1099s

[gayl]

I was convinced to do primarily indexes last year so have gone from 300-plus trades to slightly over a dozen. With that in mind I'm planning on doing my own taxes this year with a online program and picked TurboTax. Today I saw this on the Schwab website

February 1, 2018 February 1-15, 2018 Stocks, options and cash deposit interest.
This date applies to accounts holding investments for which we have all necessary tax information.
Downloads to tax software will be available by February 2nd.

February 15, 2018 February
15-28, 2018 ETFs and mutual funds, fixed income, REITs, UITs, WHFITs, suspect securities, and U.S. and foreign stocks that have been reclassified in the past.
This date also applies to accounts that made a sale or covered a short position in December 2017 or contain at least one investment for which the issuer can’t provide information in time for the earlier mailing.

Starting February 28 Corrected 1099 forms

with that in mind, I think I might not get a late 1099 corrected form (last for 2016 was 10/6/17). Do you wait until you get the final corrected form to file, or do you file once most of them are out say in mid March? I don't mind doing an amended form. But I really hope to avoid that

 

[target2019]

Notice it says "starting Feb 28." This means a correction can come along at any time they find a problem. However, I have not seen a corrected copy from Schwab. But I'm sure this happens.

 

[cathy63]

I run the numbers whenever I have all the original 1099s and other docs that I need to fill out the tax forms and then use the bottom line to decide when to file. If they owe us, I file early; if we owe them, I wait until the last minute. There's no way to know whether a corrected 1099 is coming or not, and it's pretty easy to do a 1040X with TurboTax if you need to.

Last year we got a corrected 1099 in March, before we filed, but the correction was so small it didn't even change the amount we owed.

 

[MRG]

Notice it says "starting Feb 28." This means a correction can come along at any time they find a problem. However, I have not seen a corrected copy from Schwab. But I'm sure this happens.

I w*rked in the industry. Happens all the time, it's the nature of the beast.

IRS changes rules, record layouts, requiring software changes on the record keepers. The IRS don't staff their help lines so if your adjusting software there's no one to talk with!

Of course it's a typical IT project, dollar short and a day late. Then when the first forms are mailed, the fun begins. This is the real QC! This crap's broke!


I'd wait to submit at least 3 weeks after my last corrected return.

 

[gayl]

So thinking mid March as they owe me 3k. Will amend 10/15/18 if needed. No idea when the last corrected 1099 will come out (got 1 in March for an option, in October for VGR) and I've got 4 yrs to amend

 

[Onward]

The rules have changed a bit. I believe you should file as soon as you have all materials, whether or not you expect a refund.

The reason is ID theft. Your filing early gives fraudsters less time to file "for" you and ahead of you.

Avoiding the mess that scenario creates is worth more than the interest you'll miss by filing early, or even the cost of amending your return if a late form comes in.

 

[target2019]

I w*rked in the industry. Happens all the time, it's the nature of the beast.

IRS changes rules, record layouts, requiring software changes on the record keepers. The IRS don't staff their help lines so if your adjusting software there's no one to talk with!

Of course it's a typical IT project, dollar short and a day late. Then when the first forms are mailed, the fun begins. This is the real QC! This crap's broke!

I'd wait to submit at least 3 weeks after my last corrected return.

So, you're the culprit!

One year I had to deal with 2 sets of corrected returns from USAA (for in-laws).

I always wait until April.

 

[LOL!]

We always file in October. We file for an extension in April.

I don't see any benefit to filing early. ID theft with regard to a tax return is not my problem; it is a problem for the IRS.

 

[REWahoo]

ID theft with regard to a tax return is not my problem; it is a problem for the IRS.

You sure about that?

 

[foxfirev5]

The rules have changed a bit. I believe you should file as soon as you have all materials, whether or not you expect a refund.

The reason is ID theft. Your filing early gives fraudsters less time to file "for" you and ahead of you.

Avoiding the mess that scenario creates is worth more than the interest you'll miss by filing early, or even the cost of amending your return if a late form comes in.

I always file asap for the above reason. Since we're leaving for vacation I'm filing Saturday morning even if it means filling in a coupe 1099's from my records. Anyway a 1040x is no big deal if required. Just a few clicks and you're done.

 

[donheff]

I wish I could file early but the last info we need for DW doesn't arrive until late March.

 

[MRG]

So, you're the culprit!

One year I had to deal with 2 sets of corrected returns from USAA (for in-laws).

I always wait until April.

No not me. One thing you learned quickly was not to the expert on tax reporting.

 

[audreyh1]

We always file in October. We file for an extension in April.

I don't see any benefit to filing early. ID theft with regard to a tax return is not my problem; it is a problem for the IRS.

You sure about that?

Well, if you are expecting a refund and someone has already filed with your credentials it's going to take a long time to get your refund.

I don't worry about it nearly as much if I am owing. So I do try to owe.

I file as early as I reasonably can. Last year that wasn't until the end of March.

But if someone does steal my identity and file ahead of me I am going to have to deal with inconvenience even if I owe. I'll encounter the inability to file. I'll have to report it. I'll have to fill out paperwork. I'll probably have to deal with maintaining a special PIN in the future. It will be a pain.

 

[REWahoo]

But if someone does steal my identity and file ahead of me I am going to have to deal with inconvenience even if I owe. I'll encounter the inability to file. I'll have to report it. I'll have to fill out paperwork. I'll probably have to deal with maintaining a special PIN in the future. It will be a pain.

Yep, thus the reason for my question.

 

[GrayHare]

Re imposter filing. What ever happened to signatures being used to confirm someone's ID? Are they too easily forged? If an imposter fills out a return, he has to sign it, and that signature won't match those on prior returns. The IRS certainly notices if a return is unsigned, so why can't they also compare sigs?

 

[gayl]

Ive never signed efiling

 

[sengsational]

I don't worry about it nearly as much if I am owing. So I do try to owe.

I'm not sure it really matters if you owe or not based on your real tax situation. The bad guy who files on your behalf always engineers the tax return so there is a refund due, right? The only way to safeguard would be to have no withholding, then even if the bad guy's return for you said you were in the 0% tax bracket, he'd get back 100% of your withholding, which would be $0. But of course we can't get away with having no withholding. So what's at risk, whether your tax situation has you paying or receiving is the withholding amount.

 

[SecondCor521]

Re imposter filing. What ever happened to signatures being used to confirm someone's ID? Are they too easily forged? If an imposter fills out a return, he has to sign it, and that signature won't match those on prior returns. The IRS certainly notices if a return is unsigned, so why can't they also compare sigs?

Checking to see if a return is signed involves looking at the return to see if there's squiggly ink in the signature area.

Checking to see if that squiggly ink matches your squiggly ink from last year involves finding your last year's return and comparing it. In theory they could look it up if they scanned the returns, but I don't think they do. I think there are a bunch of IRS data entry folks who type in the numbers off of your return and then go from there.

You may already know this, but nobody confirms signatures on checks that are written either unless/until fraud is alleged, then they go back and check the alleged fraudulent item against your signature card. I think the banks long ago determined that it was cheaper to eat the occasional loss (which they might recoup through legal action or maybe insurance) than it was to confirm thousands to millions of signatures every year.

 

[Sunset]

Re imposter filing. What ever happened to signatures being used to confirm someone's ID? Are they too easily forged? If an imposter fills out a return, he has to sign it, and that signature won't match those on prior returns. The IRS certainly notices if a return is unsigned, so why can't they also compare sigs?

They don't keep the old returns, they just key in the number values, and I think they don't even scan the old document.

I've never seen them offer me the ability to view my previous years returns, but I could get a bunch of the line entry numbers on a form of previous returns.

The IRS is too lazy to even bother trying to be smart about ferreting out the fake returns, they could compare previous return values to current year.
Don't mail dozens of refunds to the same address..
Or best of all, they know I'm legit, so send me a secret code number, why wait until my return is faked

Actually the best idea is the IRS should not refund overpayments, just tell the person to pay less tax next year, as $xxx refund is already applied. Then fakers would not be able to get any money. Yes, perhaps death would be valid reason for a refund, but how many times can you die

 

[gayl]

Not exactly 1099, but related

I'm having a hard time figuring out exactly how much estimated taxes I need to pay each year. I really don't like the idea that I'm looking at a $4,000 tax refund. I'd rather have access to that money all year long. I know that I've got to pay less than $1,000 in order to not pay a penalty, but which app do you use to figure out exactly how much you're going to end up owing when you don't know what your 1099- consolidated will look like year to year?

 

[LOL!]

^I pay enough to meet a so-called Safe Harbor. Often, I just have some of the refund applied to next year to meet a safe harbor and never have to worry about paying any more taxes during the year at all.

 

[cathy63]

Not exactly 1099, but related

I'm having a hard time figuring out exactly how much estimated taxes I need to pay each year. I really don't like the idea that I'm looking at a $4,000 tax refund. I'd rather have access to that money all year long. I know that I've got to pay less than $1,000 in order to not pay a penalty, but which app do you use to figure out exactly how much you're going to end up owing when you don't know what your 1099- consolidated will look like year to year?

The hard way is to use IRS Form 2210's Schedule AI to figure out your tax liability each quarter. This can be difficult and you may still end up overpaying if you are expecting an ACA premium tax credit or if you aren't able to tell how much of your dividends are qualified.

The easy way is to take last year's tax liability and divide by 4 and pay that amount each quarter.