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W-9 Collection and Management for Subcontractors: Get It Before the First Payment

The W-9 is the small form that decides whether you can issue a 1099 at year-end and whether the IRS can make you withhold 24% of a subcontractor's payments. Collected before the first check, it is a non-event. Chased in January, it is the reason year-end reporting slips. Here is what the W-9 captures, why timing matters, what to verify on the form, and how to track W-9s across a growing vendor master.