How to fill out Form 1099-NEC or 1099-MISC as a PDF

You can fill in the recipient copies of Form 1099-NEC and Form 1099-MISC in your browser with Fill & Sign PDF, then print or send them to the person you paid. What you cannot do with the downloadable PDF is file Copy A with the IRS. The IRS says self-printed Copy A is not scannable and may lead to a penalty, so Copy A has to be filed electronically or on official printed forms. The tool is free, needs no account, and the file is not uploaded.

This guide covers filling in the PDF. It is not tax advice. Whether a payment must be reported, and in which box, is set out in the official instructions. Check them or ask a tax professional.

Get the current forms

Both forms share one set of instructions, Instructions for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC. Download the forms from About Form 1099-NEC and About Form 1099-MISC.

Revision: the current forms and instructions are Rev. December 2026. The instructions say to use this revision to report 2026 payments in early 2027, and to keep using it in later years until the IRS issues a new one. Do not use it for years before 2026.
Reporting threshold: for tax years beginning after 2025, the instructions say the threshold for many payments rose to $2,000, and it may be adjusted for inflation from 2027. Box 1a of the 1099-NEC is for nonemployee compensation of $2,000 or more. Some amounts still use other thresholds. For example, royalties of at least $10 and gross proceeds of $600 or more paid to an attorney go on the 1099-MISC.
New boxes: both forms gained boxes for cash tips, tipped occupation codes and overtime compensation.
Deadlines: 1099-NEC copies go to recipients and to the IRS by January 31. For the 1099-MISC, recipient copies are generally due January 31, and the IRS filing is due February 28 on paper or March 31 electronically. The instructions list exceptions.

Which copies you can fill in

Each downloadable form has four copies, one per page:

Copy A (red) is for the IRS. It is shown for information only. PDFReadyGo greys out its boxes because the IRS made them read-only.
Copy 1 is for the state tax department.
Copy B is for the recipient.
Copy 2 is for the recipient to file with their state return.

The instructions say Copies 1, B and 2 are fillable so you can furnish statements to recipients and keep copies for your files.

To file Copy A, the IRS points to its free Information Return Intake System (IRIS) or the official printed forms. If you have 10 or more information returns in total, you may be required to e-file.

Fill in a recipient copy step by step

Save the official f1099nec.pdf or f1099msc.pdf.
Open Fill & Sign PDF and select Choose a PDF.
Scroll past page 1, a notice about which revision to use, and past the greyed-out Copy A.
On Copy B, type the payer’s name and address, the payer’s TIN, the recipient’s TIN, name and address, and the amounts in the right boxes. Type the four-digit calendar year in the year box at the top, and tick any checkboxes that apply.
Repeat the same entries on Copy 1 and Copy 2 if you need them. Each copy has its own fields, so nothing is copied across for you.
Tick Flatten after filling so the recipient cannot change the figures, then select Create filled PDF → and Download result ↓.

The 1099 forms have no signature line, so you do not need ✍ Signature here.

What we found when testing

We filled Copy B of the official 1099-NEC with a sample payer, TINs, recipient and a $4,500.00 amount in box 1a. We did the same on the 1099-MISC with a $2,400.00 rent amount in box 1. The values were saved, and Copy 1 and Copy 2 stayed blank, which confirms each copy has to be filled separately. After Flatten PDF no fields remained and every entry was readable. The tool showed 36 read-only boxes greyed out on the 1099-NEC and 46 on the 1099-MISC, all on Copy A.

Some other things work differently from Adobe Reader. The IRS PDFs contain an Adobe-only layer and scripts, which PDFReadyGo leaves out of the download. As a result, amounts are not formatted for you, and the boxes have no labels on screen, so go by the box numbers printed on the form.

Send or combine the copies

Remove pages you do not need. If you only want Copy B for the recipient, Split PDF can save that page on its own.
Combine several recipients. Merge PDF puts flattened statements into one file for your records.
Keep files small. Our filled 1099-NEC was 580.3 KB. If you need to email many statements, Compress PDF in Optimize mode keeps the text sharp. Target size mode saves pages as images.
Protect the TINs. The instructions allow filers to truncate the recipient’s TIN on payee statements; see the instructions for the rules. Send statements in a way the recipient agrees to.

What if it does not work?

You cannot type on the first copy: that is Copy A, which is read-only. Scroll down to Copy 1, B or 2.
You need corrected or prior-year forms: use the revision the instructions name for that year, found on the IRS form pages.
“This PDF is encrypted”: download a fresh copy from irs.gov.