Yes, a single-member LLC gets a 1099 for services, unless it has elected to be taxed as a C or S corporation. The part that generates corrected forms every February is whose name belongs on it: a single-member LLC is a disregarded entity for federal tax purposes, so the 1099 carries the owner's name and taxpayer identification number, not the LLC's. Pay "Riverbend Design LLC" and the form may well need to read Dana Okafor.

Why does the owner's name go on the form?

Because for federal tax purposes the LLC isn't there. A disregarded entity's income lands on the owner's return, so the information return has to match the return the IRS expects it to tie to. Form W-9 is built for exactly this: line 1 takes the owner's name, line 2 takes the disregarded entity's name, and line 3a takes the owner's tax classification. Fill the form using what's on those lines and the 1099 comes out right.

Worth knowing where this rule lives, because it explains why so many firms miss it. The instructions for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC never use the word "disregarded." The owner-name-and-TIN requirement sits in the W-9 instructions instead. Anyone reasoning from the 1099 instructions alone will conclude the LLC's own name is fine.

When does a single-member LLC not get a 1099?

When it has elected corporate treatment. An LLC that files as a C or S corporation inherits the corporate exemption and drops out of 1099 reporting for ordinary services. The election is invisible from outside: nothing in the name, the invoice, or the website tells you which way a given LLC went. That's what the W-9 is for, and it's why a missing W-9 isn't a paperwork nuisance but an unanswered tax question.

The exemption still has holes. An LLC taxed as a corporation that provides legal services gets a 1099-NEC for attorneys' fees anyway, and one providing medical or health-care services gets a 1099-MISC box 6. Corporate status is not a blanket shield.

What's the threshold for 2026?

$2,000 for services paid during the year, raised from $600 by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act for payments made after December 31, 2025, with inflation indexing available to the IRS from 2027. The $600 figure had been in place since 1954, so it's deeply embedded in checklists, templates and half the tax content on the internet. Anything still using it for services in 2026 is wrong.

What happens if you use the LLC's TIN instead of the owner's?

The form doesn't match anything the IRS can reconcile, and you're into notices and corrected returns. The practical fix is upstream and cheap: no payment until a W-9 is on file, and read line 1 rather than the invoice letterhead. It costs nothing in November and saves the January scramble.

Where this actually breaks at intake

Nobody gets this wrong on purpose. They get it wrong because the vendor file holds a company name and a bank detail and no W-9, so a preparer in January infers the payee type from the name on the invoice. "Riverbend Design LLC" tells you nothing about whether Riverbend is disregarded, a partnership, or an S corp, and the three answers point three different directions. Capturing classification at onboarding is a document-collection discipline before it is a tax judgment, and line 1 of the W-9 is the single field that decides this one. For the broader version of the question across every LLC type, not just single-member: does an LLC get a 1099?