These three documents get compared to each other as if they were interchangeable. They are not: they differ in who issues them, what period they cover, and whether the government ever sees them.
The short version
| Document | Issued by | Covers | Filed with the IRS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pay stub | Whoever runs payroll | One pay period | No |
| Form W-2 | The employer | A full tax year, wages and withholding | Yes |
| Form 1099-NEC | The paying business | A full tax year of non-employee payments | Yes |
Pay stub: the per-period record
A pay stub answers one question — what happened in this pay period. Gross, itemised deductions, net, the dates it covers. It is not an IRS form, nobody files it, and its value is that it exists every time someone gets paid. Because it is a payroll record rather than a tax filing, what belongs on it is set by usefulness and, in some US states, by wage-statement rules — not by a federal form.
W-2: the annual employee statement
The W-2 is what your employer reports to the government about you for the tax year: wages, federal and state income tax withheld, Social Security and Medicare wages and tax, and benefit-related boxes. Employers must furnish it to employees by January 31 each year; the current form and instructions live at the IRS about Form W-2 page.
Two consequences follow. You cannot produce a W-2 for yourself — it is a statement the employer makes. And a W-2 says nothing about any individual pay period, which is exactly why a lender who wants to see your current pay rate asks for recent stubs as well.
1099-NEC: what contractors get instead
Non-employee compensation is reported on Form 1099-NEC by the business that paid. It is an annual figure with no withholding attached, which is also why the recipient is expected to handle their own estimated taxes. Which payments must be reported, and the deadline, are set by the IRS and have changed in recent years — so read the current 1099-NEC instructions for the tax year in question rather than trusting any number quoted on a site like this one.
Note what is missing from that picture: a contractor has no employer running payroll, so there is no client-issued pay stub either. That gap — an income record between tax filings, for people whose income arrives irregularly — is the reason self-employed people generate their own pay stubs in the first place.
Which document proves what
- “What do I earn per period, right now?” — consecutive pay stubs covering recent periods. This is the request a landlord or a lender usually makes.
- “What did I earn last year, and what was withheld?” — W-2, or the 1099 plus your own records for self-employment income.
- “What did I pay in taxes?” — the filed return, not a stub. A stub shows withholding for one period only, and this tool does not compute tax lines at all.
One limit worth stating directly. A pay stub you generate is a record you produced; it is not an employer’s statement, and it does not become one by being printed on a document. Presenting it as something another party issued — to a lender, a landlord or a government agency — is fraud, and the tool is not a hedge against that. What it is good for: bookkeeping, your own payroll records, and documenting payments you made or received where nobody else generates the paperwork.
If what you need is the document itself, fill in a pay stub here — $4.99 per document, no account, and the preview on your screen stays on your device until you pay.