Never got 1099-NEC form for side work but have receipts - tax filing help?
So I did some side work for a homeowner last year and got paid over $600 total, but they never sent me a 1099-NEC form. I have all my receipts showing I completed the work and got paid, but I'm not sure what this means for tax filing. This is my first time doing this kind of work - just me as an individual doing handyman stuff for another person, not as an actual business or anything. Will the person I did work for get in trouble if they never send me the form? I'm planning to report the income anyway since I have records, but I don't know if this creates problems for them or me. I'm especially worried about what happens if they didn't issue the form but I still claim the income on my taxes. Does anyone know the rules around this situation?
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NeonNebula
You're doing the right thing by planning to report the income even without the 1099-NEC. The IRS requires individuals to report all income regardless of whether they receive a tax form documenting it. For you, you'll report this income on Schedule C (Profit or Loss from Business) even though you don't consider yourself a business. The IRS considers this self-employment income. Keep those receipts as documentation of the work and payment. You'll also need to pay self-employment tax (Social Security and Medicare) on this income using Schedule SE. As for the person who paid you, technically they were required to issue a 1099-NEC if they paid you $600 or more for services as part of their trade or business. However, if they're just a homeowner who hired you for personal work (not business-related), they actually aren't required to issue you a 1099-NEC. Many people don't realize this distinction.
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Anastasia Kozlov
•Wait, so does that mean if I mow lawns for neighbors and make over $600 from one family, they don't need to give me a 1099 since it's just their personal home? What about babysitting? I'm confused about what counts as "business-related" vs personal work.
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NeonNebula
•You're exactly right about lawn mowing and babysitting for residential homeowners. Those homeowners don't need to issue 1099s since they're paying for personal services, not business expenses. The 1099-NEC requirement generally applies when a business is paying an independent contractor. For example, if a landscaping company hired you to help with their clients' lawns, they would need to issue you a 1099-NEC if they paid you $600+. But individual homeowners paying for their personal lawn care don't have this requirement. Same with babysitting - families don't need to issue 1099s, but a daycare center hiring you would.
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Sean Kelly
After struggling with a similar situation last year, I discovered this amazing tool called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that helped me sort through all my income documentation issues. I had done some contracting work without getting proper 1099s and was stressing about reporting it correctly. Their AI analyzed my receipts and bank statements to organize everything properly for tax filing. The best part was how it helped me properly categorize which income needed to be reported on which forms.
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Zara Mirza
•Does it actually connect to your bank account? Not sure I'm comfortable with that. Can I just upload PDFs of statements instead? Also, how does it handle cash payments where there's no electronic record?
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Luca Russo
•I've been burned by so-called "AI tax helpers" before that missed obvious deductions. How accurate is this for someone like me who does a mix of 1099 work and regular W-2 employment? I'm especially wondering about the self-employment tax calculations.
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Sean Kelly
•You don't have to connect your bank accounts - uploading PDF statements works great and is what I did. The system is really flexible. It lets you manually enter cash transactions too, which was perfect for the jobs where I got paid in cash. For mixed income situations, that's actually where it shines. I have both W-2 and freelance income, and it kept everything separate and properly calculated my self-employment taxes for just the 1099 portion. It even flagged potential deductions I was missing related to my side work that my previous tax software never caught.
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Luca Russo
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Mateo Sanchez
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Mateo Sanchez
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Aisha Mahmood
Even if the person was supposed to give you a 1099 and didn't, it's really their problem not yours. You still gotta claim the income on your Schedule C. But good news is you can also claim any expenses against that income! Did you buy materials or tools for the job? Gas for driving to the work site? Those are probably deductible and will lower your taxable income.
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Ethan Moore
•I've heard you can deduct mileage for driving to job sites, but what if the work was at multiple houses in the same neighborhood? Do I track each trip separately or can I just estimate the total miles for all the jobs?
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Aisha Mahmood
•You need to track each trip separately for proper documentation. Keep a mileage log (there are free apps for this) showing the date, starting location, ending location, miles driven, and purpose of each trip. For multiple houses in the same neighborhood, each location is a separate job site. So if you drive from home to House A, then to House B, then back home, you'd record three legs: home to A, A to B, and B to home. The total mileage is deductible as long as each trip has a business purpose. Many people miss out on this valuable deduction because they don't keep good records, but it can really add up!
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Yuki Kobayashi
I'm confused about how much tax I'll actually end up owing on side income like this. Is it really worth reporting if it's just a couple thousand? My brother said I'll end up paying way more in self-employment tax than regular income tax and it's not worth the headache.
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Carmen Vega
•Your brother is giving you terrible advice that could get you in trouble. ALL income legally needs to be reported. The IRS has gotten much better at finding unreported income through bank deposit analysis and other means.
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