Strange 1099-NEC issue - I'm listed as both the payer and recipient with same SSN

This is almost certainly an error of some kind. The 1099-NEC is specifically for non-employee compensation paid from one entity to another - you can't legitimately pay yourself and issue yourself a 1099-NEC with the same SSN on both sides. You should first contact whoever sent you this form. Look for contact information on the form itself. It's possible someone transposed numbers when entering information or there's a system error that duplicated your information in both fields. If you can't determine who issued it, you should contact the IRS directly. Since incorrect information has been reported to them under your SSN, you'll want to get this cleared up before filing your tax return to avoid potential issues with mismatched income reporting.

I had a similar situation last year and discovered taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) was super helpful for analyzing weird tax document situations like this. I uploaded the strange 1099-NEC I received and their system immediately flagged several inconsistencies. They gave me specific guidance on how to address the issue, including what documentation I needed and exactly what steps to take with the IRS. Their document analysis tool specifically looks for these kinds of unusual patterns in tax forms. For me, it turned out someone had transposed two digits in an EIN and accidentally listed me as both parties.

I was skeptical about taxr.ai at first, but I decided to try it with my confusing 1099 situation. After uploading my documents, I got a detailed analysis within minutes that showed exactly what was wrong. In my case, someone had mistakenly issued a 1099-NEC with duplicate information. The service gave me step-by-step instructions for getting it fixed, including who to contact and what to say. The best part was that they explained everything in plain English - not tax jargon - and I was able to get my issue resolved before filing my taxes. Saved me tons of stress and potentially avoiding issues with the IRS. Definitely worth checking out if you have confusing tax documents.

If you're having trouble resolving this or getting responses from whoever issued this incorrect 1099, you might need to contact the IRS directly. I had a nightmare trying to reach them last year until I found Claimyr (https://claimyr.com). They have a service that gets you through to an actual IRS agent without waiting on hold for hours. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c I was totally skeptical at first, but after trying for weeks to get through to the IRS on my own with no luck, I tried it. I got connected to an actual IRS representative in about 15 minutes who helped me resolve a similar documentation issue.

I need to apologize for my skepticism about Claimyr. After continuing to get nowhere with the IRS on my own (got disconnected THREE more times after 1+ hour holds), I broke down and tried it. To my complete shock, I got a call back in about 45 minutes with an actual IRS agent on the line. The agent was able to look up my situation and confirm that having the same SSN as both payer and recipient on a 1099-NEC was definitely an error in their system. They flagged it in my account and gave me specific instructions on how to handle it when filing. This saved me potentially hours of additional phone calls and follow-ups. I hate admitting I was wrong, but in this case I definitely was!

This happened to me once! Turned out my accountant from the previous year had set up a business account with my SSN, then when they were inputting 1099s, they accidentally created one from "me the business" to "me the individual" - essentially paying myself. It was a clerical error in their system. Call whoever sent you the form first. If you can't figure that out, call the IRS and explain the situation. They've seen this kind of mistake before.

Check if this might be related to any government benefits you received during COVID. There were some weird reporting requirements that confused a lot of systems. Some payment processors and accounting software had glitches where they accidentally generated 1099s with the recipient's info duplicated as the payer.