My client paid me $1,400 in 2026 and never sent a 1099. Do I still report it?

Yes. Report it on Schedule C. The $2,000 floor decides whether the payer must issue a form. It has nothing to do with whether the money is taxable income to you.

Why did I get fewer 1099s this year?

P.L. 119-21 section 70433 raised the 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC reporting floor from $600 to $2,000 for payments made after December 31, 2025. Treasury estimated that on 2024 volumes roughly 18.8 million 1099-NEC forms and 7.9 million 1099-MISC forms in the $600 to $1,999 band would stop being issued.

How do I prove income with no 1099?

Your own records are the proof: bank and payment-app deposits, invoices, a job log, card processor statements. A 1099 was never the source of truth about what you earned; it was a copy sent to you and the IRS.

Do I still owe self-employment tax without a 1099?

Self-employment tax generally applies once you have $400 or more of net earnings from self-employment, regardless of how many forms you received.

Tax year 2026 · updated August 31, 2026

Didn't get a 1099?You still report it.

The form is a payer document, not a tax bill. For work paid in 2026 a client does not have to send you a 1099-NEC until they have paid you $2,000. Roughly 18.8 million forms stop going out. Not one dollar of that income stopped being taxable.

What actually changed

P.L. 119-21 section 70433 raised the federal 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC reporting floor from $600 to $2,000 for payments made after December 31, 2025. The first forms under the new rule land in January 2027, covering the work you did in 2026. The $2,000 figure is indexed for inflation starting in 2027, so expect it to drift upward.

Treasury and the IRS estimated, using 2024 volumes, that about 18.8 million 1099-NEC forms and 7.9 million 1099-MISC forms sitting in the $600–$1,999 band would simply stop being issued.

What did not change

Taxability. Money paid to you for work is reportable on Schedule C. A missing form changes nothing about that.
Self-employment tax. Still 15.3% on 92.35% of net earnings, and the filing trigger is still $400 of net earnings from self-employment.
Your records. A 1099 was never the source of truth. It was a copy. Your deposits, invoices and job log are the actual record.

What this looks like on a real season

You run gutters. A property manager gives you eight cleanouts across 2026 at $225 each — $1,800 for the year from that one client. Under the old rule you would have had a 1099-NEC in the mail in January. Under the 2026 rule that manager is under the $2,000 floor and sends nothing.

The $1,800 is still gross receipts on your Schedule C. If you also washed two driveways for cash and did a $600 junk haul, all of it goes on the same line. The absence of paper is not the absence of income.

And if that property manager is in Massachusetts, Mississippi or Wisconsin, you may get a state form for the same $1,800 with no federal one.

Your state may not have moved

Federal law does not rewrite state information-reporting statutes. For tax year 2026 these states kept a lower floor of their own, so a payment under the federal $2,000 can still produce a state form:

— MA: $600 — Massachusetts kept a $600 state floor and files direct through MassTaxConnect rather than the Combined Federal/State program.
— MS: $600 — Mississippi kept a $600 state floor pending an amendment to conform.
— WI: $600 — Wisconsin kept a $600 state floor pending an amendment to conform.

Most other states follow the federal floor, but conformity was still moving through 2026 and a state that copies $2,000 without an inflation clause will diverge again later. Check your state and amount.

If you get paid by card or app

1099-K is a different form with a different rule. The federal third-party network threshold is back at $20,000 and 200 transactions. Several states set their own far lower — Illinois at $1,000 and four transactions, for one — and card-processor 1099-K has no federal dollar floor at all. So a Square-heavy operator can get a 1099-K and no 1099-NEC in the same year, for the same work.

What to do instead of waiting for paper

1. Log the job when you do it. Date, client, quoted, paid, method. That log is what a missing form used to substitute for. The free calculator does the pricing side.
2. Pull your deposits once a quarter. Bank, Square, Stripe, Venmo, Cash App. Reconcile against the log, not against forms you may never receive.
3. Do not wait for January to find out what you made. The estimated-tax dates do not move just because the forms did.
4. Keep the client list. A payer who crosses $2,000 mid-year will send a form covering everything, not just the amount above the floor.

This page is general information about reporting thresholds, not tax, legal or accounting advice. Don James and 1099 Field Kit are not a CPA, enrolled agent or attorney and are not affiliated with the IRS. Thresholds, indexing and state conformity change. Verify at IRS.gov, with your state revenue department, and with a professional licensed in your state before you file. Last reviewed August 31, 2026.

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