Tax center

Payroll → Tax center totals up what you actually paid each contractor in a given calendar year: every completed payout (any payout method), minus approved reimbursements and any special payment you marked NOT 1099-tracked — both are real money but neither counts as self-employment income. What’s left is an estimate of that contractor’s reportable earnings.

A special payment you tag “1099-tracked” for a crew member is already inside their payout total the moment it’s paid out with everything else they’re owed — Meridian never adds it a second time.

Totals are cash-basis: a payout counts in the year it was actually paid (`paidAt`), not the year the work happened. Deduction credits (reimbursements, non-1099 special payments) count in the year they were posted, which can occasionally differ slightly from the year the related payout landed — this is disclosed on the page, not hidden.

Each contractor’s row shows Reportable — over $600 once their estimated total for the year reaches $600, or Under $600 below that — the common self-employment reporting threshold for a 1099-NEC. This is a helpful marker, not a filing decision Meridian makes for you.

Every non-archived 1099 contractor shows up, even at $0, so you can see at a glance who hasn’t been paid yet this year. A contractor who was archived mid-year still shows if they had real activity in the selected year.

W-2 and other non-contractor crew appear in their own collapsed “Outside 1099 scope” section with their real paid totals — no threshold badge, since it doesn’t apply to them.

Each row shows whether a signed Form W-9 is on file for that contractor (send one for signature from Settings → Documents or their crew profile — see “E-signatures for staff and job documents”) and whether their Stripe payout account is connected.

A separate table lists 1099-tracked vendor payments for the year, grouped by vendor.

Export CSV downloads the 1099 contractor table for the selected year — every dollar amount formatted the same way you see it on screen (the “Outside 1099 scope” and vendor sections aren’t included; they’re a different kind of record). Meridian tracks what you paid; it does not prepare or file 1099 forms. Hand the export to your accountant or tax preparer to file.

Pick the year from the selector at the top — it covers every year you’ve run payroll in, from your very first completed payout through the current year.

Your crew member always receives 100% of their pay — nothing is ever deducted from a direct-deposit transfer. The payment processor’s payout cost (Stripe’s published rate: 0.25% + $0.25 per payout, plus $2 per month for each crew member who received a payout that month) is passed through to your monthly usage bill at cost. Meridian adds no markup and takes no cut of payouts.

Starting a payroll run checks your current Stripe balance and warns you — without blocking anything — if the crew you’ve selected would add up to more than what’s available right now. Collect outstanding payments through Meridian, or add funds directly in your Stripe dashboard, then run payroll with confidence. If a payout still fails for insufficient balance, the crew member’s balance is automatically restored and the run tells you exactly what happened.