Support
Answers, then a person.
Most of what people ask is about why a figure is what it is. Those answers are below, in the same words the product uses. If yours is not here, the contact details are at the bottom.
Getting started
4 questions
What do I need before I sign up?
A list of the contractors you have paid this year and roughly what you paid them. You can type them in or import a CSV. You do not need their taxpayer numbers — WithholdWatch does not store one.
Do I have to enter every payment individually?
No. Import a CSV of payments with a date, an amount, a contractor name and, if you have it, the method. The mapper shows you which columns are required before you upload anything.
What if my import is wrong?
Every import is one batch and every batch can be reverted whole. If contractors from a batch already have payments recorded against them, the revert is refused and tells you how many are in the way, rather than deleting them.
Can I try it without an account?
Yes — the exposure calculator runs the same rule against the same published threshold, in your browser, with nothing sent anywhere.
The figures
5 questions
Why is the headline number smaller than I expected?
It is a floor, not a forecast. It counts only what was already required on payments you have already recorded. The projected year-end figure and the conservative ceiling are shown beneath it, together.
Why does one of my figures say “Not yet published”?
Because the IRS has not published the threshold or the rate for that tax year. WithholdWatch will not estimate it and will not carry the previous year’s number forward, so the screen says so instead of showing a number.
A contractor shows no exposure even though I paid them a lot. Why?
The three usual reasons: they have a valid W-9 on file, you paid them by card so the processor reports it, or their payments fall in a reporting box with a different threshold. The contractor’s own page states which one applies, in words.
I filed a W-9 and the number did not change.
Check the status is “valid” and not “requested”, and check the received date is filled in. A payee marked valid with no date is treated as not yet protected, because a form nobody can date is a form nobody can produce.
Does WithholdWatch tell me whether someone is an employee?
No, and it never will. Worker classification is a legal judgement. Nothing in this product is an answer to it, or a hint at one.
Account and billing
4 questions
Is the Free tier really free?
Yes. No card, no expiry, five contractors and one seat. It is a tier, not a trial.
What happens if I stop paying?
Nothing is deleted. Your workspace drops to the Free tier’s caps and your existing figures stay readable within them.
Can I export my data?
Yes, on every tier. Four CSV exports: a 1099-NEC worksheet, a W-9 gap list, the payment ledger and the exposure detail.
How do I delete my workspace?
From your account. Deleting the workspace removes its contractors, payments and history. WithholdWatch does not keep a shadow copy.
Contact
Write to a person. Include your workspace name and, if it is about a figure, the contractor it relates to — that is almost always what the first reply asks for.
support@withholdwatch.comBefore you write
Two pages answer most of what is left. How it works sets out the whole calculation, including the paymentsWithholdWatch deliberately excludes. Security sets out what happens to your data and what has not been audited.
WithholdWatch answers questions about how it computed a figure. It does not answer questions about what you should do about your own tax position, because that is advice and it is not ours to give.