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The basics, and the 2026 change
If you pay a US freelancer (an individual or a single-member LLC) at least the reporting threshold in a calendar year for services, you generally file a Form 1099-NEC for them by January 31 of the next year.
The threshold depends on the year the payment was made. It was $600 for payments made in 2025 and earlier, and it is $2,000 for payments made in 2026 onward, with the $2,000 adjusted for inflation in later years. So the forms you file in January 2026 still use $600, and the ones you file in January 2027 use $2,000. Source: IRS, Instructions for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC (irs.gov/instructions/i1099mec), checked September 30, 2026.
That grip you hired for a day in March and again in October? Add the two days up and compare the total with the threshold for that year. Payments to corporations, including S corporations, are generally exempt, which you only know if you collected the W-9.
W-9 before day one
The W-9 gives you the crew member's legal name, entity type and taxpayer number: everything the 1099 needs. Collect it before their first call time, while they are keen to get booked. In January they are on a shoot in another state and your email competes with everyone else's. Make it part of booking: no W-9, no call sheet. Nobody minds, and it reads as professional.
Contractor or employee? The line matters
Most day-rate crew hired shoot by shoot with their own kit are treated as contractors, but the tests are about control and independence, and states differ (California's ABC test is the famous one). If someone works for you most days, on your gear, on your schedule, that pattern starts to look like employment whatever the invoice says. Misclassification penalties are the expensive kind. When a crew member becomes a fixture, that is the conversation to have with your accountant.
The ten-minute system
Keep one place where every crew member has a W-9 on file and every payment is logged with a date, a project and an amount. In January your 1099 list is a filter (total at or above the threshold for that year, entity type not a corporation) instead of an archaeology project. An e-filing service turns that list into filed forms in an afternoon.
In Cutvey, crew send their invoices to you through the job, you approve and pay them, and the year-end report lists who crossed the threshold for the year the payments were made. W-9 collection and 1099 totals are for workspaces that bill in US dollars.
The dates and figures, with sources
| Item | The rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Threshold, payments made through 2025 | $600 for most Form 1099-NEC payments | IRS instructions |
| Threshold, payments made from 2026 | $2,000, and it may be adjusted for inflation from 2027 | IRS instructions |
| Due date | January 31, to the IRS and to the worker | IRS instructions |
| Backup withholding | 24 percent, when it applies | IRS backup withholding |
| Contractor or employee | Behavioral, financial, and type of relationship | IRS |
Read November 2026. Rules change, so check the IRS page for your year.
A worked example
Here is a sample year for one freelance grip, paid in 2026.
| Date | Job | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| March | Commercial, 1 day | $700 |
| June | Corporate, 1 day | $700 |
| September | Commercial, 1 day | $700 |
| Total | $2,100 |
That total is at or over the $2,000 threshold for 2026, so a 1099-NEC would generally be due at the end of January 2027, or the next business day, unless an exception applies, such as the payee being a corporation. Under the old $600 rule, the first job alone would have crossed the line. Keep the W-9 on file either way.
Year-end checklist
- In December, list every crew member and vendor you paid this year, with totals.
- Check who has a W-9 on file. Chase the missing ones now, while people answer.
- Mark corporations and S corporations, which are generally exempt.
- Note who you paid by card or a payment app, since those processors may report separately. Ask your accountant.
- In January, have your accountant or filing service file. Cutvey files nothing.
Common questions
A crew member's LLC invoiced us. A single-member LLC is treated as the person, unless it has elected corporate tax. The W-9 says which.
We paid a kit fee on top of the day. It generally counts as part of what you paid them.
They were on set under our direction all year. That is the employee question, and it is worth talking to an adviser about. Labels on an invoice do not settle it.
In Cutvey the crew's invoices land on the job, W-9s are collected once, and the year-end report shows who crossed the threshold for the year each payment was made. Those are totals for your accountant, and they are for US-dollar workspaces. Read more on the crew side, and for the rest of the year's paperwork, see bookkeeping for video production companies.