Form 1099 (1099-NEC)

In the United States, businesses report certain payments to non-employees on a 1099 form, most commonly the 1099-NEC for non-employee compensation. Affiliate commissions paid directly by a merchant to a US person generally fall into this category once they pass the reporting threshold for the year, and a copy goes both to the recipient and to the tax authority.

Where the money moves through a third-party payment network rather than directly, reporting can fall to that network on a different form instead, which is why some partners receive a form from a payment provider rather than from the brand. The reporting route depends on how the payment was made, not on what it was for.

The form reports what was paid in the calendar year, which frequently does not match what a partner earned in it. Commissions earned in December and paid in January land in the following year's form, and reconciling against your own earnings statement rather than the form is the way to catch a genuine discrepancy.

Keep the contact and tax details on every program current. A form sent to a stale address or issued against an outdated status is a problem that surfaces months later, at the least convenient time.

The reporting obligation sits with the payer, so a program paying partners directly needs accurate tax details and accurate annual totals per partner. That is an argument for collecting the form at onboarding rather than at year end.

Where payouts are routed through a network or a payment provider, establish clearly which party reports, because both assuming the other does is a recurring failure and the partner is the one who discovers it.