Every business that pays independent contractors needs a signed W-9 on file for each one before the first payment goes out — it's how you get the name, address, and taxpayer ID you'll need for a 1099 at year-end. If you're onboarding several contractors in the same week, the form itself is short, but chasing down each person's details and re-entering your own business information every time adds up fast, and a missing or incorrect TIN has real consequences.
To fill out W-9 forms for multiple contractors faster, use an AI form filler that keeps your own business details on file and auto-fills each contractor's W-9 from their saved profile, so you only chase what's missing. Filly AI supports the official W-9 directly and lets each contractor complete and sign their own copy through a no-login link.
Why does a business need a W-9 from every contractor?
The IRS requires a payer to hold a valid taxpayer identification number (TIN) for anyone it pays as a 1099 contractor. If the TIN is missing or incorrect, the payer may be required to apply backup withholding — currently 24% of the payment — until a valid W-9 is on file, per the IRS's backup withholding rules. Getting the form right the first time avoids that entirely.
What slows down collecting W-9s from several contractors?
The form's own fields — business name, address, entity type, TIN — are the same shape every time, but they belong to a different person or company on every submission. Emailing a blank PDF to each contractor and waiting for it to come back, then checking each one by hand for a missing signature or entity-type box, is where the delay usually sits, not the form itself.
Can contractors fill out their own W-9 online?
Yes. Start from the official W-9 in Filly's form library and send each contractor a no-login link — they open it in a browser, fill in and sign their own details, and you receive the completed form back without either side needing an account.
How does this connect to the rest of contractor onboarding?
A W-9 is usually one of several documents a new contractor completes alongside a contractor agreement and their first invoice. Saving a contractor's details once as a profile means those same fields — name, address, company — carry over to every document in the onboarding set instead of being retyped for each one; see how invoices auto-fill across multiple clients for the same pattern applied to billing.
What should you double-check before filing a W-9 away?
Confirm the name matches IRS records, the correct entity-type box is checked, and the TIN (SSN or EIN) is complete and signed — these are the fields backup withholding rules hinge on. This article is general information, not tax advice; consult a qualified accountant for anything specific to your business.
Frequently asked questions
Is filling out W-9 forms with Filly free?
Yes, up to the free plan's limit of 10 filled documents a month, no credit card. Paid plans from $19/month raise the limit and add batch fill for onboarding several contractors at once.
Can I send a blank W-9 to a contractor instead of filling it myself?
Yes — send the official W-9 as a no-login link and the contractor fills and signs it directly; you still get to keep your own business details prefilled if you're also a party on the form.
Does Filly store contractors' taxpayer ID numbers securely?
Data is encrypted, sub-processors are disclosed, and nothing is used to train AI models — see the security page for full details.
Can I batch-fill W-9s for several contractors at once?
Batch fill (a paid-plan feature) applies one form across multiple saved profiles in a single run, useful when onboarding several contractors in the same week.