1099-NEC deadline · Feb 1, 2027 Tax year 2026 brings a $2,000 reporting threshold, new tips and overtime boxes, and the end of FIRE. What changed for 2026 Free FIRE converter Collect a W‑9
For CPAs, accountants, bookkeepers and tax preparers

January decides your year. Give it one place to live.

Collect W‑9s, clean up payee records, check names and taxpayer IDs in seconds, import client data and e‑file — all from one account. Add every client payer and EIN under the same login while keeping each entity separate where it belongs. No seat licenses. No annual plan to justify. You pay for the forms you file.

IRS-authorizedUnlimited client payersNo seat licenses Instant TIN matching41+ state filing
Create a firm account See the bulk workflow

Can one account file 1099s for multiple clients?

The short answer

Yes. One TaxFormHero login holds as many client payers and EINs as your firm manages. Each payer keeps its own legal name, EIN, recipient directory and filing history, so client records stay separate while the login stays one. There are no seat licenses and no user cap — billing follows the forms you file, starting at $1.99 per form and falling to $0.45 at volume.

One firm login no seats, no user cap Client A own EIN · own recipients own filing history Client B own EIN · own recipients own filing history Client C own EIN · own recipients own filing history Client D own EIN · own recipients own filing history

Pay for forms, not headcount

The difference shows up twice a year: in a quiet October, and in a January when you take on more work than you planned for.

Seat-licensed filing software compared with per-form billing
Seat-licensed softwareTaxFormHero
What you buyUsers, for a yearForms, when you file them
A quiet season costsThe same as a busy oneNothing
Adding a seasonal preparerAnother licenceNo change
Taking on a new client mid-JanuaryMay need a plan upgradeAdd a payer and carry on
Signup feeCommonNone
Minimum commitmentUsually annualNone
Client entities per accountOften capped by tierAs many as you manage

A January workflow that repeats

The same four movements for every client, whether it is one contractor or six hundred.

Add each client as a payer

One payer per client, subsidiary or entity — created individually, or imported when you are onboarding several at once.

Fix the payee data first

Send W‑9 links for the payees a client cannot document, and run TIN matching over the names and numbers they can.

Import against the right payer

Choose payer, tax year and form before the upload, so a file can never land against the wrong client.

Review, file, retrieve

Drafts are reviewed like any other return. After filing, the data and PDFs stay in the account for four years.

Stop chasing W‑9s in January

The expensive part of a client's 1099 work is rarely the amounts. It is tracking down legal names, tax IDs and signatures once the deadline is close. Send secure signing links while the work is current: $0.69 per request, including the signed PDF, the recipient record and TIN matching.

Answers while your team is still looking

Interactive TIN matching, not an overnight batch. Select a long list from an uploaded spreadsheet and every record is still submitted and answered individually, in seconds, against the payee it belongs to. $0.49 per check.

Corrections start where the original did

Open the original payer, tax year and form, mark it corrected, change what was wrong and file again. The recipient needs a corrected copy too. Each correction is a new transmission and is charged at your current rate.

Import the work. Do not re-key it.

Payers and recipients are separate imports on purpose — onboarding a client is not the same job as filing for one.

The two importers and what a row means in each
ImportOne row isReach for it when
Payer import One client, entity or business you file under You are onboarding several client payers at once
Recipient & form import One recipient and their box amounts, for a payer, tax year and form you chose first You are filing a batch of one form type for one client

One habit worth keeping

Start from the form's own template and its instruction sheet, not from whatever spreadsheet the client sent. The template carries the columns the importer expects; the instruction sheet says what belongs in each field and how it has to be formatted. Nothing transmits on upload — imported returns arrive as ordinary drafts, reviewed in the same table as anything typed by hand.

A route in for legacy FIRE files

If a client or a prior system hands you a fixed-width Publication 1220 .txt or .dat file, convert it before anyone starts re-keying. The free FIRE File Converter produces a payer CSV and a recipient-and-form CSV laid out for the importers. It runs in the browser, so the client's file is never uploaded to us. Review the figures before you file: a conversion gives you structured data, not a reviewed return.

Deliver the copy the client wants

Recipient PDFs are free to download and hand over. Per client you can add state filing at $0.99, secure e‑delivery at $0.19 with consent collected and recorded, or print and mail at $1.69. Form 1096 and W‑3 transmittals are handled, so there is nothing separate to prepare.

Referrals pay both ways

Refer a colleague and your firm receives 10% of their e‑filing payments, while the firm you referred gets 10% back on their own filing. Both sides gain, which is the only version of a referral worth passing on to someone whose judgement you rely on. See the referral terms.

What a client batch actually costs

Graduated bands, each charged at its own rate. The volume that matters is the volume you file.

Per-form price for 1099, 1098, W-2G and 5498 filings
Filing volumeWhich formsPrice per form
First 150 forms forms 1–150 $1.99
Next 350 forms forms 151–500 $0.99
Next 500 forms forms 501–1,000 $0.60
Beyond 1,000 forms every form after $0.45

Worked through, because graduated pricing is easy to misread

A firm filing 1,500 forms pays $1,170.00 before any extras — an average of $0.78 per form. It is not 1,500 × $0.45. The cheapest rate applies only to the forms sitting in the cheapest band, never backwards across the whole order. Run a client batch through the calculator.

Built to survive a client security questionnaire

Specific answers you can put in writing, not adjectives.

What a firm can tell a client about how their data is held
Question a client asksThe answer
Are you independently audited?AICPA SOC 2 Type I for the Security trust services criteria, unqualified opinion issued by Prescient Assurance LLC, October 2025
How is our data encrypted?256-bit encryption at rest and in transit
Can access be hardened?Optional two-factor authentication on the account
Are our records mixed with another client's?No — each payer keeps its own recipients, forms and history
How long do you keep our filings?Four years, retrievable from the account they were filed in
Who transmits to the IRS?TaxFormHero, as an IRS-authorized e-file provider, through IRIS

Read the full security and compliance detail, or ask about the SOC 2 report.

FAQ

Questions firms ask before they switch

Yes. A single TaxFormHero account holds as many payer entities and client EINs as your firm manages. Each payer keeps its own legal name, EIN, recipient directory, filing history and forms, so the records stay separate while the login stays one.

No. There are no seat licenses and no user cap. Billing follows the forms and optional services you actually file, which means a quiet season does not leave you paying for software you are not opening and a busy one does not make you buy more seats.

No. There is no subscription, no signup fee and no minimum purchase. You can create an account in October, file nothing until January, and owe nothing in between.

Yes. Select the client payer, add or import the payees, and send each one a secure signing link. The payee signs without creating an account. Each paid request is $0.69 and includes the signed PDF, the recipient record and TIN matching on what was certified.

Yes. TaxFormHero uses IRS e-Services Interactive TIN Matching, so each name-and-TIN pair is submitted and answered individually in seconds. Upload the recipient list, select the records you want checked, and the answers come back against the payees while you are still in the file. It never becomes an overnight batch.

Payers and recipient/form data are separate imports because they are different jobs. Import payers when you are onboarding several client entities at once. Then choose the payer, tax year and form, and import recipients with their box amounts using that form's own Excel or CSV template. Everything arrives as drafts.

No. An import creates draft forms and nothing else. Your team reviews them in the same table used for manually entered returns, selects whichever add-ons that client needs, and explicitly submits through the cart. Nothing reaches the IRS until someone chooses to send it.

Yes, with the free FIRE File Converter. It reads a Publication 1220 fixed-width .txt or .dat file and produces a payer CSV and a recipient-and-form CSV laid out for the TaxFormHero importers. The conversion runs in the browser, so the client's file is never uploaded to us.

Open the original payer, tax year and form, mark the return as corrected, change what was wrong, save it and file it again. The recipient needs a corrected copy as well. Each correction is transmitted as a new return and is charged at your current per-form rate.

Filing data and PDF copies stay available in the account for four years, organised under the payer they were filed for. That covers the ordinary case of a client asking in year three for something filed in year one.

Yes. Refer a colleague and your firm receives 10% of their e-filing payments, while the firm you referred gets 10% back on their own filing. Both sides benefit rather than only the referrer.

TaxFormHero is independently audited under AICPA SOC 2 Type I for the Security trust services criteria, with an unqualified opinion issued by Prescient Assurance LLC in October 2025. Data is encrypted with 256-bit encryption at rest and in transit, and optional two-factor authentication is available.

Give January a workflow that repeats

Bring in the client payers, collect the W‑9s before the deadline matters, verify the payee data in seconds, import the forms, and file from one account.

Create a firm account Estimate a client batch