there's a place on the forms to say "income reported on 1099" and "income not reported on 1099", so I'd say just put it down as income not reported on a 1099. If the employer should have given you a 1099 and didn't, they're subject to fines, but that's not your problem.

My guess is that what's going on is that the employer is trying to avoid paying employment-related taxes. But it's also possible they're just disorganized.

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  • There's no different places on the forms (except 1099-PATR for cooperatives on schedule F, and the de-minimis case for reported LTCG distributions to bypass schedule D), although tax-prep software often inputs information separately from 109X's and other sources, then combines them.
    – dave_thompson_085
    Commented Apr 8, 2022 at 5:16
  • @dave_thompson_085 Oh, could be. It's been a while since I've filled out the forms by hand. I usually get a copy of the paper form and check the paper entry when answering a question like this. This time I was lazy and did not. Yeah, H&R block software asks for them separately, and when you give the non-1099 number, it asks if you're sure you didn't already report this as 1099.
    – Jay
    Commented Apr 8, 2022 at 15:30

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