Our affiliate program requires affiliates to fill out a W-9 and fax it or mail it in. Since you operate several affiliate programs yourself, do you make affilates fill out a W-9 or is there something else you have implemented?
I require all affiliates to submit a W-9 Federal Tax form before I will issue a check. And then, I issue a 1099 to affiliates only if their tax year commissions exceed $600.
As far as I am aware, there isn’t an easier way to handle this. However, some networks will take care of it for you. For instance, if you are using the KB EasyChecks module for MyAffiliateProgram, they offer a W-9/Tax Form Option where they can take care of the tax paperwork involved with paying your affiliates (additional fees apply).
For anybody that doesn’t have all of the W-9s for affiliates that have earned $600 or more, you’d better take care of that ASAP.