1099-NEC or 1099-MISC, and why the deadlines differ

The short answer: if you paid someone for services, it is a 1099-NEC. If you paid them for something else that still has to be reported, rent, a prize, medical care, royalties, or a settlement passing through a lawyer, it is a 1099-MISC.

The long answer is where the money is. The two forms have different deadlines, and from the 2026 tax year they no longer share a single threshold. Filing the right amounts on the wrong form, or the right form in the wrong week, are separate mistakes with separate penalties.

Why there are two forms at all

There was one. Nonemployee compensation sat in box 7 of the 1099-MISC for years. It was pulled out onto its own form for the 2020 tax year, because box 7 had an earlier deadline than the rest of the 1099-MISC and one form with two deadlines caused exactly the problem you would expect. Splitting the form did not remove the two deadlines. It just put them on separate pieces of paper.

What goes where

The attorney line that catches people twice

A law firm can produce both forms in the same year from the same client.

Fees for legal services are nonemployee compensation and go in box 1 of the 1099-NEC. This is reportable however the firm is incorporated, which is the exception to the usual rule that corporations are exempt.

Gross proceeds are different. That is money passing through the firm rather than being earned by it, typically a settlement paid into a trust account and on to the client. It goes in box 10 of the 1099-MISC.

From the 2026 tax year the two even have different thresholds, so the same firm can be over the line on one form and under it on the other.

The thresholds are no longer one number

Through the 2025 tax year, almost everything on both forms started at $600. Section 70433 of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Public Law 119-21, raised that to $2,000 for payments made after 31 December 2025. It did not raise all of it.

For 2025 and every year before it, the figure is $600. Which year you are working on decides which number applies, and in January you are working on last year. The threshold guide covers the change and the parts of it that did not move.

The deadlines, which are the expensive part

This is the difference that costs money, because the two forms feel like one job and are not.

Section 6071(c) is what fixes the 1099-NEC at 31 January whichever way you file, and there is no automatic extension for it. The 1099-MISC gets a later IRS date, and a month later again if you file it electronically. Boxes 8 and 10 are substitute payments in lieu of dividends or interest, and gross proceeds paid to an attorney.

The trap is doing both in one sitting in late January, hitting the 1099-NEC deadline, and assuming the 1099-MISC pile is equally done. It usually is, because you have already sent it. The reverse trap is worse: leaving the whole job to late February because you remember a February deadline, and finding the nonemployee compensation was due three weeks ago. Penalties run per form.

One rule that applies to both

Electronic filing is mandatory at ten or more information returns, counted in aggregate rather than ten of one type. Six 1099-NECs and five 1099-MISCs is eleven returns, and eleven is over the line even though neither pile reaches ten on its own. That rule is easy to be caught by in the first year a business grows into it.

When you are not sure

Two questions settle most of it. Was the payment for services? If yes, 1099-NEC. Was the recipient a corporation? If yes, usually no form at all, with the exceptions being attorneys and medical payments. An LLC is not automatically a corporation, and which box they ticked on their W-9 is what decides it.

Sources: the IRS Instructions for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC, and section 70433 of Public Law 119-21. Read on 2026-09-17. PDFeyes is not a CPA, a law firm or an enrolled agent, and this is not tax advice. Check your own situation against the current form instructions. See the disclaimer.