Form 1099-NEC is always due January 31, to the IRS and to the contractor, whether you file on paper or electronically. Form 1099-MISC splits: most recipient copies are due January 31 too, but two boxes get an extra two weeks, and the IRS copy has its own later date. Miss it on a weekend or holiday and the deadline just slides to the next business day.

What's the deadline for Form 1099-NEC?

January 31, full stop. Section 6071(c) of the tax code sets a single date for Form 1099-NEC that applies to the IRS copy and the recipient copy alike, and it doesn't matter whether you file on paper or electronically. Most other information returns get a later, paper-vs-electronic split; 1099-NEC doesn't.

What's the deadline for Form 1099-MISC?

Two different dates depending on who's receiving the form. Furnish the recipient's copy by January 31, with one exception: if you're reporting substitute payments in lieu of dividends or tax-exempt interest (box 8) or gross proceeds paid to an attorney (box 10), the recipient copy isn't due until February 15. File the IRS copy by February 28 if you're filing on paper, or March 31 if you're filing electronically; that paper/electronic split applies only to the IRS copy, not the recipient copy.

What if the deadline lands on a weekend or holiday?

It moves to the next business day. Any 1099 filing or furnishing date that falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday in the District of Columbia (or wherever the return is filed) becomes due the next day that isn't one of those. A leap year doesn't change anything for the dates expressed as February 28: that date stays February 28 even in a leap year, and it never shifts to February 29.

What if I need more time?

You can request a 30-day extension to file with the IRS by submitting Form 8809 before the original due date, though Form 1099-NEC is the one exception: no automatic extension is available for it. Furnishing statements to recipients is a separate request: file Form 15397 by the date the statements are otherwise due, and an approved request generally buys up to 30 more days.

Where this actually shows up at intake

The deadline itself is simple; what trips up a firm handling this for many clients is treating all their 1099s as one due date when they're really two or three, staggered by form and box. A batch that mixes NEC contractor payments with MISC attorney gross proceeds needs to go out in at least two waves, not one, and the IRS copy for MISC can legitimately go out weeks after the recipient already has theirs. Keeping the batches separated by form type, rather than by client or by month, is what keeps a January 31 crunch from silently becoming a February 28 miss. That kind of per-form, per-box tracking across a full client list is exactly the sort of thing a firm ends up automating once the volume gets past a handful of forms; see who actually needs to receive a 1099 for the recipient side of the same question.