Penalties for Not Filing a 1099-Misc

If you receive income from a source other than earned wages or salaries, you may receive a Form 1099-MISC, Miscellaneous Income.Generally, the income on this form is subject to federal income tax and state income tax. The IRS requires those that pay miscellaneous income in the course of their trade or business to issue Form 1099-MISC to their payees and requires the payees to include these payments on their tax returns.

Form 1099-MISC

Several types of income can be reported on Form 1099-MISC, including non-employee compensation, rent, royalties and fishing boat proceeds. One of the most common reasons for receiving a 1099-MISC is performing work as an independent contractor. If you have the payer withhold federal income tax from your  payments, the payer will report the withholding in Box 4. State income tax withholding is reported in Box 16.

Penalties for not issuing Form 1099-MISC

People and companies that make payments of miscellaneous income to individuals must give the payee Form 1099-MISC by the end (in most cases) of February of the year following the tax year in which the income was paid. For example, if you received miscellaneous income in 2012, the paying institution or individual must issue Form 1099-MISC by February 28, 2013. If the institution fails to do so, the penalty against the company varies from $30 to $100 per form ($500,000 maximum per year), depending on how long past the deadline the company issues the form. If a company intentionally disregards the requirement to provide a correct payee statement, it is subject to a minimum penalty of $250 per statement, with no maximum.

Penalties for not reporting Form 1099-MISC

The amount of the penalty is based on when the correct 1099 is filed:

• $30 per information return if you correctly file within 30 days of the due date (by March 30 if the due date is February 28). The maximum penalty is $250,000 per year ($75,000 for small businesses).
• $60 per information return if you correctly file more than 30 days after the due date but by August 1; maximum penalty $500,000 per year ($200,000 for small businesses).
• $100 per information return if you file after August 1 or you do not file required information returns. In this case the maximum penalty is $1,500,000 per year ($500,000 for small businesses)

If you do not file corrections and you do not meet any of the exceptions to the penalty described above, the penalty is $100 per information return.  

Exceptions to the penalty

The following are exceptions to the failure to file penalty.

• The penalty will not apply to any failure where you can furnish a reasonable cause to prove that it was not a willful neglect. In other words, you must be able to show that your failure was due to an event beyond your control or due to significant mitigating factors. You must also be able to show that you acted in a responsible manner
  and took steps to avoid the failure.


• An insignificant error or omission is not considered a failure to include correct information. An insignificant error or omission does not stop the IRS from processing the return, from correlating the information required to be shown on the return with the information shown on the payee's tax return, or from putting the return to its actual use. Errors and omissions that are not considered as in significant are those that are related to
  (a) a TIN, (b) a payee's surname, and (c) any money amount.


• Deminimis rule for corrections. Even though you cannot show reasonable cause, the penalty for failure to file correct information returns will not apply to a certain number of returns if you:
  • a. Filed those information returns,
  
  
  • b. Either failed to include all the information required on a return or included incorrect information, and
  
  
  • c. Filed corrections by August 1.

If you meet all the conditions in a, b, and c above, the penalty for filing incorrect returns (but not for filing late) will not apply to more than 10 information returns or ½ of 1% of the total number of information returns you are required to file for the calendar year.
Intentional disregard of filing requirements. If any failure to file a correct information return is due to intentional disregard of the filing or correct information requirements, the penalty is at least $250 per information return with no maximum penalty
                 

How to report Form 1099-MISC on your return

To avoid an underpayment penalty, be sure to include your miscellaneous income on your Form 1040. If your income is non-employee compensation, you’ll need to complete, in most cases, Schedule C, Profit or Loss From Business, and then transfer the net earnings to Line 12. For rents or royalties, complete Schedule E, Supplemental Income or Loss, and then enter the net income on Line 17 of Form 1040.

WHO SHOULD FILE 1099 FORMS

A 1099 tax form is an informational reporting form which is required to be filed with the IRS if any payment of $600 and above has been made by businesses or individuals to independent contractors in year 2012. The type of payments that are legible to be filed on form1099 are: Rent, health care payments, services offered by freelancers, attorneys, royalties, Payments to crew members by owners or operators of fishing boats and etc.

In the case of agricultural sector, a farmer would have to file tax form 1099 for year 2012 if they want to write off the cost of the custom hay baling they had done this year. Services that require a farmer to file a 1099 form include: painting the barn, hoof trimmers or certified crop consultants.

Services that exempt you from filing 1099 forms include hauling freight which means livestock hauling or grain hauling is not required to be reported on 1099 form. Moreover, 1099 filing is not required to be reported for the purchase of equipment parts, seeds or fertilizers. Also a farmer is not supposed to file a 1099 form is he spends less than $600.

It is very necessary that farmers maintain their books on the payments they have made for year 2012-2013 because if they fail to file 1099 forms with the correct information then it can cost them huge Penalties and losses.

Failure to file a 1099 form, could cost a farmer fine of $100 per form. If the internal revenue finds out that it was a willful neglect on the part of the farmer to file the 1099 form, then it can result in greater costs for the farmer in the form of $250 per filing. Sadly, small farmers who are unaware of such information fail to file the 1099 forms and thus have to face great adversities.

If business is not incorporated, then a 1099 form is required for all service providers. If the farmers are not incorporated, then they need to ask the business doing the service for their social security number (SSN)

Moreover, if a farm owner acquired above $600 as rent, then it is mandatory to file 1099 form. Farmers have to talk to their landlords in order to get their 1099 forms.

1099 forms were started by the IRS as a step to fill the tax gap. Most of the income earned by non-employees/freelancers was being unreported and hence resulting in huge tax gap for the government. In order to narrow the gap, Congress came up with the 1099 forms.

For year 2012-2013, a 1099 form has to be sent to the recipient no later than January 31st 2013.

 There are 3 copies of the 1099 form.

·        One is kept by the payer,

·        One is sent to the recipient and

·        The other copy is filed with internal revenue service. 

Businesses are supposed to file the 1099 form with the IRS no later than February 28th 2013. However if you efile 1099 form which obviously is a better choice, then the due date would be April 1st 2013

Electronically filing a 1099 form is a very easy and effortless method as compared to the paper filing method. Nowadays IRS has made it compulsory for businesses who have to file 250 1099 forms to electronically file them. If you fail to do so, then penalties are imposed on you. Also if you are filing less than 250 1099 forms, still you are encouraged to e-file as it is cost effective, quick, and secure and provide IRS confirmation in less time than anticipated.  You can either e-file through the IRS website or make use of an IRS approved e-file provider such as 1099online.com to e-file your 2012 form 1099 efficiently

2011 NEW COST BASIS COMPLIANCE LEGISLATION FOR FORM 1099-B

New federal requirements for cost basis tax reporting enacted in October 2008 require intermediaries to submit accurate and timely cost basis information to investors and the IRS. The change is the result of a government effort to end under and over reporting of capital gains and losses, while raising revenue to support The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act.

As a result of the new legislation, financial intermediaries will be required to report cost basis information to investors and the Internal Revenue Service for:

• Equity securities transactions on or after January 1, 2011.
• Mutual funds and dividend reinvestment plans on or after January 1, 2012.
• Debt securities, options and other specified securities on or after January 1, 2013.

The new regulations present an enormous challenge to brokers, banks, issuers, transfer agents, mutual funds and other intermediaries who must now prepare to provide cost basis information to millions of individual investors as well as the IRS. They must choose whether to build an in-house solution, buy a service from an industry vendor, or partner with a cost basis service provider. Firms need to focus on this now if they are to meet the deadlines set by Congress.

The new compliance requirement

The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, enacted mainly to establish the

$700 billion bailout package contains new and stringent requirements on financial intermediaries such as issuers, transfer agents, brokers, banks, and mutual funds. In essence, the new legislation is an expansion of longstanding requirements that brokerages and mutual fund companies report gross proceeds. It has the practical effect of augmenting standing 1099-B income-reporting forms that brokerages are already required to submit simultaneously to investors and the IRS.

Schedule for implementation

The legislation establishes three stages of implementation for cost basis reporting:

• All equity stock acquired on or after January 1, 2010.
• All mutual funds and dividend reinvestment plans (DRiP) shares acquired on or after January 1, 2012.
• Other specified securities types, such as debt issues, options, private placements acquired on or after January 1, 2013.

BROKERS AND BANKS:

Compliance

Brokers, custodians and banks (herein referred to as brokers) have three years to implement systems upgrades to track and capture the adjusted cost basis information for securities transactions that occur for securities acquired on or after January 1, 2011, for form 1099-B reporting.

The form 1099-B will change to include the new information for adjusted cost basis. Brokers reporting directly to the IRS and the shareholder will need to retool the form printing process. Also, brokers must determine if they will buy, build or partner to handle the complexities of implementing an adjusted cost basis accounting system.

TRANSFER AGENTS

Compliance

Like issuers, commercial transfer agents will be required to report adjusted cost basis to the shareholder and the IRS through the updated form 1099-B. Transfer agents who are required to track and report adjusted cost basis include:

1. Transfer agents who administer dividend reinvestment plans, employee stock option plans (ESOP) and other such plans
2. Transfer agents who report gross proceeds of a sale of a security to a shareholder, and,
3. Generally, those transfer agents who now distribute form 1099-B.
   

For equity issues, transfer agents must begin to report adjusted cost basis on or after

January 1, 2011. For shares accumulated in dividend reinvestment plans, and possibly other plans such as ESOPs, transfer agents have until January 1, 2012 to begin reporting adjusted cost basis. Transfer agents that administer issuer-sponsored or “bank”-sponsored plans, (reinvestment plans, ESOPs and the like), will be required to report adjusted cost basis on the new 1099-B forms.

The form 1099-B will change to include the new information for adjusted cost basis.

Transfer agents reporting directly to the IRS and the shareholder will need to retool the form printing process.

EQUITY ISSUERS:

Compliance

The legislation obligates “brokers” to report adjusted cost basis to shareholders and the IRS for equity securities that have been acquired on or after January 1, 2011. The term broker is used generically in the legislation and can be misleading. The term refers to all financial intermediaries who report 1099-B financial information to shareholders. These intermediaries will be required to report adjusted cost basis. As the legislation is currently understood, those intermediaries include, but are not limited to, issuers, transfer agents, mutual funds, brokers, banks, and other custodians.

Issuers who will shoulder the additional burden of tracking and reporting adjusted cost

basis include:

1. Issuers acting as their own transfer agent
2. Issuers who administer their own dividend reinvestment plan, employee stock option plans (ESOP) and other such plans
3. Issuers who report gross proceeds of a sale of a security to a shareholder, and
4. Generally, those issuers that now report form 1099-B

For equity securities, issuers must begin reporting adjusted cost basis on or after January 1, 2011. For shares accumulated in dividend reinvestment plans, and possibly other plans, such as ESOPs, issuers have until January 1, 2012 to beginning reporting adjusted cost basis.

PENALTIES FOR INNACURATE REPORTING

The penalties can be very high, especially for those intermediaries that report inaccurate cost basis for a high number of investor/shareholder accounts. The penalty is $100 for each incorrect form 1099-B; $50 for the incorrect form sent to the investor/shareholder, and $50 for the incorrect form sent to the IRS. The maximum penalty is $350,000 a year.

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1099online.com offers you quick and simple efiling of 1099-B forms through our advanced and secure efiling software. No need to download the software and no need to register yourself with the IRS FIRE system. It takes 3 simple steps to efile 1099-B form on 1099online.com and too for a cost as low as $0.55 per recipient. 1099online.com is an IRS certified efile provider to file 12 different 1099 forms which include 1099 misc form, 1099 K, 1099 INT, 1099 DIV, 1099 A, 1099 B, 1099 C, 1099 S, 1098, 1099-patr, form W2G and etc.