What's the best 1099 software for accounting firms in 2026?
For most firms, a multi-client e-file service like TaxBandits or Avalara. For a large, stable client book, a flat license like Drake Accounting Pro at $795 for the season license with unlimited clients.
Your firm doesn't file one set of 1099s. It files them for every client: dozens of payers, each with its own contractors, TINs and states. So the best 1099 software for a firm isn't the one with the lowest sticker price per form. It's the one that keeps every client separate, lets each staff member see only their own book, chases W-9s for you, and costs something you can bill back.
We compared seven tools against one realistic book: 15 clients filing 20 Forms 1099-NEC each, 300 forms in total. Federal e-filing for that book runs from $0 (the IRS IRIS portal) to $897, depending on the tool. And the 2027 season is different: the IRS shuts down FIRE at the end of 2026, so every tax year 2026 return goes through IRIS.
This ranking is editorial: a sponsored spot is always labeled on its card, and no affiliate link changes a score.
The best 1099 software for your kind of firm
Client portal, staff roles, lowest public rates: $407.50 to $675 for 300 forms
One account for every clientClient visibility by team, e-delivery included
Most accounting imports12+ integrations, Teams at $249 a year
Unlimited clients, flat price$795 season license, unlimited 1099 e-filing
Small firm, desktop$319 plus $20 per extra client company
Dozens of entities, huge filesUnlimited entities, 5,000 records each
7 tools for filing 1099s for clients
The cost column is federal e-filing for our sample book of 300 forms (15 clients x 20), at the official list price. When a vendor doesn't say whether its volume tiers apply to your whole account or restart for each client, we show both totals.
| Best for | Federal cost, 15 clients x 20 forms | Free plan | Team size | Visit | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TaxBandits | Best for most firms | $407.50 to $675 | 4.4/5 | $2.75/form | — | Firms with 5 to 100 clients | Visit → |
| 2 | Avalara 1099 & W-9 | Best single account for every client | $567 to $870 | 4.3/5 | $3.10/form | — | Firms organized in teams | Visit → |
| 3 | Tax1099 | Best for importing from client books | $666.50 to $897 | 4.1/5 | $2.99/form | — | Clients on QuickBooks, Xero, BILL | Visit → |
| 4 | Drake Accounting Pro | Unlimited clients for a flat price | $795 a season, flat | 4.0/5 | $795 license | — | Large, stable client books | Visit → |
| 5 | CheckMark 1099 | Best desktop option for small firms | $599 (license + 14 companies) | 3.9/5 | $319 license | — | Small firms, under 15 clients | Visit → |
| 6 | eFileMyForms | Best for one big batched order | $537 to $897 | 3.8/5 | $2.99/form | — | Batched orders | Visit → |
| 7 | 1099 Pro Enterprise | Best for dozens of entities and huge files | $699 plus unpublished filing fees | 3.7/5 | $699 license | — | Thousands of records per client | Visit → |
Prices read on each vendor's official pricing page in 2026, in US dollars, before tax. None of these tools has a Labs review: scores match our other 1099 rankings.
Is your tool missing from this page? Email us: hello@hackceleration.com
How we compared and scored
Search "1099 software for accountants" and most of page one is written by a vendor that ranks itself first, or by a desktop publisher arguing against the cloud. We went to the source instead: each tool's official pricing page, its page for tax professionals, IRS Publication 5903 on TCC roles, and what accountants say on their own forums. We left out five tools that show up in search: Yearli, which publishes no plan for firms; efile4Biz, whose prices contradict each other across sources with no official price table; 1099Online, whose published CPA pricing (.49 a form up to 20) comes to $602 for our 300 forms on one account and $1,047 client by client, more than TaxBandits and Avalara; AMS (1099-etc), desktop software whose pricing page we couldn't read; and TaxDome, a practice management suite rather than a 1099 filing tool. Scores are the same as on our other 1099 rankings, because a tool gets one score across the whole site.
- Ease of useSwitching between clients, importing a file, finding last year's filing.20%
- Value for moneyCost for a whole client book, add-ons included.25%
- Features and depthMulti-client, team permissions, W-9s, TIN matching, states, corrections.30%
- Customer supportResponse in late January, when ten clients are waiting.15%
- IntegrationsImports from your clients' accounting software, API.10%
No affiliate link changes a score or a rank.
TaxBandits
TaxBandits has a dedicated tax pro offering: every client account in one dashboard, staff invited with roles, and automatic groups by office location, role or name. The feature that pays off in January is the branded client portal. Your client reviews their forms, e-signs, and the return is transmitted once they approve. No more chasing an "OK to file" email from fifteen people.
There's no subscription; you pay as you file. Its public rates are the lowest in this ranking at every tier. For our 300-form book, that's $675 if tiers restart for each client and $407.50 if they apply to your whole account. The pricing page doesn't say which, so ask before the season, and ask about partner pricing while you're at it (it's quoted by phone).
- Branded client portal with e-signature
- Staff roles, SSO and activity tracking
- W-9 Manager and TIN matching at $0.35
- ✓Lowest public rate at every tier
- ✓Corrections and retransmissions included
- ✓1099, W-2, 1042-S and 94x forms in one account
- ✗No published firm pricing
- ✗Doesn't say whether tiers are per account or per client
- ✗Mixed field reviews of support
The default pick for a firm: the client portal saves more hours than any discount. The catch is a final price you'll need confirmed for your volume.
Avalara 1099 & W-9
Avalara bought Track1099, the tool accountants name most often alongside TaxBandits on their forums. The current product keeps the original idea: one account for all your clients, with a per-client view or everything in one view. Admins decide which teams can see which clients, which matters the moment two people split the book.
The first tier starts higher ($3.10 up to 15 forms), but it bundles what others charge for: recipient e-delivery, e-corrections, PDF and CSV downloads. For our 300 forms: $870 if tiers apply per client, $567 if they apply to the account. Mailed copies jump from $1.84 to $2.89 in the last week of January, so mail early or go electronic.
- One account for all clients
- Team-level client visibility
- E-delivery, e-corrections and exports included
- ✓No extra charge for recipient e-delivery
- ✓$0.63 tier above 500 forms
- ✓Collects W-9, W-8 and W-4 forms
- ✗Highest first tier in this ranking
- ✗Annual plans only by quote
- ✗Some users say support slipped after the acquisition
The best fit for firms run in teams and for big books. A small firm pays more on the first tier than at TaxBandits.
Tax1099
Tax1099 pitches itself straight at CPAs: manage every payer with a single sign-on, add users, assign roles, track actions. Its real edge is imports, with more than 12 integrations including QuickBooks Desktop and Online, Xero, Sage Intacct, Zoho and BILL. When every client runs different software, that's what spares you the retyping accountants complain about on their forums.
The free Essential account is enough to file. Teams, at $249 a year, adds team access and 250 free TIN matches; Scale, at $349, adds user management, workflow, API access and IRS notice management. For our 300 forms: $897 per client, $666.50 at account level, plus $249 if you need Teams. Reviewers like that payer and payee data carries over year to year; they dislike updating a vendor shared by several clients one payer at a time.
- 12+ accounting imports
- Single sign-on across payers
- Bulk TIN matching: $150 per 10,000
- ✓Public prices for Teams and Scale
- ✓Scheduled filing and corrections
- ✓Four years of secure storage
- ✗Real-time TIN match at $1 each
- ✗Users miss the live chat it removed
- ✗Shared payees are edited payer by payer
The pick when your clients use a mix of accounting software. Support is the weak spot reviews mention most.
Drake Accounting Pro
Drake Accounting is desktop software built for firms that run their clients' payroll and write-up work. Pro lists at $795 for the season license and includes unlimited clients plus unlimited e-filing of 1099, W-2 and 94x forms. On our 300-form book it costs a bit more than the online services. But the price doesn't move with volume: against TaxBandits it wins from 18 clients at 20 forms if tiers apply per client, and from roughly 735 forms if they apply to the whole account.
The Drake store lists unlimited 1099 e-filing. Before the season, check in the Drake knowledge base how the software files through IRIS and which TCC to enter. Its sales page doesn't advertise a client portal or online W-9 collection, so expect your staff to do the data entry.
- Unlimited clients in the license
- Unlimited 1099, W-2 and 94x e-filing
- Client payroll and write-up in the same program
- ✓Fixed cost, whatever the volume
- ✓Pays off on large books
- ✓One tool for 1099s and W-2s
- ✗Desktop only, no client portal advertised
- ✗IRIS filing to confirm in the Drake knowledge base
- ✗TCC setup to confirm in the Drake knowledge base
The lowest cost per client on a large, stable book. If you want clients to approve their own forms, an online service is still easier.
CheckMark 1099
CheckMark 1099 is Windows and Mac software sold as a yearly license. E-File Pro costs $319 with one company included and $20 for each additional company. For our 15 clients: $319 plus 14 companies, $599. Recipients and corrections are unlimited, and several users can work with different access levels.
The trade-off: CheckMark builds the file, but you upload it to the IRIS portal under your own TCC. For a firm, that means a TCC requested in the Transmitter role (see the setup steps below). It covers 1099-NEC, MISC, INT, DIV, R and S plus the 1096, but not the 1099-K or 1042-S.
- Flat license, unlimited recipients
- $20 per client company
- Files through the IRIS portal
- ✓Cheaper than Drake up to 24 clients
- ✓Prints on plain paper or preprinted forms
- ✓Multi-user access with levels
- ✗You upload to IRIS yourself, with your TCC
- ✗No 1099-K or 1042-S
- ✗Every new client adds $20
Solid for a disciplined small firm. From 25 clients, Drake gets cheaper, and an online service spares you the portal.
eFileMyForms
eFileMyForms, Sovos's online service, prices per order with no subscription. That detail matters to a firm. Put all 300 forms from your 15 clients in one order and you pay $1.79 a form, $537. Submit 15 orders of 20 and you pay $2.99, $897. Same work, $360 apart.
There's an all-in option covering e-filing, printing and mailing, from $4.89 down to $2.99 a form depending on order size. One Lacerte user on Intuit's forum files clients through it at roughly $5 a form with mailing. Watch two things: discounts don't stack across form types, and mail orders placed from late January carry an extra $1 per form.
- Per-order pricing, no subscription
- E-file, print and mail bundle
- 1042-S and ACA forms
- ✓Very cheap when you batch orders
- ✓Mailing priced in one line
- ✓Nothing to install
- ✗No firm dashboard highlighted on its pricing page
- ✗Discounts don't combine across form types
- ✗TIN matching at $1
Great if you can batch your filings. If clients trickle in on different dates, the per-form price climbs fast.
1099 Pro Enterprise
1099 Pro Enterprise is desktop software built for volume: unlimited entities, 5,000 records per entity, and nearly the whole series (1098, 1099-A through SA, 3921, 3922, 5498, W-2G). Licenses run from $699 for one user to $2,199 for unlimited users.
Filing doesn't go out from your machine. It goes through the publisher's service bureau, which files under its own credentials and forwards CF/SF state data with the federal filing. Handy for a firm without a TCC. But the service bureau fees aren't on the product page, so you can't price our sample book without a quote. One accountant on Capterra says it works well for filing for multiple businesses; the review count is small.
- Unlimited entities
- Nearly the full information return series
- Service bureau files for you, no TCC needed
- ✓Built for very large files
- ✓W-9 utility and IRS notice handling
- ✓CF/SF included with federal e-file
- ✗Filing fees not published
- ✗Heavier to learn
- ✗Overkill for a small book
For big issuers only. For a 15-client firm, the license plus filing fees cost more than any online service.
What 1099s cost for 15 clients
Our sample book: 15 clients, 20 Forms 1099-NEC each, 300 forms. The numbers below are federal e-filing at list price. On TaxBandits, Avalara and Tax1099, one question decides everything: do volume tiers apply to your whole account, or restart for each client? None of the three says. So you get both totals.
Online e-file services
Desktop software
What gets added
- Get it in writing: do tiers apply to your account or per client?
- Count clients and average forms per client: under 25 clients, CheckMark's per-company license costs less than Drake.
- Make sure each staff member only sees their own clients.
- Check whether clients can approve their own forms before filing.
- List every form your clients need (NEC, MISC, INT, 1042-S, W-2) and confirm coverage.
- Budget for TIN matching: it's what keeps your clients out of 24% backup withholding.
Get your firm's 1099 season ready in six steps
Accountants say it on every forum: filing takes an hour, missing TINs and late client replies take the month. Here's the order that works, from fall to the end of January.
Apply for an IRIS TCC in the Transmitter role
FallTo file yourself (IRIS portal, CheckMark, possibly Drake), the firm needs a TCC. The IRIS application has two roles: Issuer, which only files for the company on the application, and Transmitter, a third party that files for any business, including its own. A firm picks Transmitter; you can't select both. The IRS says a typical application is processed within 45 business days, so apply in the fall and you also get a free backup if your e-file service has a bad week.
- Typical processing
- 45 business days
- Role for a firm
- Transmitter
Firm outside the US? Check who has an SSN or ITIN
Watch outThe IRS now has a separate Foreign Filer TCC registration, reserved for filers whose authorized users have no SSN or ITIN; it leads to filing through IDES, the channel used for FATCA. If no one at your firm has a US number, the simplest route is an online service that files under its own credentials (TaxBandits, Avalara, Tax1099, eFileMyForms) or 1099 Pro's service bureau.
- No SSN or ITIN
- Foreign Filer TCC, IDES
Collect W-9s for your clients' contractors all year
MethodThe W-9 gives you the contractor's legal name and TIN. Chasing it in January is a sprint you lose. Trigger the request the day a client onboards a new vendor: TaxBandits gives 10 requests free, then $0.35 ($0.50 by text); Tax1099 sells 1,000 requests for $95; Avalara also collects W-8s and W-4s. Without a valid TIN, your client has to withhold 24% on payments.
- 1,000 requests at Tax1099
- $95
Run TIN matching in bulk before December
SaveThe IRS's free TIN Matching is for payers and their authorized agents, with an IRS account and an application first. The tools sell it per check: $0.35 at TaxBandits, $0.45 at Avalara, $1 at Tax1099 and eFileMyForms. Across a client book, bulk is cheaper: $99 per file at TaxBandits, $150 per 10,000 at Tax1099.
- Bulk at TaxBandits
- $99 per file
Get every client's sign-off in writing before you file
MethodA wrong amount can be corrected, but a correction costs time and sometimes a second copy to the contractor. TaxBandits' portal lets clients review and e-sign, then transmits. With another tool, send each client a summary (vendors, amounts, TINs) and keep the approval in the file. Penalties run from $60 to $340 per return for returns due in 2027, depending on how late they are.
- Penalty per return
- $60 to $340
Mail recipient copies before the last week of January
Watch outThe 1099-NEC is due to the IRS and to the contractor by the end of January. Three vendors raise mailing prices at the end of the season: Avalara goes from $1.84 to $2.89 in the last week, eFileMyForms adds $1 from late January, Tax1099 adds $1 in the last five days. On 300 copies, e-delivery (included at Avalara, $0.50 at TaxBandits) avoids the surcharge and the bad addresses.
- Avalara late mailing
- $2.89 instead of $1.84
Three ways to make 1099s profitable for the firm
For a firm, 1099s are a billable service. These tips come from accountant forums and vendor price lists.
Bill per form, on top of a base fee
MarginFirms that publish their rates charge $10 to $35 per form, often with a $150 to $275 base fee. Your software cost is $1 to $3 a form. The margin comes from time saved on collection and sign-off, not from the vendor discount. A client with one or two forms usually costs more than they bring in: that's what the base fee is for.
- Published firm rates
- $10 to $35 per form
Batch filings to hit the right tiers
SaveAt eFileMyForms, price depends on the order: 300 forms at once cost $537, versus $897 across 15 orders. Set one sign-off deadline for every client and file in one or two waves. With the other services, ask whether tiers follow your account: on our sample book at TaxBandits, the answer is worth $267.50.
- eFileMyForms gap
- $360 on 300 forms
Drop any software that only knows FIRE
2027The IRS shuts down FIRE at the end of 2026: every tax year 2026 information return, filed in 2027, goes through IRIS. A FIRE TCC won't carry over; you need an IRIS application. If your desktop software produced a FIRE file, confirm it produces an IRIS file before you renew.
- Last FIRE season
- 2026
1099s sorted. The rest of the firm
1099s are one slice of year-end work. These pages cover the rest.
Cost at 10, 100 and 1,000 forms.
A client wants to file their own 1099sBest 1099 software for small businessQuickBooks, Gusto, Yearli and the cost of 25 forms.
Your practice software is showing its ageBest accounting firm softwarePractice management and client work.
Client documents are piling upBest document management for accounting firmsCollect and file client paperwork.
You also run client payrollBest payroll bureau software for accounting firmsMulti-client payroll compared.
A client wants off QuickBooksQuickBooks alternativesMigration and pricing compared.
1099 software for accounting firms · FAQ
What 1099 software do CPA firms use?
On accountant forums, Track1099 (now Avalara 1099 & W-9) and TaxBandits come up most, both built to hold many clients in one account. Tax1099 targets CPAs with 12+ accounting imports. Firms with a large book often prefer a flat desktop license such as Drake Accounting Pro at $795 for the season license, unlimited clients.
Which TCC role does a firm need to e-file 1099s for clients?
Transmitter. The Issuer role only lets you file for the company listed on the application. A Transmitter TCC covers all your clients and your own firm. The IRS puts typical processing at 45 business days, so apply in the fall, not in January.
Do 1099 e-file volume tiers apply across all my clients?
It depends, and most vendors don't say. eFileMyForms prices per order: 300 forms at once cost $537, 15 orders of 20 cost $897. TaxBandits, Avalara and Tax1099 publish tiers without stating whether they count your account or each client. Ask in writing before the season; at TaxBandits the gap on 300 forms is $267.50.
How much should I charge clients to prepare and e-file 1099s?
Firms that publish their rates charge $10 to $35 per form, usually with a $150 to $275 base fee. Your software cost is about $1 to $3 per form. Add TIN matching and mailing if you handle them, and set a minimum for clients with only one or two forms.
Can clients approve their 1099s before I file?
With TaxBandits, yes: its branded client portal lets clients review, e-sign, and the return is transmitted after approval. The other tools here don't highlight an approval portal, so send a per-client summary and keep the written sign-off in the file.
Do I also have to file my clients' 1099s with the states?
Often, yes. States in the Combined Federal/State Filing program get the data from the federal e-file: free at TaxBandits, included at 1099 Pro. Other states need a direct filing: $0.95 at TaxBandits, $1.49 at Avalara and eFileMyForms. Check each client's state, not just your firm's.
Is desktop 1099 software cheaper than an online e-file service for a firm?
Past a certain volume, yes. On our 300 forms, Drake Accounting Pro ($795) costs a little more than TaxBandits. Because its price is fixed, it pulls ahead from 18 clients at 20 forms if TaxBandits' tiers apply per client, or around 735 forms if they apply to the account. CheckMark works under 15 clients, but you upload to IRIS yourself and each client adds $20.
Can a firm outside the US e-file 1099s?
Yes. The easiest way is an online service that files under its own credentials. Filing directly through IRIS requires a TCC. If none of your authorized users has an SSN or ITIN, the IRS points you to its Foreign Filer TCC registration, which leads to filing through IDES.