IRS wants to know everything about everybody.

The W9 is the government’s way of making sure big brother knows everything about your business , those you associate with and those who you give your money to. that

A very important information item to understand is that the W9 does not have to be sent to Internal Revenue Service, it stays there with your business records.

So, who has to file a W9?

Anyone, yes anyone who did work for a company but was not an actual employee of that company is required to fill out W-9 federal income tax forms for every company for which they performed non-employee work.

W-9 forms are known as information reporting federal income tax forms. Other information reporting forms are W-2s, 1099s of all sorts.

IRS many times uses these information reports to track non-filers and levy bank accounts and garnish wages. The government wants to know is much financial information as they can about every taxpayer they have in the system.

Who might be asked to fill out a form W-9?

 Independent freelancers and such. you should know that if IRS’s auditing and he said business they will ask for W -9 and have the right to disallow the business tax deduction if the W9 is not in the file.

Many times independent contractors and freelancers are brought in to perform work on projects that are short-term.

Another group that uses the W-9 income tax forms to report information to clients is consultants  of any type.

Consultants come in and advise a company on  a variety of verticals.

Sometimes training, CPE training and other things.

If you’ve consulted with a company, you are required to fill out W-9 income tax forms for each company you consulted with.

Other independent contractors, such as  landscapers, repair people, fix er uppers all must also fill out W-9 income tax forms

This is true even if the work was carried out over a significant period of time.

Contractors working with a business for many years still turn in W-9 income tax forms.

These tax forms are also used to help the company avoid backup withholding from the checks they issue to you.

As an independent contractor, you are responsible for paying your own taxes.

Having a form W-9 on file for you allows companies to show the IRS that they do not owe payroll taxes.

Remember at the end of the day, big Brother is watching and will watch forever.