Last updated: October 15, 2026
Pay stub, W-2, 1099 — three documents, three different jobs. Mix them up and tax season gets confusing fast. Here’s exactly what each one is, when you receive it, and which one you need for the task at hand.
A pay stub arrives every payday from your employer. It breaks down that period’s gross pay, hours or salary, federal and state withholding, Social Security and Medicare, benefit deductions, net pay, and year-to-date totals. Its job is transparency — proof of how each paycheck was calculated — and it’s what landlords, lenders, and agencies ask for when they want to see current, ongoing income. Employees get stubs; independent contractors generally don’t, because there’s no withholding to itemize.
Each January, your employer sends a W-2 summarizing the prior year: total wages, total federal and state withholding, Social Security and Medicare wages, and benefit contributions. This is the official document the IRS matches against your tax return, so file from the W-2 itself — not from your stubs. Your final pay stub of the year should closely mirror the W-2 totals, which makes it a useful cross-check and a backup if the W-2 goes missing (the IRS accepts Form 4852 as a substitute built from your stubs).
If you worked as an independent contractor, each payer sends you a 1099-NEC each January reporting what they paid you — with no tax withheld. You’re responsible for income and self-employment tax on that money. And here’s the 2026 change that matters: the filing threshold rose from $600 to $2,000 per payer per year. Clients who paid you less than $2,000 no longer have to issue the form, but the income is still taxable — which makes your own earnings records more important than ever for contractors with many small clients.
Use the W-2 or 1099 to file your taxes — they’re the official records. Use recent pay stubs to prove current income for rentals, loans, or benefits, since they show what you earn right now rather than last year. Contractors assembling proof of income typically combine 1099s with bank statements and their own earnings statements. Whatever your situation, keep every version: stubs during the year, W-2s and 1099s each January, and your own records tying them together.
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Generate my free statementA pay stub is a per-paycheck record your employer gives you each payday, showing that period’s gross pay, deductions, and net pay. A W-2 is the annual summary your employer sends each January, totaling your wages and withholding for the entire prior year. Think of pay stubs as the chapters and the W-2 as the whole book — you need the W-2 to file your taxes, while stubs are for your own records and income verification during the year.
It depends on how you were classified. Employees receive a W-2 because their employer withheld income tax, Social Security, and Medicare from their pay. Independent contractors receive a 1099-NEC from each payer because no tax was withheld — the contractor handles their own taxes. If you did both kinds of work in a year, you can receive both forms.
Your final pay stub of the year has year-to-date totals that closely match your W-2, and the IRS allows Form 4852 as a substitute if your W-2 never arrives. But you should always use the actual W-2 when you have it — it’s the official record, and mismatches between your return and the W-2 on file with the IRS can trigger notices. Pay stubs are your backup plan, not your first choice.
Contractors typically don’t receive pay stubs because there’s nothing to itemize — no tax withholding, no benefit deductions, just a gross payment. Instead, you get a 1099-NEC each January summarizing what each payer paid you. Many contractors create their own earnings statements from their invoices and bank deposits to track income through the year and to document earnings when a formal pay stub is requested.
Starting in 2026, the 1099-NEC filing threshold rose from $600 to $2,000 per payer per year. That means clients who paid you less than $2,000 no longer have to send you a 1099-NEC — but you still owe tax on that income, and you still need your own records of it. For many contractors, a self-kept earnings statement is now the only per-client documentation that exists.
It depends who’s asking. For taxes, the W-2 or 1099 is the official record. For renting, borrowing, or verifying current earnings, recent pay stubs are usually preferred because they show ongoing, current income — a W-2 from last January doesn’t prove what you earn today. Self-employed workers typically combine 1099s, bank statements, and their own earnings records to document income.
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Sample documents for personal record-keeping. Not tax advice — verify calculations with your payroll provider or tax professional.