Do I Need to Issue a 1099 to My Landscaper? Rules and Exceptions

Yes, you need to issue a 1099 to your landscaper if you paid them $600 or more during the calendar year for work tied to a business or rental property you operate, and they don’t run their operation as a corporation. Pay someone to mow the lawn at your personal home and no filing is required, no matter how big the check.

When a 1099-NEC Is Required

Three conditions have to line up in the same year before you owe anyone a form:

The payment connects to a trade or business. Running a rental property counts. A side business counts. Paying to maintain your personal residence doesn’t, even if you spend thousands.
The landscaper isn’t your employee. They set their own schedule, bring their own equipment, and work for other clients. That makes them an independent contractor.
Total payments reach $600 or more for the year. Individual invoices below $600 still count toward the total. Six months at $100 a month gets you there.

Miss any one of these and you don’t file. Most homeowners searching this question fall out at the first condition: personal landscaping isn’t a business expense, and it isn’t a reportable payment.

When You Don’t Have to File

The Landscaper Is a Corporation

Payments to corporations are generally exempt from 1099-NEC reporting. If your landscaper operates as a C-corporation or S-corporation, no filing is needed regardless of the amount.¹ Verify this on a W-9 rather than guessing from a business name; sole proprietors and partnerships still fall under the $600 rule.

You Paid by Card or Payment App

Payments made by credit card, debit card, or a payment app like PayPal or Venmo Business are excluded from 1099-NEC reporting. The payment processor handles that reporting through Form 1099-K instead.²³

Mixed payment methods take a little arithmetic. Say you paid $400 by check and $800 on a business credit card. Only the $400 in check payments counts toward the threshold, and since that’s under $600, no 1099-NEC is required.² Reverse the numbers, and the $800 in check payments triggers a filing for that amount.

Materials Are Bundled In

Landscaping invoices often mix labor with mulch, plants, or fertilizer. When the materials are incidental to the service, you report the whole payment on the 1099-NEC, not just the labor. Reimbursements for supplies or travel go in the same box unless the contractor gave you a proper accounting with receipts.²

How LLCs Are Handled

Many small landscaping outfits are LLCs, and the filing question turns on how the LLC is taxed, not on the letters “LLC.” A W-9 asks the LLC to mark one of three codes next to its checkbox: “C” for C-corporation, “S” for S-corporation, or “P” for partnership.⁴

An LLC taxed as a C-corp or S-corp falls under the corporate exception. An LLC taxed as a partnership follows the $600 rule.

Single-member LLCs are the most common structure for small landscapers. Unless the owner elected corporate tax treatment, the IRS treats a single-member LLC as a disregarded entity, essentially the same as a sole proprietor.⁵ That means the $600 rule applies. On the W-9, a disregarded entity leaves the LLC box unchecked and marks “Individual/sole proprietor” instead.

Get a W-9 Before You Pay

You can’t file a 1099-NEC without the landscaper’s legal name, address, and taxpayer identification number. Form W-9 collects all of it, along with the business classification that tells you whether the corporate exception applies.⁶

Ask for it before the first check goes out. Chasing a contractor for tax paperwork in late January is one of the most avoidable headaches in small-business bookkeeping, and most landscapers hand a W-9 over without pushback.

If the landscaper refuses to give you a W-9 or provides an obviously bad taxpayer ID, you’re required to withhold 24% of every payment and send it to the IRS. That’s backup withholding, and it creates work on both sides.⁷

Filing the Form

Once the three conditions are met and you have a W-9, put the total you paid (minus any card or app payments) in Box 1 of Form 1099-NEC.²

The deadline is January 31 of the following year. That single date applies to both the copy you send the landscaper and the copy you file with the IRS, and no extension is available.²

If you file 10 or more information returns of any kind in the year (W-2s and other 1099s all count together), you must file electronically.⁸ A landlord issuing one 1099 for a landscaper can still file on paper, attaching Form 1096 as the transmittal.⁹ The IRS also offers a free online portal, IRIS, that accepts up to 100 returns at a time; registering for a Transmitter Control Code takes time, so don’t leave it to the last week of January.¹⁰

Many states have their own 1099 filing rules. The IRS Combined Federal/State Filing Program forwards data to participating state tax agencies automatically in some cases, though some states still want a separate notification.¹¹ Check your state tax agency’s site before assuming the federal filing covers you.

What Skipping It Costs

Late or missing 1099s carry per-return penalties that grow the longer you wait. For returns due in 2026:¹²

Filed within 30 days of the deadline: $60 per return.
Filed between 31 days late and August 1: $130 per return.
Filed after August 1 or never filed: $340 per return.
Intentional disregard: $680 per return with no annual maximum.

Those apply separately to the IRS copy and the recipient copy, so a single overlooked landscaper can cost twice what the table suggests. The IRS can waive penalties for reasonable cause if you can show you acted responsibly and the failure was beyond your control, but “I forgot” generally isn’t enough.¹²

Keep copies of every W-9 and every 1099-NEC for at least three years after you file the return that claims the deduction. If income is underreported by more than 25%, the IRS can look back six years, so longer retention is smart when the situation is unclear.¹³

1
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC (Rev. April 2025)
2
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC (04/2025)
3
Internal Revenue Service. Understanding Your Form 1099-K
4
Internal Revenue Service. Form W-9 Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification
5
Internal Revenue Service. Single Member Limited Liability Companies
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Internal Revenue Service. About Form W-9, Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification
7
Internal Revenue Service. Backup Withholding
8
Internal Revenue Service. E-File Information Returns
9
Internal Revenue Service. Reporting Payments to Independent Contractors
10
Internal Revenue Service. E-File Information Returns With IRIS
11
Internal Revenue Service. Combined Federal/State Filing (CFSF) Program State Coordinator Information FAQs
12
Internal Revenue Service. Information Return Penalties
13
Internal Revenue Service. How Long Should I Keep Records