How to fill out a W-9 PDF (line by line)

By Grace Whitfield, office-operations consultant · Updated November 1, 2026

A client or a new employer has asked you for a "W-9", and you have a PDF in your inbox. Form W-9 is short — one page of boxes plus several pages of instructions — but the tax-classification line trips up nearly everyone. This guide goes through it line by line, then shows how to fill, sign and return the PDF without printing anything.

This guide explains the form in plain English. It is not tax advice. The authoritative source is the IRS: see About Form W-9 on irs.gov, where you can also download the current blank form and its instructions.

First, get the current blank form from the IRS

The IRS revises Form W-9 every few years; the March 2024 revision added a new line 3b for some partnerships, trusts and LLCs. If the PDF you were sent looks old, or you want a clean copy, download it from irs.gov. The IRS version is already a fillable PDF, so you can open it straight in FormFlow's Fill PDF form tool. FormFlow does not host copies of IRS forms; always use the official one.

Line by line

Line 1 — Name

Enter the name exactly as it appears on your income tax return. For an individual or sole proprietor, that is your own legal name, not your business name. For a single-member LLC that is "disregarded" for tax purposes, it is the owner's name. For a corporation or partnership, it is the entity's legal name.

Line 2 — Business name or disregarded entity name

Fill this in only if you have a business name, trade name, "doing business as" name or disregarded LLC name that is different from line 1. Freelancers working under their own name leave it blank.

Line 3a — Federal tax classification

Tick exactly one box:

• Individual/sole proprietor — most freelancers and independent contractors, and single-member LLCs owned by an individual.
• C corporation or S corporation — if your business is incorporated and taxed as one of these.
• Partnership or Trust/estate.
• LLC — for an LLC that is not disregarded, then write the tax classification letter in the space: C, S or P (partnership). A single-member LLC that is disregarded does not tick this box; it ticks the box for its owner's classification.
• Other — rare; follow the IRS instructions.

Line 3b — Foreign partners, owners or beneficiaries

Added in 2024. Only relevant if you ticked partnership or trust/estate on 3a (or an LLC taxed as a partnership) and you are giving the form to a partnership, trust or estate in which you have an ownership interest, and you have foreign partners, owners or beneficiaries. Everyone else leaves it empty.

Line 4 — Exemptions

Most individuals and small businesses leave both boxes blank. Exempt payee codes apply to entities such as corporations in certain situations, tax-exempt organizations and government bodies; FATCA codes apply mainly to accounts held at foreign financial institutions. The codes are listed in the IRS instructions.

Lines 5 and 6 — Address

The mailing address where the requester should send your information return (your 1099). Use the address the IRS has on file for you, if possible, so year-end forms arrive.

Line 7 — Account numbers (optional)

Usually blank. A requester might ask you to list an account or vendor number here.

Part I — Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN)

Enter either your Social Security number or your employer identification number, not both. The name on line 1 and the TIN must match IRS records — a mismatch is the most common reason a requester sends a W-9 back, and can lead to backup withholding on your payments.

Part II — Certification, signature and date

By signing, you certify under penalties of perjury that the TIN is correct, that you are not subject to backup withholding (or cross out item 2 if the IRS has told you that you are), that you are a US person, and that any FATCA code is correct. Sign and date it.

How to fill and sign the W-9 PDF without printing

1. Open Fill PDF form and choose the W-9 PDF. FormFlow detects the IRS form's fillable fields and highlights them in place.
2. Type your answers. Tick the classification box on line 3a. The SSN and EIN boxes are split into digit groups, just as on the paper form.
3. Download the filled form, or press Continue with this file › Sign PDF to go straight to signing. Draw your signature with a mouse or your finger on the Part II signature line and add today's date with the date stamp.
4. Tick Flatten form fields before finishing if you want the answers locked in, so they cannot be changed by accident and show correctly in every viewer — see why flattening matters.
5. Download the finished PDF. Because FormFlow works entirely in your browser, your SSN or EIN is never uploaded anywhere.

On a phone, the same steps work in Safari or Chrome; see how to sign a PDF on an iPhone for phone-specific tips.

Sending it back safely

A completed W-9 is exactly what an identity thief wants: your legal name, address and taxpayer ID on one page. A few habits help:

• Use the requester's secure portal if they have one.
• Otherwise, send it through an encrypted email service or a file share with a password, and send the password by text.
• Confirm the request is genuine. Scammers send fake "please update your W-9" emails; if it is unexpected, call the company on a number you already know.
• Keep a copy for your records, and delete the copy from your Downloads folder on shared computers.

Collecting W-9s from your own vendors?

If you are the one requesting W-9s, link vendors to the official form on irs.gov, and when the filled PDFs come back, use Extract form data to pull names, classifications and addresses from all of them into one spreadsheet for your 1099 prep.