You paid a designer, two writers, a video editor, and a paid-media contractor this year, none of them on payroll. Now it is January, each one is owed a form, and the IRS wants a copy. The question is which line items you will trigger, because the advertised per-form rate is rarely what lands on your card.
The moment an agency needs a 1099 tool
The trigger is a dollar threshold, and it moved. The IRS instructions for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC, revised 12/2026, say to file Form 1099-NEC for each person in the course of your business to whom you paid at least $2,000 during the year for services performed by someone who is not your employee. That threshold rose to $2,000 for tax years beginning after 2025, and may be adjusted for inflation from 2027. For tax year 2025, the IRS General Instructions for Certain Information Returns still list Form 1099-NEC at $600 or more, due January 31.
This is a federal reporting requirement, and it attaches to you as the payer. A social media freelancer creates the same obligation as a plumber. The tool’s job is narrow: generate the form, transmit it, get a copy to the contractor. No pricing page decides whether you owe it.
What a per-form filing tool actually does
Strip the marketing away and these products automate four steps: collecting a Form W-9 and storing the taxpayer identification number, populating the 1099-NEC from your payment totals, transmitting the return to the IRS electronically, and delivering the recipient copy by post or electronically with consent. Most also check the name and TIN combination against IRS records first, a separately priced fifth step.
What they do not do is judge. Whether someone you paid is a contractor or an employee is a legal determination with real consequences, and no filing tool makes that call.
Tax1099 and Avalara 1099: what the per-form price covers, dated
Both vendors price in volume bands, each billed at its own rate. Figures fetched from each vendor’s own pricing page on 7 September 2026.
| Line item | Tax1099 | Avalara 1099 & W-9 |
|---|---|---|
| IRS e-file, per form by volume band | $2.99 (1 to 20), $2.30 (21 to 150), $1.31 (151 to 500), $0.68 (501 to 1000) | $3.10 (1 to 15), $2.30 (16 to 165), $1.30 (166 to 500), $0.63 (501 up) |
| State filing | $0.99, direct e-file, non-CFSF states | $1.49 per form, any volume |
| Postal mail, domestic | $1.90 per form | $1.84, January through April |
| Peak season mail | $1 rush fee added, final 5 days through Feb 2 | $2.89 replaces $1.84, January 27 to 31 |
| TIN matching | $0.37 within 24 hours, $1.00 real time | $0.45 per form |
| Corrections | Core feature, no price published | Included with IRS e-filing |
Avalara’s page carries “(Track1099)” in its own title and points its sign-in buttons at track1099.com, but it does not narrate an acquisition. Read it as a product that now prices as Avalara 1099 & W-9 with its login on the old domain. [EVIDENCE NEEDED: an acquisition and rebrand statement on Avalara’s own site]
As a third reference point on the bracket, TaxBandits published federal 1099 and W-2 filing at $2.75 per form for the first 10 and $1.75 for forms 11 to 100 that day, and lists No-Cost Corrections in what each filing fee includes.
Prices verified 7 September 2026 from the vendors’ own pricing pages. This is not Watchdog data and it is not on the re-verification schedule.
Where the real cost sits: e-file, state filing, and postal mailing add-ons
- IRS e-file is the base rate at both. The figures above are e-filing prices, not a subscription billed before e-filing starts. Avalara bundles e-delivery and e-corrections into it, and Tax1099 puts federal e-file in every plan, including the free tier.
- State filing is separate at both, and it multiplies. Neither state rate is annual. Both bill per form, so five contractors in a state that wants its own return means paying that line five times.
- Postal mail is an add-on, and late January costs more. Both raise the price of paper in the closing days of the season, exactly when a late-starting agency buys it.
- TIN matching is billed per check, not per filing. At five contractors the per-unit rate is what applies, not either vendor’s annual plan.
- Avalara’s plans carry overages. Its page states overage fees apply when you exceed the forms in your plan, without publishing the rate. [EVIDENCE NEEDED: Avalara’s per-form subscription overage rate]
The correction fee: what happens when a TIN does not match
A correction is an amended information return filed after you find an error in one already submitted. The usual cause at agency scale is a name and TIN that do not match IRS records, often because a freelancer gave a trading name with a personal social security number.
Avalara includes e-corrections in what comes with IRS e-filing, so a corrected electronic filing carries no separate line item there. Tax1099 lists corrected and void form e-filing inside Tax1099 Core on all three plans but publishes no correction fee. [EVIDENCE NEEDED: a published Tax1099 correction fee, or confirmation that corrections are not billed at the per-form rate]
At six forms, the gap between a $2.75 and a $3.10 rate is about two dollars for the year. If two of those TINs come back wrong and corrections are billed as new filings, you have paid for eight submissions instead of six. The correction policy matters more than the headline rate.
A walkthrough: an agency with five freelancers at year end
Picture a hypothetical roster: five 1099-NEC forms, one contractor in a state requiring its own direct filing, all five wanting paper copies and TIN matching. Illustrative, using only the figures published that day.
At Tax1099: five forms in the first-20 band at $2.99 is $14.95. One direct state filing, $0.99. Five domestic mailings at $1.90 is $9.50, assuming the request lands before the final five days of the season, otherwise add $1 each. Five 24-hour TIN match requests at $0.37 is $1.85. The published line items above total $27.29. The correction line cannot be added, because no correction price is published.
At Avalara: five forms in the first-15 band at $3.10 is $15.50, with e-delivery and e-corrections included. One state filing, $1.49. Five postal mailings in the January through April window at $1.84 is $9.20, or $2.89 each between January 27 and 31. Five TIN matches at $0.45 is $2.25. The published line items above total $28.44, and one correction adds nothing under the included e-corrections line.
A dollar and change apart, before anything goes wrong.
What these tools do not do
They do not classify workers, they do not calculate the contractor’s quarterly estimated tax, and they do not know what you paid whom: each starts from a number you supply, so accuracy depends on earlier bookkeeping. Payments to foreign persons run on a different track, including Form 1042-S, outside the scope of this piece.
As a factual contrast rather than a recommendation, the IRS runs its own free Information Returns Intake System, whose Taxpayer Portal handles up to 100 returns at a time, files corrections, and requires a Transmitter Control Code. Against every price above sit the IRS penalties for returns due in 2026: $60 per return up to 30 days late, $130 through August 1, $340 after that or not filed, $680 for intentional disregard.
Where to go from here
Before opening either pricing page, answer three questions from your records: how many contractors crossed the threshold, which states want their own return, and whether you hold a current W-9 for each. Our pieces on tracking what each freelancer actually billed and how those same freelancers invoice the agency cover the other side of that ledger. More sits on the followed blog. followedapp is published by the team behind RecurPost, and nothing here is tax advice.
FAQ
Do I need to file a 1099 for a freelancer I paid through Venmo or PayPal?
Your obligation as the payer comes from what you paid for services, not from which app moved the money. The IRS instructions tie the 1099-NEC to services performed by someone who is not your employee at or above the threshold, $2,000 for tax years beginning after 2025 and $600 for tax year 2025. Processors have separate 1099-K mechanics under different rules. [EVIDENCE NEEDED: whether a specific processor arrangement removes the payer’s own 1099-NEC obligation]
What happened to Track1099?
The product now prices and sells as Avalara 1099 & W-9, with its login still on track1099.com. Avalara’s pricing page does not narrate an acquisition, so that framing is not asserted here as sourced.
Is the per-form price the whole cost of filing?
No. State filing and postal mail sit on top of the per-form e-file rate at both vendors, and TIN matching is priced per check. In the walkthrough above, those add-ons come to roughly $12 against a base of about $15 at each.
What is a 1099 correction and why does it cost extra?
It is an amended return filed after an error is found in one already submitted, most often a name and TIN mismatch. Vendors treat it as a service distinct from the original filing: Avalara states e-corrections are included with IRS e-filing, TaxBandits lists No-Cost Corrections, and Tax1099 publishes no correction price.
Sources
All seven fetched 7 September 2026.