Which Box?

Payment cards fly in and you slap the right form tab, from 1099-NEC box 1a to 1099-MISC box 10 to no 1099 at all, before time runs out. Streaks build a combo multiplier and a fire meter, and every miss flips the card to show the rule.

You will learn which 1099 box each payment goes in, and the 2026 $2,000, $600 and $10 thresholdsPrivacy runs in your browser; scores stay on your device

How to play

Press Start the round. A payment card slides in: the amount, who was paid and what it was for. Every card is a 2026 payment and, unless it says otherwise, the payee's total for the year.
Pick the form tab where it belongs, from 1099-NEC box 1a to 1099-MISC box 10, Form W-2, 1099-K or No 1099. Click or tap a tab, or press 1 to 5.
Answer before the timer bar empties. Faster answers score more, and every 3 right in a row raise your combo, up to x4. Six in a row lights the fire meter.
A wrong answer or a timeout flips the card to show the rule. Read it, then press Next card or Enter.
A round is 14 cards. It starts with 3 tabs per card, then 4, then 5, with trickier thresholds and corporations near the end.

The real rules behind the game

Which Box? drills one question a payer answers thousands of times a year: does this payment go on an information return, and if so, which form and which box? The answers follow the Form 1099-MISC and Form 1099-NEC pages on this site, which follow the IRS instructions for tax year 2026.

Services or something else

Pay for services by someone who is not your employee goes in 1099-NEC box 1a: contractor fees, commissions, directors' fees, prizes for services, attorneys' fees and oil and gas working interest payments. Pay to an employee is wages on Form W-2. Most other business payments that are not for services land on the 1099-MISC: rent (box 1, including machines, pasture and surface royalties), royalties (box 2), other income such as prizes not for services, taxable and punitive damages and research study payments (box 3), medical and health care payments (box 6), crop insurance (box 9), gross proceeds paid to an attorney such as a settlement check (box 10) and cash paid for fish bought for resale (box 11). A machine rented with an operator is split: the rent in 1099-MISC box 1, the operator's charge in 1099-NEC box 1a.

The 2026 thresholds

For payments made after 2025 the 1099-NEC threshold and most 1099-MISC thresholds rose from $600 to $2,000 per payee per year, indexed for inflation from 2027. Not everything moved. Royalties and broker substitute payments stay at $10, gross proceeds paid to an attorney and cash fish purchases stay at $600, and fishing boat crew shares are reported in any amount. The thresholds are "or more", so exactly $2,000 is reported. If you backup withheld, you file whatever the amount. The 1099 threshold lookup shows every form.

Payments you do not report

Payments to corporations, including an LLC taxed as a C or S corporation, are generally exempt. The exceptions are attorneys' fees, payments for services by federal executive agencies, medical and health care payments, attorney gross proceeds, cash fish purchases and broker substitute payments. Also not reported by you: merchandise, freight, storage and telephone; personal payments; payments to tax exempt organizations and governments; rent paid to a property manager or real estate agent (the agent reports it to the owner); and anything paid by credit card, debit card or a payment app, which the processor reports on Form 1099-K. A plain bank transfer is not a third party network payment, so it stays on your 1099.

Other forms on the cards

A few cards step outside the 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC: bank interest on 1099-INT and dividends on 1099-DIV at $10, retirement distributions on 1099-R at $10, canceled debt on 1099-C at $600, gambling winnings on Form W-2G ($2,000 minimum for 2026), and real estate proceeds and pay-as-cut timber royalties on 1099-S.

What the game simplifies

Each card is one payment treated as the payee's total for the year, with a clean W-9 behind it. Real files have payees paid many times, mixed payments, state copies and backup withholding to track. Direct sales of $5,000 or more can go in 1099-NEC box 2 or 1099-MISC box 7; the game only offers box 2. When a payment is not one you recognise, the 1099 payment type finder and Do I need to send a 1099? walk through it.

Sources

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