Your bank statements already know who gets a 1099
January's 1099 deadline is a list-building problem: who you paid, how much across the year, and by what method. If no bookkeeping system tracked that, the statements did. Here is how to turn them into the January list.
- 1099-NEC forms are due January 31, to recipients and the IRS, for the prior year's service payments.
- The threshold is $600 for payments made through 2025; it rises to $2,000 for payments made in 2026 or later.
- Only direct payments count (checks, cash, ACH). Card and processor payments are the processor's 1099-K problem, not yours.
- The whole job is a per-payee, per-year total with the payment method attached, which is exactly what statements record.
- RapidPnL's Excel export ships a 1099 Review sheet built from your reconciled statements: payees, totals, methods, threshold applied.
- Collect W-9s before paying people, not in January.
Why this is a statements problem
A 1099-NEC asks three things about each service provider you paid: the year's total, whether it crossed the threshold, and whether you paid them directly or through a card network. All three live on your bank statements. Every check, every ACH, every transfer out carries a date, an amount, and a payee string; group those by payee across twelve months and the January list writes itself. The reason the job feels hard in January is not that the data is missing. It is that nobody grouped it.
Building the list by hand
- 01Pull all twelve months of statements for every account you pay people from, including the one you 'only used a few times.'
- 02Mark every outbound payment to a person or unincorporated business for services: contractors, cleaners, designers, bookkeepers, rent to an individual landlord.
- 03Skip card payments; those are reported by the card networks on 1099-K. Your list covers checks, cash, ACH, and bank transfers.
- 04Total per payee for the calendar year and apply the year's threshold ($600 through 2025 payments; $2,000 for 2026 and later).
- 05For everyone over the line, confirm you hold a W-9; request the missing ones now, while there are weeks rather than days.
- 06Hand the list, totals, and W-9s to your preparer, who determines the final filing set (entity types matter, and attorneys are reportable regardless of entity).
The shortcut, honestly described
RapidPnL builds this list as a byproduct of the P&L. Upload the year's statement PDFs and the Excel workbook that comes back includes a 1099 Review sheet: every payee paid from bank accounts in service and rent categories, totaled per calendar year, with card-paid vendors excluded by construction and the year's threshold already applied. Because it is built from statements that reconciled to the penny, the totals are the defensible kind. It is labeled a review list for your preparer, not a filing decision: statements cannot see entity types, which is what the W-9s are for. A full year is typically $130 and takes minutes, and the same order delivers the Schedule C numbers the rest of tax season needs.
Generally: unincorporated people and businesses you paid at or above the reporting threshold during the calendar year for services (not goods), by check, cash, ACH, or transfer apps set to business mode. The threshold is $600 for payments made through 2025 and $2,000 for payments made in 2026 or later. Corporations are generally exempt, with attorneys as the notable exception.
January 31, both to the recipient and to the IRS, for the prior calendar year's payments. It is one of the earliest deadlines of tax season, which is exactly why the payee list is worth building from statements in advance instead of reconstructing in a late-January scramble.
No. Payments made by card or through third-party payment networks are reported by the processor on Form 1099-K, not by you. Your 1099-NEC obligation covers what you paid directly: checks, cash, ACH, and bank transfers. This is why the payment method column matters as much as the amount.
Form W-9 is how a contractor gives you their legal name, entity type, and taxpayer identification number: everything you need to file their 1099. The painless time to collect it is before the first payment, when the contractor is motivated. Chasing W-9s in January from people you paid in March is the classic failure mode.
Per-form penalties apply for late or missed filings, tiered by how late, and they rise if the IRS considers the failure intentional. The amounts adjust periodically. More practically: the deduction on your return and the 1099 you did not file describe the same payment, and mismatches invite exactly the attention nobody wants.
Every order's Excel workbook includes a 1099 Review sheet: payees paid from your bank accounts (checks and ACH, card payments excluded by construction) in service and rent categories, totaled per payee per calendar year, with the year's threshold applied. It is a starting list for your preparer, built from the same reconciled data as your P&L, not tax advice.
Upload the PDFs and get a management-use profit & loss in minutes, with every statement reconciled to the penny. $49 for 3 months, then $9 each additional month. Full refund if we can't reconcile.
The free statement is read, categorized, and reconciled on screen before you pay anything. One per person; no card required.
Written by a licensed CPA. This guide is general information, not tax, legal, accounting, or financial advice, and does not create a professional relationship. Lender requirements and bank websites change; confirm specifics with your lender and financial institution. RapidPnL reports are cash-basis summaries generated from customer-provided data for management use only, not audited or CPA-reviewed. © 2026 RapidPnL LLC.