We’re nearing tax time again. Here’s a quick tip – if you go to the IRS web site, you can request a transcript which will then list all the 1099’s that your SSN received. The unfortunate thing is that you won’t see all the 1099’s until July or so. So it’s best to do your taxes [but not file], pay the amount you think you will owe while filing an extension, then wait until July to view all your 1099’s, and then file after that.
The transcript will only give you the first 4 letters of the company so you may see FIDE which is short for Fidelity. Also, if your brokerage uses a clearinghouse, then you may see APEX instead of say Stockpile. It’s better than nothing.
Another reason to do this is if you’ve closed an account, often all access to 1099’s ends.
Asking a rep in a branch, in my experience, is that sometimes they find it, but other times, they’ll claim that there wasn’t one, and if you don’t report it to the IRS, that could cause a question that no one wants to have.
Do some companies send 1099’s to recipients but not to the IRS?
Don’t believe so because each 1099 says that a copy was sent to the IRS too. However, I vaguely recall a bank sending me a 1099 once for like $.50 of INT and they said it wasn’t sent to the IRS since it was under $10. I still filed the $.50 though.