Does anyone ever send a 1099 for amounts less than $600?

Question

(As a US citizen) I have a small side business in addition to my regular full-time job. During a normal year, I receive several 1099 forms for this work, which I file and use Schedule C to pay my Self-Employment taxes (I'm a good boy).

This year, due to the pandemic, I still did some work for these entities, but many of them paid me less than the $600 threshold for a 1099.

Is there any reason to expect that I might still get a 1099 from them this year? Note that I do intend on claiming the income and paying taxes on it, but TurboTax enters 1099 forms in a different box than income received without a 1099. I want to be sure that I have put the income in the right place, and I don't want to file my takes only to receive a 1099 after-the-fact that might require me to amend my tax return.

Answer 1

I used to work for a company that sent out 1099s to ALL the accounts they paid to. I realize that is not typical but there are some who do and others who use a lower threshold than $600.

As long as you are reporting all your income, you have nothing to worry about.

Also keep in mind that they may or may not send you a 1099 for less than $600 but may report all payments to the IRS. Today they must file 1099 data electronically and so it's just another record in the data file.

Answer 2

In TurboTax, you can create a 1099-MISC or 1099-NEC form for each of the entities that paid you in 2021. If you have the 2020 (or earlier) 1099 forms available, you can find the legal name, address and Employer ID for each entity. If you had a brand-new client for 2022, you can still create the 1099 Form. You might not have the Employer ID or the address for the company, and TurboTax will complain and take you back several times to ask you to provide the missing entries, but it will let you file your tax return. Since you say that you are a good boy, you presumably have good records and know (or have records of) _all_the entities that paid you. The IRS mostly checks that you have reported all your income that the IRS knows about, and not the full details of who and and where from you received the incomes, and so a late 1099 should not be a cause for worry.