Is this the right 1099-NEC?
Drop a 1099-NEC and pick the tax year you asked for. The check reads in seconds whether the file is a 1099-NEC, whether it is legible, whether it is the year you needed, and whether the recipient is named on it. Free, no account.
A 1099-NEC from another year is named as such rather than passed as usable.
PDF, JPEG, PNG or HEIC, up to 10 MB and 5 pages. On a phone, a photo of the 1099-NEC works. 3 checks a day, no account.
Tick the box above to start a check.
Need the 1099-NEC from a client rather than from your own desktop? Open a DokuTrak request with the 1099-NEC already on the list — they upload it through one link, no account.
Send via DokuTrakWhat the check reads on a 1099-NEC
A 1099-NEC reports nonemployee compensation for one tax year, so the check is built around the two questions a preparer asks first: is this the form, and is it the year? Pick the tax year you asked the client for, and the review compares it with the year printed on the form. When the two differ, the answer is "wrong year", not "usable".
It then looks for the two details the form must carry for the income to land on the right return: the recipient's name and the recipient's TIN. Either one missing or unreadable makes the answer "incomplete", and the check names which. The recipient's copy may show only the last four digits of the TIN, which the IRS allows on payee statements.
The check reads no amount. It does not compare box 1 with anything, does not look the payer up, and checks nothing with the IRS: it says whether the file in front of you is the right form, legible, for the right year, and naming the recipient.
What it catches on a 1099-NEC
- Last year's 1099-NEC sent for this year's return, when you pick the year.
- A W-2 sent where a 1099-NEC was asked for, or the other way round.
- An invoice or the client's own payment summary sent instead of the form.
- A form where the recipient's name or TIN cannot be read.
- A photo of the form taken at an angle, or too blurred to read the year.
What happens to the file
DokuTrak doesn’t store your file. It travels straight from your browser to the check, is held in memory while it is read, and is dropped when the answer comes back. It is scanned for malware on the way in, and nothing — not the file, not a detail read off it — is written to our storage or our logs. The page is sent to Cloudflare Workers AI to be read; what Cloudflare keeps is covered by its own terms, which our security page links.
Cloudflare Workers AI does the reading. It is the same review that runs inside DokuTrak, and it is the only AI vendor in the chain. Our privacy page names it too.
This is not a forgery detector. It reads what the page says — the document type, the legibility, the details present — never whether the page is genuine. A verdict here is a first pass to save you a look, not a judgement on the document or on the person who sent it.
What the answers mean
- Usable
- It reads as a 1099-NEC and carries what one carries. You still look before you rely on it.
- Wrong type
- It is a document of another kind — a W-2, an invoice, a payment summary from the client. Ask again, naming the 1099-NEC.
- Unreadable
- Blurred, cropped or too dark to read. A flat scan or a straight-on daylight photo usually fixes it.
- Incomplete
- A 1099-NEC, but the recipient's name or TIN could not be read on it. The check names which.
- Wrong year
- A 1099-NEC, but for another tax year than the one you picked. Only answered when you pick a year — without one there is nothing to compare against.
- Not sure
- The review was not confident enough to say either way. Low confidence is reported as uncertainty rather than rounded to the nearest answer.
Questions
What does this 1099-NEC checker actually check?
That the file really is a Form 1099-NEC rather than a W-2 or an invoice, that the page is legible, that it reports the tax year you picked, and that the recipient's name and TIN can be read on it. It reads what the page says. It is not a forgery detector, it reads no amount, and it checks nothing against the IRS.
Why does it ask me for the tax year?
Because a check that names no year cannot tell you the year is wrong. A 1099-NEC can be right in every other respect and still be last year’s, and without a year to compare against the review has nothing to say about it. Without a year it still reads the form.
Do you keep the 1099-NEC I upload?
No. DokuTrak doesn't store your file: we hold it in memory for the length of the check and write it nowhere — not to our storage, not to our logs, and no detail read off the page either. The page itself is sent to Cloudflare Workers AI, our AI subprocessor, to be read; what Cloudflare retains is governed by its own Workers AI terms rather than by a promise we make on its behalf. Our security page names the subprocessor and links the terms. The same holds for a 1099-NEC as for anything else you drop here.
Which AI reads the file?
Cloudflare Workers AI, the same review DokuTrak runs inside the product. There is no other AI vendor in the chain, which is what lets us name the one that is.
Why did it answer "not sure"?
Because the review was not confident enough to say either way, and a low-confidence read is reported as uncertain rather than dressed up as an answer. AI flags; the reading is still yours.
What file types and sizes work?
PDF, JPEG, PNG and HEIC, up to 10 MB and 5 pages. On a phone, a photo of the 1099-NEC taken straight on in daylight works as well as a scan.
When should a 1099-NEC arrive?
The payer must furnish it to the recipient and file it with the IRS by January 31 after the tax year, or the next business day when January 31 falls on a weekend. For tax year 2025 that is February 2, 2026. A client still waiting in mid-February should ask the payer before filing without it.
Who gets a 1099-NEC?
A contractor or other non-employee paid for services in the course of the payer’s business. For payments made through 2025 the reporting threshold was $600 in the year; the IRS instructions raise it to $2,000 for tax years beginning after 2025, adjusted for inflation from 2027. Employees get a W-2 instead, and interest, dividends and rents are reported on other forms.
Why does the recipient's TIN show only four digits?
The IRS allows a payer to truncate the recipient's TIN on the copy sent to the recipient, showing only the last four digits. The copy filed with the IRS carries the full number, and the payer's own TIN may never be truncated. A masked TIN on the recipient's copy is normal, not a defect.
What should I do if a 1099-NEC is wrong?
Ask the payer to issue a corrected 1099-NEC and file the correction with the IRS. Wrong amount, wrong name or wrong TIN are all corrected by the payer, not on the return. Keep the original and the corrected form together in the client file.
Can I check 1099s a client has to send me?
Yes — that is the product rather than the tool. A DokuTrak request lists the document, the client uploads it through one link with no account, and the same review runs on what arrives. 14-day free trial, no card. Add one only to keep going.