Lands on Schedule C, line 20b — Rent or lease — other business property

If the salon takes a percentage of what you charge rather than a fixed rent, this article is only half for you. That arrangement is not rent and the second half below is where it is dealt with. This first part is for a flat weekly or monthly payment for the chair.

Every January the same question goes round the salon: has anybody had their 1099 from the owner yet?

Nobody has, and nobody will. The question is upside down.

The short answer
Does the salon issue you a 1099 for rent? No. It received money; it paid you none
Do you issue the salon one? Yes, if $2,000 or more and it is not a corporation
Which form and which box 1099-MISC, box 1 — Rents
The threshold $2,000 for tax years beginning after 2025
If the salon is a C or S corporation No form required
If you pay a property manager They file, not you
What you need first A Form W-9, before you pay
Where the rent is deducted Schedule C, line 20b
Recipient copy due 31 January

The form follows the money

An information return reports a payment. That is the whole logic, and it settles the question without any knowledge of salons.

"Report on Form 1099-MISC or Form 1099-NEC only when payments are made in the course of your trade or business. Personal payments are not reportable."

You pay the salon. The payment is made in the course of your trade or business — you are in business, and the chair is where you conduct it. So the reporting obligation is yours, running towards the salon.

The salon's side of that transaction is income received, which it reports on its own return. There is no form it owes you, because there is no payment it made to you.

This is the same rule that catches wedding photographers the first year they hire a second shooter: the year you start paying somebody, you join the side of the transaction that issues forms.

Box 1, and the number that moved

Form 1099-MISC, box 1:

"Enter amounts of $2,000 or more for all types of rents."

If you have been carrying $600 in your head, that was right until recently. The instructions now carry this under What's New:

"For tax years beginning after 2025, the minimum threshold amount for reporting certain payments required to be reported on certain information returns and/or perform backup withholding on those payments increased to $2,000 and may be adjusted for inflation beginning in calendar year 2027."

Which figure you use depends on the tax year the payment falls in, not the year you are filling the form out in — a distinction worth reading properly once, because January is exactly when the two years are both in the room.

At $250 a week the threshold stops being a question. You cross $2,000 in the second month.

The exception that decides it

Whether you file at all usually comes down to one line on a form you should already hold:

"Generally, payments to a corporation (including a limited liability company (LLC) that is treated as a C or S corporation)"

— are not reportable. The instructions except a specific handful of payment types from that rule, among them medical and health care payments and gross proceeds paid to attorneys. Rent is not one of the exceptions. So a salon that is a corporation gets no form from you.

You cannot tell by the sign on the door. "Cuts & Co." might be a sole proprietor, a partnership, an LLC taxed as a sole proprietorship, or an S corporation, and only one of those four releases you.

There is a second route out, if your rent goes to a management company rather than the owner:

"You do not have to report these payments on Form 1099-MISC if you paid them to a real estate agent or property manager. But the real estate agent or property manager must use Form 1099-MISC to report the rent paid over to the property owner."

The duty moves. It does not disappear.

Do this before the first payment, not in JanuaryAsk for a completed Form W-9 when you sign for the chair. It gives you the legal name, the taxpayer identification number and the entity type — and the entity type is the answer to whether you file at all. Asking in January means asking a landlord for a favour at the one moment you have no leverage left.

Without a TIN there is a consequence built into the system rather than a shrug: persons who have not furnished their TINs are subject to withholding on payments required to be reported. That is a duty placed on you, and the rate is not small.

When a form does arrive from the salon

Sometimes one does, and it is usually a 1099-NEC rather than a 1099-MISC. That is not a clerical mix-up. It is a description of a different arrangement.

It generally means the salon takes client payments through its own card terminal, keeps its share, and pays yours over. In the salon's books the whole take was its revenue and your share was compensation it paid out — so it reports paying you.

Two things follow, and both matter more than the form.

Your income is the gross, not what landed in your account. The same problem real estate agents meet when the brokerage's 1099 is bigger than the commission cheque. You report what was reported, then deduct the salon's share as an expense. Reporting only the net leaves a mismatch the IRS can see without looking hard.

It raises the classification question. A business that collects your clients' money, sets the terminal, and pays you a share is exercising a kind of control that a landlord does not. Whether that makes you an employee is a separate enquiry with its own three tests — but a 1099-NEC from the place you supposedly rent from is a reason to run them.

Where it all lands

The rent you pay goes on Schedule C, line 20b:

"Enter on line 20b amounts paid to rent or lease other property, such as office space in a building."

Not line 20a, which is for vehicles, machinery and equipment. Not line 30, which is business use of your home. A chair in somebody else's salon is other business property, and line 20b is where it belongs — along with the product shelf space, the storage cupboard and anything else you pay the owner for.

The dates

What When
Form 1099-MISC to the salon 31 January
To the IRS, on paper 28 February
To the IRS, electronically 31 March

Paper is only an option below ten information returns of all types counted together. For one chair and one landlord you are comfortably inside that — but the count is of all your information returns, so a year in which you also pay an assistant can move you over it.

For the forms covering tax year 2026 those three dates land badly: two of the three fall on a Sunday. The IRS has not yet published what they move to, which is the sort of thing our deadlines page exists to say out loud.

What this reduces to

Three things, done once, at the start:

  1. Get the W-9 when you take the chair. It answers whether you file at all.
  2. Total the rent at the end of the year, against $2,000 for a 2026 payment.
  3. Deduct it on line 20b, whether or not a form was required — the deduction does not depend on the filing.

And stop waiting for a form the salon was never going to send.

Common questions

Should the salon send me a 1099 for my booth rent?
No. An information return reports a payment made, and for booth rent the payment runs from you to the salon. The salon received money from you; it paid you nothing to report.
So do I have to send one to the salon?
If you paid $2,000 or more of rent in the year, in the course of your business, and the salon is not a corporation — yes, on Form 1099-MISC, box 1. The instruction is plain: "Enter amounts of $2,000 or more for all types of rents."
I thought the threshold was $600.
It was. The instructions now state that "for tax years beginning after 2025, the minimum threshold amount for reporting certain payments required to be reported on certain information returns and/or perform backup withholding on those payments increased to $2,000 and may be adjusted for inflation beginning in calendar year 2027." Which figure applies depends on the tax year you are reporting, not the year you are sitting in.
The salon is an S corporation. Does that change it?
Yes. Payments to a corporation, including an LLC treated as a C or S corporation, are generally not reportable. A handful of payment types are excepted from that rule — medical and health care payments, gross proceeds paid to attorneys, and others — and rent is not among them. You will only know which the salon is from its Form W-9.
What if I pay a management company rather than the salon owner?
Then you may be out of it. "You do not have to report these payments on Form 1099-MISC if you paid them to a real estate agent or property manager. But the real estate agent or property manager must use Form 1099-MISC to report the rent paid over to the property owner." The duty moves to them; it does not vanish.
What do I need before I pay, rather than in January?
A completed Form W-9 from whoever you pay the rent to. It gives you the name, the taxpayer identification number and the entity type — which is what tells you whether the corporation exception applies at all. Requesting it in January is requesting it late.
What if the salon will not give me a W-9?
Then backup withholding is the mechanism: persons who have not furnished their TINs are subject to withholding on the payments required to be reported. It is an obligation on you, not a penalty on them.
When are the forms due?
The recipient copy by 31 January. The IRS copy by 28 February on paper, or 31 March filed electronically. For the forms covering 2026 those dates fall awkwardly, and our deadlines page says which of them the IRS has actually published.
A 1099-NEC arrived from the salon. What does that mean?
It means the salon is reporting that it paid you, which is not what rent is. Usually it means the salon collects client payments at its own terminal and remits your share — so it is treating the whole take as its money and your share as compensation. That is a different arrangement with different consequences, and it is worth settling what it says about your classification.
Where does the rent go on my return?
Schedule C, line 20b — rent or lease of other business property. The instruction reads: "Enter on line 20b amounts paid to rent or lease other property, such as office space in a building." A chair in someone else's salon is other property.

This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute tax, legal, or financial advice. Consult a qualified tax professional about your situation.

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