What is Form 1099-NEC?

The IRS describes it in one sentence: "Use Form 1099-NEC to report nonemployee compensation." It is filed with the IRS and a copy goes to the person paid. The threshold moved in 2026. For payments made before 2026 the reporting threshold was $600; for payments made in 2026 it is $2,000, and after 2026 it follows the inflation-adjusted figure in Pub. 1099. The deadline did not move: the form is filed on or before January 31.

Who is left out. Payments to a corporation, including an LLC treated as a C or S corporation, are generally not reported. Payments to nonresident aliens go on Form 1042-S instead, which is what the W-8BEN on file is for. And payments made by credit card or through a third-party payment network are reported on Form 1099-K by the payment settlement entity, not on a 1099-NEC. The freelancer you pay by card through a platform is the platform's form; the one you pay by bank transfer or in USDC is yours.

Crypto changes the arithmetic, not the answer. The IRS measures virtual currency received for services at its fair market value in US dollars when it was received, so the figure on the form is the dollar value on the day of each payment, not a count of tokens.

What you need per contractor by the end of January: legal name, taxpayer identification number and address from the W-9 collected before the first payment, and the year's total by payment date. Collect the W-9 at onboarding, not in January, and the form is a report you run rather than a chase.

How this shows up in Orla

Orla does not prepare or file 1099s, files nothing with any tax authority and withholds nothing. It keeps what the form is built from. The contact card carries the contractor's tax id and country, with the W-9 under its documents. The Payments page exports a CSV of exactly what its filters show, with date, payee, amount, currency, status, account, transaction hash and the amount in USD, so a stablecoin payout reaches the accountant with a dollar figure beside the token amount.

Asked what was paid to a supplier by payment date, Orla counts payments rather than invoices, because an invoice paid in two instalments arrived in two different months and belongs in both.

Not tax advice. This describes what the IRS publishes; which of it applies to you is your accountant's call.

Sources, read on 26 September 2026

• IRS, About Form 1099-NEC: “Use Form 1099-NEC to report nonemployee compensation.”
• IRS, Instructions for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC: “File Form 1099-NEC on or before January 31, using either paper or electronic filing procedures.”
• IRS, Am I required to file a Form 1099 or other information return?: “For payments made in 2026, the reporting threshold is $2,000.”
• IRS, Frequently asked questions on virtual currency transactions: “The amount of income you must recognize is the fair market value of the virtual currency, in U.S. dollars, when received.”