The W-9 just gets them your info. How they report the transfer of money (e.g. on a 1099) is not maximally relevant to how you categorize it on your tax return.

The W-9 just gets them your info. How they report the transfer of money (e.g. on a 1099) is not maximally relevant to how you categorize it on your tax return. Talk to an accountant regarding how to characterize the transaction. Certain parts of this characterization must match between the company and you, and they're negotiable. You and the company have competing incentives here! Example: All else being equal the company will want to push more of the pie into "income received for services rendered", which let's them avoid capitalizing the expense. That allocation is maximally tax inefficient for you: in an ideal world for you, the deal is structured such that the economic transaction is wholly money-for-property (triggering the US's favorable treatment of capital gains) and that any services required are incindental to the transaction and not billed seperately.