Usually no. Payments to an S corporation for services are covered by the corporate exemption, so no 1099-NEC is required. The word "usually" is carrying real weight though: the exceptions to the exemption are exactly the payees a CPA firm deals with most, so an S-corp law firm or an incorporated medical practice still gets a form.

What does the corporate exemption actually say?

The instructions exempt payments to a corporation, and they specifically include an LLC that is treated as a C or S corporation. So the shield follows tax classification, not the name. "Meridian Group LLC" taxed as an S corp is exempt; the same name taxed as a partnership is not, and nothing visible from outside distinguishes them. That's what a W-9 answers, and why a missing one is an open question rather than a missing document.

Which payments to an S corp still need a 1099?

Five, and they are not obscure:

• Attorneys' fees for legal services go on 1099-NEC box 1a, corporate payee or not. Threshold is $2,000 for 2026.

• Medical and health-care payments go on 1099-MISC box 6, $2,000 or more, even to an incorporated practice.

• Gross proceeds paid to an attorney go on 1099-MISC box 10 at $600 or more. Different box, different statute, different number.

• Fish purchased for resale, $600 or more in cash, if you're in that trade.

• Federal executive agency payments to vendors, including corporations.

If your firm pays an S-corp law firm, that's a 1099-NEC. If it pays settlement proceeds through an attorney's trust account, that's box 10 at the lower trigger.

Why do the two attorney rules have different thresholds?

Because they sit under different statutes and only one of them moved. Attorneys' fees are ordinary reportable service payments under section 6041, which the One Big Beautiful Bill Act raised from $600 to $2,000 for payments made after December 31, 2025. Gross proceeds paid to an attorney report under section 6045(f), which the Act didn't touch, so that one stays at $600.

The practical consequence is a page of any firm's checklist: for 2026, a $1,200 legal bill produces no 1099-NEC, while $1,200 of gross proceeds routed through the same attorney does produce a 1099-MISC box 10. Same payee, same year, two answers.

Does the S corp still have to issue 1099s to its own vendors?

Yes. Being exempt as a payee says nothing about obligations as a payer. An S corporation that pays a contractor $2,000 or more for services during 2026 files a 1099-NEC like anyone else. Payer duties come from running a trade or business.

Where this actually breaks at intake

The exemption is easy to apply and nearly impossible to apply retroactively. It depends on a fact, the payee's tax classification, that lives on a form somebody has to collect before the money moves. Firms don't get this wrong because the rule is subtle; they get it wrong in January, inferring entity type from invoice letterhead because no W-9 was ever filed. Worse, over-issuing feels safe and isn't: a 1099 to an exempt corporate payee invites reconciliation questions on both returns. Getting it right is a paperwork discipline sitting upstream of the tax judgment: collect the W-9, read line 3a, and the S-corp question answers itself. One caveat if you send prep work outside the firm, since the same S-corp payee logic comes up there in reverse: disclosing client data to an outside preparer has its own §7216 consent rules.