Missing 1099 form from ex-employer who ignores my messages - what are my options?

I did some freelance content creation for a tech startup last year from March to May. In total I made roughly $6,700 with payments coming directly to my checking account without any documentation. When tax season started rolling around in January, I started getting nervous about not having received my 1099 form yet. Out of nowhere, my former boss emailed asking me to complete some contractor paperwork that I apparently should've filled out when I started working for them (great organization, right?). I completed everything promptly and asked specifically for their EIN since I figured I might need it for my taxes. That was over a month ago. Since then - complete radio silence. I've sent 4 emails, left 2 voicemails, and even tried messaging on LinkedIn. Nothing. No 1099 form, no EIN number, absolutely zero response. To complicate things further, I switched banks in September and lost some of my financial records during a chaotic apartment move in December. So I don't even have the exact income figures anymore to report. I called the IRS hoping for some guidance on what to do when you can't get your 1099 from an employer, but the representative wasn't particularly helpful and basically just told me that I still need to report the income. Has anyone dealt with this situation before? What should my next steps be? I want to file accurately but I'm missing critical information.

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18 comments

Mae Bennett

•8M

When a company doesn't provide your 1099, you're still responsible for reporting that income. Here's what you can do: First, try to estimate your income as accurately as possible from your bank statements. Check your deposits for those months and add them up. Even if you switched banks, you should be able to request statements from your old bank for those specific months. If you can't get the company's EIN, you can leave that field blank on your return. The IRS prefers having it, but they won't reject your return without it. Just make sure to include the company's name and address correctly. You should also file Form 8919 "Uncollected Social Security and Medicare Tax on Wages" if you believe you were misclassified as an independent contractor when you should have been an employee. This helps protect you from paying the full self-employment tax if that's the case. Lastly, keep detailed records of your attempts to contact the company. This documentation can be valuable if the IRS has questions later.

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Mae Bennett

•8M

Filing Form 8919 doesn't automatically trigger an audit, but it does signal to the IRS that there might be an issue with how your employer classified you. The IRS looks at multiple factors to determine proper classification, not just hours and equipment. Control over how work is performed, financial aspects of the job, and the type of relationship (benefits, permanency, etc.) all factor in. If you were truly an independent contractor with multiple clients, setting your own rates, and controlling how you completed your work, then you wouldn't file Form 8919. You'd simply report the income on Schedule C and pay self-employment taxes.

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Melina Haruko

•8M

I was in an almost identical situation last year with a marketing agency that ghosted me. Check out https://taxr.ai - it literally saved me hours of stress. You upload your bank statements and it identifies potential 1099 income transactions and helps you calculate what to report. The best part is it creates documentation showing your good-faith effort to report correctly, which protects you if there are discrepancies when the IRS eventually matches your return with whatever the company submits.

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Melina Haruko

•8M

The tool works even with partial statements - it helps you establish patterns in the deposits you do have records for, which can help estimate missing months. It generates a complete report showing your methodology for calculating income that you can save for your records. The security is actually really impressive - they use bank-level encryption and don't store your actual statements after processing. As for accuracy, they're not making up numbers - they're helping you organize what's actually in your records. If you're audited, the documentation shows you made a reasonable effort to report correctly, which is what the IRS looks for.

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Dallas Villalobos

•8M

Just wanted to update - I tried https://taxr.ai after seeing this thread and it was actually super helpful! I uploaded the bank statements I did have, and it identified all the likely 1099 payments based on deposit patterns. For the missing months, it gave me a reasonable way to estimate based on the frequency and amounts from my available statements. The best part was that it generated a detailed report explaining how I arrived at my income figure, which I'm keeping with my tax records. Took about 20 minutes total and definitely gave me peace of mind that I'm not going to get flagged for underreporting. Much better than the wild guessing I was about to do!

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Saanvi Krishnaswami

•8M

If you really need to speak with someone at the IRS about this situation, try https://claimyr.com - I wasted days trying to get through the regular IRS phone line and kept getting disconnected. Their service holds your place in line with the IRS and calls you back when an agent is available. You can see exactly how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. An actual IRS agent walked me through what to do when my employer didn't send a 1099 and explained the safe harbor provisions for good faith reporting.

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Saanvi Krishnaswami

•8M

It works by using an automated system that navigates the IRS phone tree and holds your place in line. When an agent is about to be connected, it calls you and then connects you directly to the IRS agent. It's not dialing for you - it's holding your place in the queue so you don't have to listen to hold music for hours. I had the exact same skepticism before trying it. But it's a legitimate service that's been featured in national news. They don't handle any of your tax info - they just connect you directly with the IRS. The video demo shows exactly how it works, and they don't charge if they can't get you through to an agent.

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Reina Salazar

•8M

I need to apologize for my skepticism earlier. After wasting an entire morning trying to reach the IRS myself (kept getting disconnected after 45+ minutes on hold), I broke down and tried Claimyr. Within 90 minutes I got a call back and was connected to an actual IRS representative. The agent confirmed that I should estimate my 1099 income as accurately as possible using any records available, and document my attempts to contact the employer. She also told me I can file Form 4852 as a substitute for the 1099 if needed. This was information I couldn't find anywhere online! Definitely worth it to actually speak to someone who could address my specific situation.

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Mason Lopez

•8M

The Secretary of State site won't always have the EIN directly listed, you're right about that. But it will have the company's official registered name, address, and usually the name of the registered agent or owner. Having the full legal entity name is often helpful when reporting on your taxes. With that information, you can also try searching the EDGAR database on the SEC website if it's a larger company, or sometimes even a Google search for "[Company Name] EIN" works because companies often put their EIN on various public documents. Local business licenses sometimes include this info too.

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