Convert W-9 Form to Avro

The W9 Form, also called the Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification, is a key document for tax reporting in the US. Our system can pull structured data from W9 forms whether they are PDFs or scanned images.

We can extract these main parts:

• Name (person or business)
• Business name (if different from personal name)
• Federal tax classification
• Address, city, state, and ZIP code
• Social Security Number (SSN) or Employer Identification Number (EIN)
• Signature and date

This is really useful for:

• Managing contractors and vendors
• Tax reporting and following rules
• Accounts payable processes
• Automating data entry for financial systems

By pulling data from W9 forms, you can make it easier to bring on new contractors and vendors, make sure tax reporting is accurate, and easily add this information to your financial and accounting systems.

Avro is a row-based data serialization system developed within Apache's Hadoop project. It provides rich data structures and a compact, fast binary data format.

Technical Details

Avro uses JSON for defining data schemas, which are stored with the data. This enables schema evolution while maintaining compatibility. The data itself is stored in a compact binary format.

Advantages

• Compact binary serialization
• Schema definition included with the data
• Support for schema evolution
• Dynamic typing and code generation

Limitations

• Not human-readable without special tools
• Less widely supported than formats like JSON or CSV
• More complex to implement than simpler formats
• Less efficient for columnar queries than Parquet