Missing 1099 Form? Why They’re Late From Zecco, Fidelity, Vanguard, and More

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

It’s mid-February. Some of you early-birds may be wondering where some of your 1099s are by now. By law, they are usually required be sent out by January 31st. However, many brokerages have asked the IRS for a 30-day extension, and they have been granted rather willingly. This includes or has included everyone from small companies like Zecco to big names like Morgan Stanley, Vanguard, and Fidelity.

One big reason for the extension requests is that many mutual funds, ETFs, and closed-end funds have to rely on information provided by all the smaller companies in which they have owned shares. If a company catches an error later on, the correction has to be passed onto the fund company, compiled, and then finally submitted to the brokerage firm. According to this Kiplinger article, more than 13% of 1099s issued in 2006 had to be corrected.

Last year, Ameritrade sent me two revised 1099s. In 2006, I had to file a 1040X amended return because of a similar situation. Waiting a couple of weeks is worth it to me if it means they get it right the first time. Many firms only use a few days of the extension, while other play it more safely.

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.


User Generated Content Disclosure: Comments and/or responses are not provided or commissioned by any advertiser. Comments and/or responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser. It is not any advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

Comments

  1. Interesting, I got all mine including two from Fidelity within a week before Jan 31st. I had to wait for my scholarship and other 1099s and 1098 instead

  2. Timely post. I received all but one tax form in the mail. The exception is a 1099 from a broker I used to purchase one stock last year. The stock paid a large special dividend so it’s on the broker’s list of stocks/funds likely to recategorize its dividend.

  3. Sheesh! California requires all college students file FAFSAs by the end of Feb. I’m sure we’re not the only family with college-aged sudents AND investments in these organizations. Hopefully our 1099s are correct. Our preparer would have a fit.
    Doesn’t leave much room for error!

  4. In my case I won’t depend too much on 1099 form.
    I recorded all my investment transactions in quicken, and I use gainskeeper.com
    It’s so easy to transfer all the info from gainskeeper.com to turbotax online.

  5. Interesting that they get an extension. In Canada the typical “send by” date for most tax-related forms is actually March 1st. In fact, tax-free retirement contributions (RRSPs) can be made right up to that date.

    Maybe they’ve just built-in the differential?

  6. This is particularly aggravating.

    I am required to file my corporate taxes in March, and since my corporate taxes are funneled through to my personal taxes, it means that all this stuff has to be to the CPA in February to give him enough time to finish them up.

    Now I have to hold up the entire process due to one measly piece of paper. But I guess it beats filing and amended return later, which costs me an extra $100 in preparation fees…

    -Grant

  7. I received my 1099 info from Vanguard the 2nd week of February.

  8. casualsurfer says

    I didn’t wait for all the 1099s since I use a financial software to keep track of the ins & outs of my accounts. For those 1099 that didn’t arrive until this past week or two I had already added them up and reported on the tax return (same $ amount).

  9. Morgan Stanley began charging a $35 per quarter low-balance household fee last April which it takes out of the dividend check before it is sent. For example, if you earned $149 during the quarter, you get a check for $114.

    I could tell by the way this was shown on the statements that they were going to do the following, and sure enough, they did:

    They sent a 1099 showing the total of all dividends for the taxable year and reported the same to the IRS BUT they didn’t send that amount of money as mentioned above. So I have to pay taxes on money I never received. I’m sure many others are in the same boat.

    First we bail the crooks out, then we pay taxes on money they kept (we didn’t receive).

    Anyone have a solution b/c I’m sure no one on Capitol Hill gives a hoot since they all work (accept payola) from the banks a/k/a the banks run the country.

    Perhaps these fees can be deducted on Schedule A for those who itemize, but if you don’t have enough to itemize, you end up taking the standard deduction, so Morgan Stanley gets away with this and you get screwed.

    Anyone?

    What’s equally as bad is the fact that since I opened my account in 2001 and up until April 2010, there were no such fees. I got out as fast as I could but not before these robbers had snagged a few quarterly fees for doing nothing different than prior to April 2010.

Leave a Reply to ProfessorB Cancel reply

*