January 31 is the deadline for many of your “Important Tax Information” reports to be mailed to you. You may even have received some of them early. They truly are important for you. And they are important to the IRS.   IRS gets copies of these forms too. And if you happen to forget to include income on your return, IRS will certainly be contacting you.     W-2 is THE key form for employees. You need to report the wages you earned from each employer you worked for during the year. This form also reports the income taxes withheld from your earnings and other important information. 1099-MISC is THE key form for independent contractors or business owners. Much like the W-2 for employees, this is the form that businesses report total yearly payments of $600 or more to workers who are not considered employees. If you think you are an employee and get a 1099-Misc instead of a W-2, I’d like to consult with you. If your business has taken the steps to become a corporation or partnership, you may receive a W-2 or a K-1. Form K-1 is used by various entities to report earnings and other tax return related information. S-Corporations, Partnerships, Trusts and Estates use this form to “pass through” income and expenses to owners, partners and heirs. Your tax return cannot be completed until this K-1 is reviewed. If the business has filed an extension of time to file the business return, you may not get this form until close to, or even after, the April filing deadline for individual returns. If this is the case for you, you will need to file an extension for your individual tax return. 1099-INT is sent to you when you earn $10 or more interest on a bank account or certificate of deposit. You should get one of these forms for each account that generated enough interest. If you have more than one account at a single branch, they may report each account separately on a single statement. Some banks show each account and provide the total earnings for all accounts. Whether or not you withdrew the interest, or had it in your hot little hands, this is taxable income that must be reported. If you earned less than $10 you are still required to report the interest earned, you just won’t get the Form 1099-INT to remind you. In this case, you’ll need to check your account statement that includes December 31st. 1099-DIV reports to you earnings of $10 or more in dividends paid on stocks, bonds and mutual funds. Like 1099-INT, you are responsible to report all earnings even if you had less that $10 and do not get this form. 1099-DIV also includes capital gains paid on these investments. These capital gains are for activity within you account, not for the sales of stocks from your account. Both ordinary dividend and capital gain dividend numbers are important in calculating your proper tax. Your tax professional will see that you don’t overpay your tax. 1099-B reports your sale of stocks, bonds or mutual funds. You receive Form 1099-B from your broker or mutual fund company. This form can be one page or multiple pages depending on the size of your account. For each sale this report will tell you the name of the stock or fund account, how many shares were sold, the date of the sale and the sales price. Some brokers issue a preliminary report to meet heir February 15th deadline to issue this Form 1099-B, but they will tell you to expect a corrected or final statement later in the tax season. Provide EVERY page of this report to your tax advisor. 1099-G is issued by states when you receive a tax refund of state or local taxes. This refund may or may not be fully taxable to you. Consult with your tax advisor. A separate form of this same number will also report unemployment benefits paid to you. Unemployment benefits received are income taxable and must be reported on your tax return. 1099-R is used to report distributions paid to you from your pension plan, your retirement plan or our Individual Retirement Account or IRA. If you have a distribution that is not taxable, it must still be taken into account in filing your proper tax return. 1099-C reports Cancellation of Debt income which must be reported on your tax return. This income may or may not be taxable to you. It can be issued because you were unable to pay a debt, perhaps credit card or mortgage debt. Be sure to share this information with your trusted tax advisor. W-2G is used to report Gambling Winnings. There are different reporting requirements depending on the type of game you won. Just because you were the WINNER does not mean are ahead “of the game.” and had a profit. It means you had a WIN. To avoid an IRS inquiry, report ALL gambling winnings, whether or not you received a W2G. See my blog on Gambling Winnings and Losses for more information. The US Tax Code states all income is reportable except that which is specifically exempt from tax. Protect yourself from IRS audit by reporting all of your income. Many Happy Return$, Always to your lowest legal tax, Nellie T Williams, EA