By Paul Adams
January is the month for small businesses to have their employee forms W-2 prepared either by their office staff or their accountant. Not only are forms W-2 prepared but a Form 1099 is prepared on behalf of the small business for payments made to individuals (non-employees) or (non-corporate) entities for services provided to that particular small business during the previous year. A good way to save time in processing these forms would be to have a Form W-9 completed by the parties performing the services on behalf of your business.
A Form W-9 is a Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification. This form provides your small business with the name, address, tax payer identification number and tax classification of the individuals or entities you are planning on paying in the upcoming year for services provided. It would be a great benefit for you to have one of these forms filled out and in your records even before you pay an individual or entity to do work that you will need performed in 2012. These forms are easy to acquire, just ask your accountant for one, or visit the IRS website for Form W-9 here, then download the form to your business computer and print out. The Form W-9s can become your best friend when it comes to the processing time needed to prepare the forms 1099 in the future. In all businesses, time is money, so to reduce the amount of money needed to have forms 1099 prepared in the future, have forms W-9 completed and on file at your small business.
