Yes, if you paid someone $10 or more in dividends during the year. That's the standard trigger for Form 1099-DIV, though it's not the only one: a $600 liquidation payout, any backup withholding, or any foreign tax withheld on the distribution can require the form even when the $10 dividend threshold isn't met.

What does the $10 threshold actually cover?

Dividends and other stock distributions paid to one recipient that add up to $10 or more in money or property during the calendar year. That includes ordinary dividends, capital gain dividends, and exempt-interest dividends paid by a mutual fund; anything that fits the IRS definition of a dividend under section 6042 counts toward the $10, not just a plain cash dividend check.

Is the threshold different for liquidation payouts?

Yes: $600, not $10. If a corporation is winding down and distributes cash or property to a shareholder as part of a partial or complete liquidation, that distribution gets its own, higher threshold. $600 or more in money or property triggers the filing requirement, separate from the ordinary-dividend test.

Do I still have to file below $10 in some cases?

Yes, two of them. If you withheld and paid foreign tax on the dividends or other distributions, or if you withheld federal income tax under the backup withholding rules, you must file Form 1099-DIV for that recipient regardless of the dollar amount involved. Either of those withholding events overrides the $10 floor.

When are the forms actually due?

Furnish the recipient's copy by January 31. File the copy with the IRS by February 28 if you're filing on paper, or March 31 if you're filing electronically. Form 1099-DIV isn't one of the forms that gets the later February 15 recipient exception; that later date applies only to Forms 1099-B, 1099-DA, 1099-S, and 1099-MISC boxes 8 and 10, not to 1099-DIV. As with the other 1099 series, any date that lands on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday moves to the next business day.

Where this actually shows up at intake

The part that trips up a brokerage or fund's back office isn't the $10 test itself, it's the accounts that clear $10 in dividends but also carry a small liquidation payout or a backup-withholding flag from a missing W-9. Those get pulled into 1099-DIV on a different rule than the dividend line they're used to checking. Tracking withholding events and liquidation activity as their own trigger, separate from the dividend total, is what keeps an account from being missed. For the reporting-threshold question one level up, how these per-box rules compare across the whole 1099 family, see what is the 1099 reporting threshold.