This website talks about the free W9 Form available here. You will need Adobe Reader to access the form. If you don't have the program, you can download it free from Adobe or other sources.
It is a four paged form and the first page is the part that you would fill out if you are the payed person, the pages 2, 3, and 4 are instructions.
Here is the page that covers the info for Instructions for the Requester of Form W9.
Is when John plays music at the nursing home, he gets paid for his one hour program.
During the year, he plays there several times earning him more than six hundred dollars.
After the year is over he will get a 1099 form with the amount of money that they paid him during the whole year.
Now the 1099 that he got from that nursing home company and others that he got form other nursing homes add up to a years worth of work for John and he must pay tax on that. Well when he first got hired they asked him for a W9 form, and he filled one out for them.
Such as mileage or the well known actual expense method, but there is usually some profit.
So, John made money and the W9 and 1099 forms keep his income in line for the IRS.
He is learning about tax deductions now to try to over come his burden, but the forms are great for keeping the accounting and the world in order. There other W9's and similar forms available here. For Spanish speakers there is the Spanish Language W9.
For foreigners there is the W8Ben and the Instructions for the W8.
For students and borrowers there is the W9s.
The website www.PrintW9.com has a lot of resources as well.