During every tax season, you will be required to fill and submit several tax forms to the IRS or any other party that needs them. If you work freelance or as an independent contractor, you will also be required to fill out a W-9 form capturing every detail of your earnings correctly.

Independent contractors and freelancers deal with a lot of clients and each of these clients will need the W-9 form to file taxes. Compiling this information manually including all the printing, filling, and scanning can be very tiresome. However, you can instead opt to file these forms online and even append an electronic signature which is less cumbersome and will save you time as well.

Many people have previously filled out their W-9 forms manually mainly because they do not know how to do it online and then electronically sign them. Today we have several applications that enable you to fill PDF forms online and sign them without first having to print and then scan them. In this post, we discuss how to fill out and sign a W-9 form online.

What is a W-9 form?

A W-9 form is a document from the IRS meant for independent contractors including freelancers, limited liability companies, self-employed people, and consultants. The form requires details such as your tax identification number and certification. This form helps the aforementioned parties to fulfill their tax obligations for each tax year. You can download the W-9 form to get a snippet of the information required to be recorded.

While employers have the right to withhold income tax, Medicare tax, or social security, independent contractors on the other hand do not. This means that it is the responsibility of the individual contractors to ensure their tax obligations have been met. Since the W-9 form covers the details of income paid to a person who might be listed in the W-2 form of the IRS, every individual contractor will need one. It is recommended to fill and sign W9 online to save time instead of doing it manually.

How to fill out and sign the W-9 form online

The W-9 form is usually available as a PDF version meaning filling and signing it is very difficult. You may need expensive apps such as Adobe Acrobat to edit a PDF file and even if that is possible, there will be issues when it comes to saving the edited file. You will also be required to sign the W-9 form online which will be difficult when using apps like Adobe Acrobat.

Many people usually go for the option of printing, filling, and scanning which they believe will be easier, but, in reality, is very tiresome. Keeping these manual records is also very difficult — a reason why filling the W-9 form online is the best option. You can use an electronic signature app like signNow to fill and sign the W-9 form online.

How to electronically sign the W-9 using signNow

1.    Download the W-9 form – the W-9 form can be downloaded from the IRS website and it is usually available as a PDF file. If you have a signNow account, you can obtain a blank W-9 from the account.

2.    Sign in to your signNow account — you need to first sign in to your account before you can access the W-9 or upload one from your downloaded files. On the top left corner of the signNow page, you will see an upload documents option. Click it and select the W-9 form to upload it and then click on the template to continue.

3.    Fill the form — on the right part of your screen, you will see the edit and sign option. Click on it and select text to make the W-9 form contain fillable fields. Proceed to fill out all the required information. Line 3 of the W-9 form requires you to create a checkbox in order to tick the right tax classification. Go to the tools icon and from the menu and select the checkbox field. Move the cursor to the correct box and click to create a new checkbox. You will then proceed to the checkbox panel available on the right side of the screen and select the checked option. Click ok to save changes.

4.    Sign the W-9 form online — here you will be required to sign the form to verify that the information you have provided is indeed correct. Go back to the edit and sign option and select my signature option. you can either type, draw, or upload your signature depending on your preferences. Click on sign and then save and close to finish.

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