Whether a state requires a 1099 comes down to three buckets. No-income-tax states (like Texas and Florida) generally want nothing. CF/SF states let the IRS forward your federal filing to them automatically — you flag the state on the return and the IRS handles the routing. And a group of direct-filing states require you to send the 1099 to the state yourself, often with a reconciliation form and their own deadline, whether or not they also participate in CF/SF. The states that require 1099 filing aren’t a single list — they’re a routing problem, and getting the route wrong is how you end up double-filing or missing a state entirely.
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The Three Buckets Every State Falls Into
There is no single answer to “which states require 1099 filing,” because states don’t all want the same thing or want it the same way. Sort them into three buckets and the whole picture snaps into focus.
The first bucket is the easy one: states with no personal income tax. If a state doesn’t tax individual income, it generally has no reason to collect your 1099s. Texas, Florida, Nevada, Washington, South Dakota, Wyoming, Alaska, Tennessee, and New Hampshire sit here. There are edge cases — a state might still want a form tied to business or withholding — but as a rule, no income tax means no 1099 filing.
The second bucket is CF/SF states. These states have arranged for the IRS to hand them a copy of your federal 1099 automatically. You don’t file separately; you flag the state on the return, file once with the IRS, and the IRS forwards it. This is the bucket that saves the most work, and it’s the one most filers under-use because they don’t realize the routing is available.
The third bucket is direct-filing states. These require you to send the 1099 to the state agency yourself — sometimes because they don’t participate in CF/SF at all, and sometimes because they participate but still require a direct filing when there’s state withholding or a reconciliation return involved. This is the bucket that catches people, because a state can be in CF/SF and demand a direct filing at the same time.
What the Combined Federal/State Filing Program Actually Does
The Combined Federal/State Filing (CF/SF) program is an IRS arrangement that forwards eligible 1099s to participating states on your behalf. You mark the recipient’s state in the state-code fields of the return, transmit once to the IRS, and the IRS splits out the state portion and delivers it to the right state agency. One filing, two recipients.
It covers the common information returns — 1099-NEC, 1099-MISC, 1099-INT, 1099-DIV, 1099-R, 1099-B, 1099-G, 1099-K, 1099-OID, 1099-PATR, and 5498, among others. Not every form is eligible in every state, and CF/SF does not carry Form W-2 (that goes to the SSA and states separately). But for the bulk of 1099 volume, it’s the cleanest path to state compliance you have.
A state participating in CF/SF means the IRS can forward your form to it. It does not always mean you’ve met that state’s full obligation. Several CF/SF states still require a direct filing when you withheld state tax, or want an annual reconciliation return that CF/SF doesn’t satisfy. Always confirm the specific state’s current rule before you rely on CF/SF alone.
The State-by-State Breakdown
Here’s the landscape in one table. Treat it as a map, not gospel — states change their rules year to year, and withholding almost always adds a direct-filing wrinkle. Verify the current-year requirement for any state you file into.
| Bucket | Representative states | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| No income tax | TX, FL, NV, WA, SD, WY, AK, TN, NH | Generally nothing for 1099s — no personal income tax to report against. |
| CF/SF — forwarding covers it | Many participating states (e.g. GA, IN, WI, MO, AL, AZ) | Flag the state on the return; the IRS forwards it. No separate filing when there’s no state withholding. |
| CF/SF plus direct filing | e.g. CA, WI when withholding applies, plus states wanting a reconciliation | Use CF/SF and file directly / reconcile, especially when state tax was withheld. |
| Direct-filing only | States outside CF/SF or with their own portals (e.g. certain withholding states) | File the 1099 with the state agency yourself, on the state’s form and deadline. |
The line that trips filers is the third row. A state can accept CF/SF forwarding for a plain 1099 and still demand a direct filing the moment there’s state income tax withheld in the state boxes. Withholding is the trigger to watch. If you put a number in the state-tax-withheld box, assume that state may want a direct filing and a reconciliation, and check before you rely on the IRS handoff.
Why State Withholding Changes Everything
State withholding is the fault line that separates a clean CF/SF filing from a direct-filing obligation. The logic is simple once you see it: if you withheld state income tax, the state needs to reconcile the tax you withheld against the tax it collected — and CF/SF forwarding of the information return usually doesn’t carry that reconciliation.
Picture a payroll company that withheld $3,400 of state tax across a batch of 1099-NEC contractors in a withholding state. The 1099 data can ride CF/SF to the state, but the state still expects an annual withholding reconciliation — its own form, its own deadline — that ties the withheld dollars back to a remittance. Skip it and you’ve filed the information return but left the withholding account unreconciled, which is exactly the kind of gap that generates a state notice.
The mirror-image mistake is filing a state directly and also flagging it for CF/SF forwarding — so the state receives the same 1099 twice. Duplicate state filings create matching headaches and, occasionally, duplicate-record notices. Decide the route per state before you transmit: CF/SF, direct, or both-with-a-reconciliation. Don’t let the same form take two paths by accident.
State Deadlines Don’t Always Match the Federal One
It’s tempting to assume every state deadline mirrors the federal one. Some do. Plenty don’t. A direct-filing state can set its own due date — sometimes earlier than the federal electronic deadline, sometimes later — and its own reconciliation-form deadline on top of that.
- CF/SF forwarding follows your federal IRIS filing — you meet the federal electronic deadline and the IRS forwards from there.
- Direct state filings carry the state’s own deadline, which you have to look up per state. Do not assume March 31.
- Reconciliation returns (withholding annual reconciliations) often have their own date, separate from the 1099 itself.
- Recipient copies are still due to the recipient on the federal schedule regardless of the state route.
The practical move: build a per-state checklist keyed to the states your recipients actually live in, not a generic national calendar. A filer with recipients in five states has, in effect, up to five deadlines and three possible routes. That’s manageable when you map it in advance and a scramble when you don’t.
How e1099f Handles State Routing
State routing is exactly the kind of per-form, per-state logic that’s miserable by hand and trivial to automate. This is where filing through IRIS with the right tooling earns its keep.
When you file 1099s through IRIS, the state boxes (state code, state ID, state tax withheld) live in the same transmission as the federal data. e1099f populates the state elements and emits the CF/SF markers so eligible states get forwarded by the IRS automatically — no second file, no re-keying. Where a state requires a direct filing on top of CF/SF, that’s flagged rather than silently skipped.
And because e1099f converts your existing FIRE-format (Pub 1220) file to IRIS XML, the state fields you already carry in that file come along for the ride. You don’t rebuild your export to get state routing — you file the same day, no new TCC, no 45-day wait, with the CF/SF elements validated before submission.
Filing into a dozen states?
e1099f emits and validates the CF/SF elements so participating states are covered in one IRIS transmission.
One Filing, State Routing Handled
CF/SF emitted
The state elements are populated and validated so eligible states get forwarded automatically by the IRS.
Withholding flagged
When a state needs a direct filing because you withheld, it’s surfaced — not silently dropped.
Your file in
State fields from your existing FIRE-format file carry straight into the IRIS XML.
One IRIS transmission — federal filed, participating states forwarded, direct-filing states flagged.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which states have no 1099 filing requirement?
What is the Combined Federal/State Filing (CF/SF) program?
Does CF/SF mean I never file with the state directly?
What triggers a direct state 1099 filing?
Which 1099 forms are eligible for CF/SF?
Do state 1099 deadlines match the federal deadline?
How does e1099f handle state filing?
Not tax advice. This guide is general information for filers and may not reflect the latest IRS rules; thresholds and amounts change. Confirm current-year requirements with the IRS or a tax professional before you file.