Friday, January 26, 2007

SOME BROKERAGE 1099s WILL BE LATE THIS YEAR

Don’t be surprised if you do not receive the 2006 Consolidated 1099 Statement(s) from your broker(s) by February 1st. You may not receive the forms until mid-February.

An article at MarketWatch.com reports that several brokerage houses, including Morgan Stanley and Wachovia Securities, have requested permission from the IRS to send out the 1099 statements up to 30-days late in order to avoid the confusion of corrected copies (remember my earlier posting on “Don’t Be In Such A Hurry”?).

According to Patricia McClanahan, Vice President and Director for Tax Policy of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, “Brokers reasonably decided to apply for this extension for extra time to mail out their 1099s and sit back and wait for the first wave of corrected information to come in from mutual funds and real estate investment trusts and others, and wait to send out their first 1099s to customers."

What a year. First Congress extends tax breaks after the IRS has gone to press with the forms and instructions, which resulted in the IRS stating that they will not be able to process tax returns that include the extended deductions until February 3rd. Then the IRS changes the due date of 2006 returns from April 16th to April 17th. And now brokers will not be sending out certain 1099 statements until mid February.

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