New Jersey 1099 filing requirements

New Jersey has a dual trigger and a date of its own, and both differ from the federal rules in ways that produce more forms rather than fewer.

The threshold used to be the forgiving one. Now that the federal reporting threshold has risen to $2,000, New Jersey's $1,000 is the lower of the two, which means a payee can be below the federal line and above the state one.

The short version

Is a state filing required?

Yes, where the amount paid or credited is $1,000 or more in the calendar year, or where any New Jersey income tax was withheld.

Does CF/SF satisfy the state?

For the plain reporting case, yes. The Division lists the Combined Federal/State Reporting Program as one of its filing options, under which you file to the IRS only and the IRS provides New Jersey with a copy. It cannot cover the withholding case, because forms with New Jersey withholding must be filed with Form NJ-W-3.

Due date

February 15 of the following year, for the 1099s and for the NJ-W-3 reconciliation alike, with the next business day if February 15 falls on a weekend or holiday.

Reconciliation form

Form NJ-W-3, the gross income tax reconciliation of tax withheld. Registered employers must file it even if no wages were paid and nothing was withheld. Form NJ-W-3M is the legacy paper version.

Electronic-filing threshold

There isn't one: the mandate is universal. Since tax year 2020, Forms NJ-W-3 and all W-2, W-2G and 1099 attachments must be submitted electronically, and the Division says it will not accept paper filings by mail.

Channels

Filing through your withholding account on the Division's site, the Online Upload Service, the Axway bulk service for those filing at least 100 forms, third-party software, or CF/SF.

File format

The State conforms to federal 1099 electronic filing standards outlined in IRS Publication 1220.

The contractor case that has its own reconciliation

New Jersey has a separate regime for unregistered unincorporated contractors: withhold, issue a Form 1099-MISC showing the amount withheld, and electronically file an annual reconciliation on Schedule NJ-W-3-UNC including copies of the 1099-MISC forms carrying New Jersey withholding.

If a client engages construction or trade contractors who are not registered with the State, that is a different form and a different schedule from the one the rest of their 1099s go on, and it is worth identifying in November rather than discovering in February.

Why the lower threshold matters more than it looks

The federal threshold moved to $2,000 for payments made after December 31, 2025. New Jersey's $1,000 did not move with it. For payees between those two figures there is now a state information return with no federal counterpart, which is an unusual shape and one most 1099 workflows do not have a slot for.

Practically, that means the New Jersey payee list has to be built from the books at $1,000, not filtered down from the federal filing list.

Why New Jersey appears here at all

We wrote these nine guides because they are the states our customers' clients actually live and work in. Where a state's rule is unresolved on the state's own published pages, this article says so rather than picking an answer.