New IRS Form W-9 (Rev. March 2024). Don't Collect A New Form From All Vendors

The IRS issued a draft version of the IRS Form W-9, Request for Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) and Certification (W-9) on July 26, 2023 with a revision date of October 2023. Then nothing. Until March 5, 2024 when a new draft version was published with a revision date of March 2024 and March 6, 2024 when that version was issued and made official.

So now what.

Unlike the IRS W-8 Forms Series, there is no grace period, when the W-9 is issued it is effective immediately. Which means vendor teams that setup new vendors or change existing vendors that are organized under US state law need to collect the new version of the form.

But what about existing vendors that don't have a change requiring the collection of a new W-9? My recommendation is to avoid a campaign to collect the new version of the W-9 from your existing vendors.

Why You Should Not Mass Collect New W-9's From All Active Vendors

• The IRS puts the onus on the vendor to re-submit an updated W-9 when their information (legal name, address or TIN) changes. (Insert joke here)
• A campaign to collect W-9s is an invitation for fraud. Especially if you are collecting the forms via risky email, it unnecessarily puts your vendors TIN which could be a Social Security Number (SSN) at risk of being exposed or intercepted. There is also a risk if the W-9s are submitted to internal team members first, then submitted to the vendor team, because you don't have control over how it is collected, nor how it is stored.

What to Do Instead - Collect a New W-9 From Only Certain Active Vendors When Cleaning Your Vendor Master File

Cleaning your vendor master file is a process that should be done consistently. In general, this process begins with inactivating vendors that your company has not done business with in the past 15, 18, 24 (or other) months. Next, revalidating the remaining active vendors to make sure no information has changed and that they haven't been added to watchlists after onboarding, then reviewing the results as well as checking for duplicates. Here is where you can identify what vendors you do need to reach out to and collect a new W-9.

1. As part of the revalidation process, perform a TIN match. This can be done via a bulk upload via IRS e-services, or another platform.
2. Request a new W-9 from all vendors where the IRS TIN Match was not successful.

When you send the request for a new W-9, make sure you send the new version!

Additional Vendor Process Resources

8 Step Process to Clean The Vendor Master File - Sign-up to watch this free on-demand training session.

IRS W-9 Examples By Tax Classification - What To Look For When Accepting From Your Vendor - Enroll to watch on-demand or attend the next live session. Now earn 2 CEUs for those with IOFM APP2P Certifications and 2 CPEs through ACFE for CFEs!

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