I HIGHLY recommend you ALWAYS have ANY & ALL contractors you pay for any amount fill in a form W-9 BEFORE you pay them one thin dime to CYA. This way if you do pay them $600 or more during the year you will have the info you need to send out the 1099 in January when you cannot find them to ask for the info later. Also, even though you don't need to send a 1099 for less than $600 if the IRS was to audit the return you still must provide the info on WHO you paid ... so do this in advance and save yourself worry later.
FYI ... if you paid 10 people $500 each during the year the total on the contractor line on the Sch C would be $5000 which is more than $600 so the IRS will look for the 1099 forms they believe you should have filed even though you did not need to and send you a letter of inquiry and if you cannot provide evidence of who you paid and how much they can disallow the entire deduction. This is where a penny of prevention is worth a pound of cure ... cheapest insurance policy you can buy. Free to print from the IRS : https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw9.pdf
