W-9 Form Filler

Substitute Form W-9

Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification

Give this form to the person or business that requested it. Do not send it to the IRS.

Part I - Identification

Name (as shown on your income tax return): [Your legal name]

Federal tax classification: Individual / sole proprietor or single-member LLC

Address: [street address]

City, state, ZIP: [city, state, ZIP]

Part II - Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN)

Social Security Number: [your TIN]

The TIN given must match the name on the first line, or the payer may be required to apply backup withholding at 24% to payments made to you. If you are a sole proprietor with both an SSN and an EIN, the IRS prefers your SSN, though either is accepted.

Part III - Certification

Under penalties of perjury, I certify that:

1. The number shown on this form is my correct taxpayer identification number (or I am waiting for a number to be issued to me); and

2. I am not subject to backup withholding because: (a) I am exempt from backup withholding, or (b) I have not been notified by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that I am subject to backup withholding as a result of a failure to report all interest or dividends, or (c) the IRS has notified me that I am no longer subject to backup withholding; and

3. I am a U.S. citizen or other U.S. person (defined in the instructions); and

4. The FATCA code(s) entered on this form (if any) indicating that I am exempt from FATCA reporting is correct.

Sign here

Signature of U.S. person: ______________________________________

Printed name: [Your legal name]

Date: 19 September 2026

A Form W-9 is not valid until it is signed. A digital signature is acceptable to most payers, but the signature must be yours - a typed name alone is not a signature.

Before you send this

1. Check the name on line one against your last tax return, character for character. A name and TIN that do not match is what triggers a CP2100 notice to your client and backup withholding on your payments.

2. Ask the requester whether they accept a substitute W-9. Most do. Banks, brokerages and large payroll departments frequently do not, and want the official IRS PDF instead.

3. Send it securely. This document contains your Social Security Number, and email is not secure. Use whatever encrypted portal the requester offers, or a password-protected file with the password sent separately.

4. Never send a W-9 to someone who contacted you out of the blue. A request for a W-9 is one of the most common phishing approaches in the US, because the form hands over everything needed to file a fraudulent return. Verify with a number you already had, not one in the email.

5. Consider getting an EIN. It is free, takes minutes on the IRS website, and lets a sole proprietor give clients an EIN instead of a Social Security Number on every W-9 they ever send.

What happens next

The business that requested this keeps it on file - it is not sent to the IRS. They use it to issue you a Form 1099-NEC in January if they paid you $600 or more during the year, and to confirm whether backup withholding applies.

A W-9 does not expire. You only need to send a new one if your name, business structure, address or TIN changes, or if you become subject to backup withholding.

If you are not a US person, Form W-9 is the wrong form. Non-resident individuals use Form W-8BEN and foreign entities use Form W-8BEN-E.