At year-end, an employer reports an employee's wages on which form, as opposed to the form used for an independent contractor?

Explicación

Wages, withholding and payroll taxes for an employee go on Form W-2; payments for services to a non-employee go on Form 1099-NEC, and for tax year 2026 the reporting threshold is $2,000 paid to the payee - the old $600 figure is out of date. (b) is the error in the safe direction and is rarely the one a contractor makes. The dangerous version is the reverse: issuing a 1099-NEC to someone who is an employee under Labor Code §2775, which is documentary evidence of the misclassification rather than a defense to it. (a) is the state new-hire report, filed at hire rather than at year-end. (d) is the work-authorization form, which is retained by the employer and filed with no one.