How CPA firms request a W-9 from clients
By Arthur Teboul, DokuTrak · Published
In short
Ask the business owner to collect a signed Form W-9 from every contractor, freelancer, landlord and other vendor the business pays outside payroll, before year-end if possible. The W-9 gives you the legal name, taxpayer identification number and tax classification you need to prepare the business’s 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC forms on time.
Main guide: How to request a W-9 from a vendor
Why CPA firms need a W-9
You prepare the business’s 1099s, and the IRS matches the name and TIN on each one. A mismatched pair can bring an IRS notice telling the business to start backup withholding on that vendor. The W-9 also tells you who is exempt: payments to corporations are generally not reportable, with exceptions such as attorney fees and medical payments. Collecting W-9s in December, rather than in the last week before the January 31 deadline, leaves time to chase the vendors who do not answer.
What exactly to ask for
The current revision of Form W-9, completed and signed by each vendor the business paid during the year, working from the vendor list in the books. Ask for the vendor’s own signed PDF, not a name and number typed into an email, and ask the owner to flag any vendor whose W-9 is several years old or whose name or structure has changed.
What to check when it arrives
- The name on line 1 is the name the TIN belongs to; for a sole proprietor or single-member LLC, the business name goes on line 2.
- A tax classification box is checked, so you know whether the vendor is a corporation.
- Part II is signed and dated, and the TIN has nine digits in the format of an SSN or an EIN.
Email to send your client
Replace the bracketed parts. The same text fits in the message of a DokuTrak request (up to 1,000 characters).
Subject: W-9s from the people the business paid
Hi [Client name],
Before I prepare the business’s 1099 forms, I need a signed W-9 from each contractor, freelancer and landlord you paid last year outside payroll.
The simplest way: email each of them the blank form from irs.gov and ask them to send it back signed, as a PDF. Please do not copy their tax number into an email yourself; I need their own signed form.
Could you forward the W-9s you collect by [date]? The forms to contractors are due January 31, so anyone who has not answered by then is worth a nudge. If someone refuses, let me know and I will tell you what comes next.
Thank you, [Your name]
Ask once. DokuTrak does the chasing.
- Your client uploads from one link, with no account and no password.
- Reminders go out on a schedule, by default 2, 5, 10 and 14 days after the request, until the file arrives.
- With AI review switched on in your workspace (it is off by default), each upload gets a first pass that flags a file that is not a W-9 or an unreadable or blurry scan. It says so when it is not sure.
- You accept every file or mark it for re-upload, and your client gets the note by email. The AI never accepts a file.