Exploring Other Kinds of 1099 Forms

Earlier this week we discussed the most common 1099 form, the 1099-Misc. A quick refresher: the 1099-Misc is issued for any unclassified income over $600. It is most commonly issued by employers who have paid independent contractors, consultants or freelancers.  However as you are assembling your taxes, you may find that you have received a few other types of 1099 forms. There are actually sixteen varieties of the 1099 form which cover income from different sources.  We’ll explain the next six most common ones below.

The 1099-INT is probably the second most common—almost everyone with an interest-bearing checking or savings account who has received over $10 worth of interest will have received one of these. The “INT” part of the form’s name stands for “interest”. All interest over $10 is reported to the IRS, so you will receive a statement from each bank or investment account that qualifies.

A 1099-INT will often be combined with a 1099-OID. “OID” stands for “Original Issue Discount”. The 1099-OID covers income from some types of investment instruments totaling $10 or more. These include, but aren’t limited to some bonds, most CDs held for a year or longer, and certain types of mortgage trusts.

Similarly, the 1099-DIV is used by banks and other financial institutions to report dividends and other distributions to taxpayers and to the IRS.  A dividend is a distribution of a portion of a company’s earnings, decided by the board of directors, to a class of its shareholders.

Another very common variety of the 1099 form is the 1099-C. You can claim a tax credit for bad debt—money that was not repaid to you. The 1099-C is the other side of this debt: if someone forgave your debt of $600 or more, you will receive a 1099-C and will need to declare this amount to the IRS. Depending on the lender, you may also receive a 1099-A, which reports changes in debts such as after a foreclosure (see our in-depth post about the 1099-A here). You can learn a little more about how debt forgiveness is taxed in the following video, as well as when you can avoid this tax liability.

The 1099-S will only apply to you if you have been involved in a real estate transaction. If you have earned income from the sale of land, a structure or any other property classified as real estate, you should receive a 1099-S as result of this transaction, and will need to report the income.

If you are issued a 1099-R, it means that you have received distributions from a retirement fund, pension or annuity worth more than $10. In some cases, you may be issued a 1099-R if you receive disability payments as well—but only if these come from a retirement fund or other taxable sources. Veterans Benefits and Worker’s Compensation are not usually taxable.

The last fairly common 1099 form is the relatively new 1099-K. As of 2011, if you have sold more than $20,000 or 200 items online via services like Amazon, Ebay, Etsy or a similar service you will receive a 1099-K listing the total amount of sales. You will be expected to confirm that the amount listed by the service on the 1099-K matches your receipts and then to report it accurately. Any mismatch between information that you provide and the information provided by the company that processed your sales transaction can result in a 28% tax penalty.

There are about nine more types of 1099 forms out there, but they are very uncommon. Still, if you received one that wasn’t listed here, write us here at PDFfiller and ask us about it. We’ll add it in our library just for you.

 


 

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