If you shoot alone and hire nobody, this article is not for you. It is about the year that changes — the first year you pay someone else to stand in the back of the church.

For every year before it, January was a passive month. Forms arrived, you reconciled them, you filed.

The year you bring on a second shooter, January stops being passive. You are now a payer, with a deadline of your own, a form to issue, and — if one thing goes wrong — an obligation to hold back a quarter of what you owe someone and send it to the IRS instead.

None of it is difficult. All of it is decided months earlier, by whether you collected one piece of paper before the wedding or tried to chase it in February.

The short answer

The question The answer
Threshold, per person per year $2,000
At $550 a wedding Crossed on the 4th booking
Deadline, both copies January 31
No TIN from them You withhold 24%
"Applied For" on the W-9 Does not cover this kind of payment
Paid by card or PayPal The processor reports it, not you

Four weddings

The reporting rule is per person, per year, and the number is now $2,000:

"File Form 1099-NEC, Nonemployee Compensation, for each person in the course of your business during the year to whom you have paid at least $2,000 in: 1. Services performed by someone who is not your employee."

That is the threshold for tax years beginning after 2025, and the instructions note it may be adjusted for inflation from calendar year 2027.

At $550 a wedding, $2,000 ÷ $550 is 3.64. The fourth booking crosses it. A second shooter you used nine times is $4,950 and was over the line by May.

The old $600 figure made this obvious — almost anyone you hired twice was reportable. The new number is high enough to feel safe and low enough that a working season clears it without anyone noticing.

The paper that has to come first

Form W-9 exists for one purpose: to "request the taxpayer identification number (TIN) of a U.S. person." You cannot file a 1099-NEC without that number.

Collect it before you pay, and realistically before the wedding, alongside the rate and the delivery terms. Two reasons, and the second is the one that costs money:

  1. In February, your second shooter has been paid and has no reason to hurry.
  2. The consequence of not having the number does not fall on them.
Put it in the booking, not the follow-upA signed W-9 belongs in the same email as the date, the rate and the deliverables. It takes a minute while someone wants the job and an unanswerable amount of time afterwards.

What actually happens without a TIN

This is the part most photographers have never been told. From the Instructions for the Requester of Form W-9:

"A payor must deduct, withhold, and deposit with IRS 24% of reportable payments made to that payee until the cause of the backup withholding is remedied."

Read it as an instruction to you. If your second shooter will not give you a TIN, you do not pay them in full and sort it out later. You pay them 76% and send the rest to the IRS.

On $4,950 of fees that is $1,188 held back — from a colleague you will want to book again in June.

And the escape hatch people reach for is not there. A W-9 returned marked "Applied For" starts a 60-day awaiting-TIN window, but that window covers interest, dividends and certain payments relating to readily tradable instruments. Nonemployee compensation is not on that list. For what you pay a second shooter, "Applied For" buys nothing.

Two ways you owe nothing

Before you file anything, two checks that remove the obligation entirely.

You paid through a card or platform. The processor already reports that channel:

"Payments made with a credit card or payment card and certain other types of payments, including third-party network transactions, must be reported on Form 1099-K by the payment settlement entity... and are not subject to reporting on Form 1099-MISC or Form 1099-NEC."

Pay a second shooter by business card or a platform's goods-and-services flow and the 1099-NEC is not yours to file. Pay by bank transfer, cheque or cash and it is.

They are a corporation. Payments to a corporation, including an LLC that is treated as a C or S corporation, generally need not be reported. A single-member LLC treated as a disregarded entity is not a corporation for this purpose — and telling those two apart is exactly what the W-9 does.

One date, no second chance

"Section 6071(c) requires you to file Form 1099-NEC on or before January 31, using either paper or electronic filing procedures."

The recipient copy is due the same day. Unlike some other forms in the series there is no later deadline for the IRS copy — one date covers both, and it lands in the quietest month of your year, which is the only mercy in the rule.

The three lines that make January boring

Keep one row per person you pay, opened the day you book them:

Person W-9 on file Paid to date How paid
Second shooter Yes, 4 Mar $4,950 Bank transfer
Assistant Yes, 11 May $1,650 Bank transfer
Retoucher Yes, 2 Feb $3,200 Business card

Three columns answer everything. The first says whether you can file. The second says whether you must. The third says whether it is even yours to file.

Fill it in while you are booking. In January it is a five-minute job, and every part of it that was left undone in June is unfixable by then.

Common questions

How much can I pay a second shooter before I owe them a form?
The threshold is $2,000. The instructions say to file Form 1099-NEC "for each person in the course of your business during the year to whom you have paid at least $2,000" for services performed by someone who is not your employee. It applies to tax years beginning after 2025 and may be adjusted for inflation from calendar year 2027.
Is that per wedding or for the year?
For the year, per person. At $550 a wedding you cross $2,000 on the fourth booking — 2,000 ÷ 550 is 3.64 — and everything after that is already over the line.
When should I collect the W-9?
Before you pay, and in practice before the wedding. Form W-9 exists to "request the taxpayer identification number (TIN) of a U.S. person," and you need that number to file. After the shoot is over your leverage to get it is gone, and the consequence of not having it falls on you, not on them.
What happens if they never give me a TIN?
You are required to withhold. The Instructions for the Requester of Form W-9: "A payor must deduct, withhold, and deposit with IRS 24% of reportable payments made to that payee until the cause of the backup withholding is remedied." On $4,950 of second-shooter fees that is $1,188 you hold back and send to the IRS.
They wrote "Applied For" on the W-9. Does that buy time?
Not for this. The 60-day awaiting-TIN window applies to interest, dividends and certain payments relating to readily tradable instruments. Nonemployee compensation is not in that list, so the grace period does not cover what you pay a second shooter.
I paid by card and through PayPal. Do I still file?
No. The instructions say payments made with a credit card or payment card, and third-party network transactions, "must be reported on Form 1099-K" by the settlement entity "and are not subject to reporting on Form 1099-MISC or Form 1099-NEC." The processor reports that channel, not you.
My second shooter has an LLC. Does that exempt them?
It depends what the LLC elected. Payments to a corporation, including an LLC treated as a C or S corporation, generally need not be reported. A single-member LLC treated as a disregarded entity is not a corporation for this purpose. The W-9 is where that answer comes from, which is another reason to collect it early.
What is the deadline?
January 31 for both copies. Section 6071(c) requires Form 1099-NEC to be filed on or before January 31, using either paper or electronic procedures, and the recipient copy is due the same day. There is no later IRS date for this form.

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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