1099 forms

Receiving 1099 form and reporting it to IRS is not an uncommon thing. 1099 form is used to report various incomes other than wages, salaries and tips for which form W2 is used.  1099 forms are given to individual contractors for services rendered by them to small businesses. Businesses provide a 1099 form only if the individual contractor has earned an income of $600 and above. If not, then no 1099 form is required. However there are various 1099 forms for different purposes. Below is the description provided for  all types of 1099 forms:

FORM 1099-A

 What is form 1099-A?
If you borrow money from a commercial lender and the lender later cancels or forgives the debt, you may have to include the canceled amount in income for tax purposes, depending on the circumstances. When you borrowed the money you were not required to include the loan proceeds in income because you had an obligation to repay the lender. When that obligation is subsequently forgiven or the property is abandoned or foreclosed, the amount you received as loan proceeds is reportable as income. The lender is usually required to report the amount of the canceled debt to you and the IRS on a Form 1099-A, Acquisition or Abandonment of Secured Property, or Form 1099-C, Cancellation of Debt.

 

When to file form 1099-A? File Form 1099-A, Acquisition or Abandonment of Secured Property, for each borrower if you lend money in connection with your trade or business and, in full or partial satisfaction of the debt, you acquire an interest in property that is security for the debt, or you have reason to know that the property has been abandoned. You need not be in the business of lending money to be subject to this reporting requirement.

FORM 1099-B

 What is form 1099-B?
A form issued by a broker or barter exchange that summarizes the proceeds of all stock transactions. The sale of a stock will be accompanied by a gain or loss, which must be reported to the IRS when you file your taxes. Specifically, figures from form 1099-B are used on IRS Form 1040, Schedule D. For example, let's assume you sold several stocks within the last year and the proceeds of the transactions equal a capital gain of $20,000. The amount gained from the sale of the stocks will be issued in form 1099-B by your broker and this amount must be included when you file your income taxes.

 

Who is supposed to file form 1099-B? A broker or barter exchange must file Form 1099-B, Proceeds From Broker and Barter Exchange Transactions, for each person:

• For whom the broker has sold (including short sales) stocks, bonds, commodities, regulated futures contracts, foreign currency contracts (pursuant to a forward contract or regulated futures contract), forward contracts, debt instruments, etc., for cash,
• Who received cash, stock, or other property from a corporation that the broker knows or has reason to know has had its stock acquired in an acquisition of control or had a substantial change in capital structure reportable on Form 8806, or
• Who exchanged property or services through a barter exchange

FORM 1099-C

 When to file form 1099-C
Do not file Form 1099-C when fraudulent debt is canceled due to identity theft. Form 1099-C is to be used only for cancellations of debts for which the debtor actually incurred the underlying debt. File Form 1099-C, Cancellation of Debt, for each debtor for whom you canceled a debt owed to you of $600 or more if:

• You are an entity described under Who Must File
• An identifiable event has occurred. It does not matter whether the actual cancellation is on or before the date of the identifiable event.
• Form 1099-C must be filed regardless of whether the debtor is required to report the debt as income.
• The debtor may be an individual, corporation, partnership, trust, estate, association, or company.
• Do not combine multiple cancellations of a debt to determine whether you meet the $600 reporting requirement unless the separate cancellations are under a plan to evade the Form 1099-C requirements.

FORM 1099-S

 What is form 1099-S?
Form 1099-S Proceeds from Real Estate Transactions, is the official form used to report the sale or exchange of real estate. Generally, you are required to file form 1099-S to report a transaction that consists in whole or in part of the sale or exchange for money, indebtedness, property, or services of any present or future ownership interest in any of the following:

• Improved or unimproved land, including air space;
• Inherently permanent structures, including any residential, commercial, or industrial building;
• A condominium unit and its appurtenant fixtures and common elements, including land;
• Stock in a cooperative housing corporation (as defined in section 216); and
• Any non-contingent interest in standing timber.

FORM 1099- PATR

 What is form 1099-PATR and who is supposed to file it?
File Form 1099-PATR, Taxable Distributions Received from Cooperatives, for each person to whom the cooperative has paid at least $10 in patronage dividends and other distributions described in section 6044(b) or from whom you withheld any federal income tax under the backup withholding rules regardless of the amount of the payment. A cooperative determined to be primarily engaged in the retail sale of goods or services that are generally for personal, living, or family use of the members may ask for and receive exemption from filing Form 1099-PATR. Report on Form 1099-PATR only items of income, expenses, and credits that you properly pass through to patrons for reporting on the patron's tax return.

 

Exceptions to file form 1099-PATRGenerally, you are not required to file Form 1099-PATR for payments made to a corporation, a tax-exempt organization including tax-exempt trusts (HSAs, Archer MSAs, and Coverdell ESAs), the United States, a state, a possession, or the District of Columbia. 

FORM 1099-MISC

 What is 1099 misc form?
1099 misc form is used to report certain types of payments made in the course of a trade or business. If you're a small business owner who has hired the services of an independent contractor or freelancer, you may need to file and submit the 1099 misc form to both the Internal Revenue Service and the person or business that you paid. Normally, a 1099 misc form has to be reported if at least $600 has been paid to the recipient.

FORM 1099-K

 What is tax form 1099-K?
Payments made with a credit card or payment card and certain other types of payment, including third party network transactions, must be reported on Form 1099-K by the payment settlement entity (PSE) under section 6050W and are not to be reported on 1099 Misc form. In simple words, a 1099-K form is used to report income that you received from credit cards, debit cards, or other electronic payments, such as eBay and Pay Pal. Businesses that will see their income reported on form 1099-K are those with more than 200 credit card transactions and more than $20,000 gross income from credit card sales

FORM 1099-INT

 What is form 1099-INT?
1099 INT is the official form issued by all payers of  interest  income to investors at year's end. Form 1099-INT break down all types of interest income and related expenses.  Payers must issue Form 1099-INTs for any party to whom they paid at least $10 of interest during the year. In simple words, IRS Form 1099-INT is sent to those taxpayers who received interest income during the current tax year, such as that from a savings account.

FORM 1099-DIV

 What is form 1099-DIV?
A form sent to investors by investment fund companies. The form is a record of all taxable capital gains and dividends paid to an investor, including those that have been re-invested in a given taxation year. The amounts stated on the form represent the amounts that fund companies are attributing to each investor's investment return for the year and reporting to the IRS. Investors use Form 1099-DIV to help report income received from investments on their tax return each year. In other words, Form 1099-DIV reports the ordinary dividends, total capital gains, qualified dividends, non-taxable distributions, federal income tax withheld, foreign tax paid and foreign source income from each investment account held by a fund company. Forms are not sent to investors who received or re-invested a total of less than $10 per fund. 

 The filing season for 1099forms starts January 1^st 2013. Businesses have to ensure that they provide the correct and required 1099 forms to the contractors/payee by January 31^st 2013. Businesses also have to efile 1099 forms with the IRS compulsorily. The filing deadline for paper filers is Feb 28^th 2013 and for electronic filers is April 1st 2013.

1099 Forms Are Due Soon

It's a new fiscal year, which means it's time to start filling out and filing your 2012 1099 forms if you want a stress-free tax season.

As you probably know, small business owners file self-employment taxes every fiscal year.  Among the requirements: You have to file a 1099 form for any taxable income that doesn't show up on a W-2 form.

You can spend hours reading through the IRS' website about all the changes and updates. To help you out, here are three tips that every small business owner should know:

·         Make sure you send and receive the correct 1099 forms. There are many different types of 1099 forms, which the IRS refers to as "information returns." Most must be mailed to recipients this month, and then reported to the IRS in February. For employers who deal with independent contractors, Form 1099-MISC should be on your to-do list right now; you may also soon be receiving a Form 1099-K from each third-party payment processing service that you used in 2012.

·         1099-MISC forms should go out now. Business owners have until Jan. 31 to send out 1099-MISC forms to any individual who was paid $600 or more for services in the past year. This doesn't apply to corporations or LLCs that were paid for services, but it does apply to contract employees and individual contractors. You then have until the end of February to file the forms with the IRS. But make sure you give the payee time to review the 1099-MISC and correct any mistakes.

·         Pay attention to the 1099-K. This month, most businesses should receive a 1099-K from every payment processor you worked with during the year. This includes banks, credit card companies, and services like PayPal. The 1099-K was introduced last year, and it's only for businesses that sell more than $20,000 in goods or services through at least 200 transactions in a calendar year. Business owners should use their 1099-K forms as a way to check their calculations when completing their tax returns

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

Form 1099-K Payment Card and Third Party Network Transactions

Starting in January 2013, businesses that accept credit and debit cards when making sales to customers will receive an IRS tax form 1099 K from their credit card processing company. The 1099-K will report the total payment transactions for the year 2012. The new reporting requirement is part of on-going government efforts to increase collection of income tax.

Not only must banks and credit card processing companies comply with the new reporting requirement, third-party networks such as PayPal and eBay, Inc. must also report total credit card transactions to their business customers who use their services to process online sales. Compliance may prove to be a major adjustment for these entities. PayPal, a subsidiary of eBay, Inc., generated more than $31 billion in total net payments in 2009, according to eBay’s annual report for that year.

Exemptions

Not every merchant will receive a form 1099-K; only those who generated both a minimum of 200 transactions and $20,000 or more in sales. Casual sellers should keep in mind that even though they may not receive a 1099-K, their sales income is subject to income tax and must be reported on their tax return. Knowing whether your online garage sale qualifies as a business in the eyes of the IRS can be tricky. But if an online garage sale turns into a business with recurring sales and purchases of items for resale it may be considered an online auction business and the complexities can be manifold.

IRS update – New 1099-k form rules that apply to transportation companies and cab drivers

IRC Section 6050W was added to the Internal Revenue Code as part of the Housing & Economic Recovery Act of 2008. Its purpose is to improve voluntary tax compliance by businesses that accept payment via purchase cards.

According to IRC section 6050W, payment settlement entities (banks and third party payment network processors) are required to issue form 1099-k (merchant cards and third party network payments) to participating merchants reporting all payment card transactions that were processed in prior tax year which in the current scenario is year 2011.  According to the rules and regulations, any transaction that has happened using debit card, credit card or transactions settled through third party payment networks like Pay pal, E-bay must be reported using form 1099-k.

1099k form reporting and regulations apply to every organization and industry that uses electronic payment transactions through payment cards or third party settlement organizations for their business.

1099-k form for transport industry and Cab drivers

1099-k form has impacted every business big and small including the vast transport industry.  Transportation industry including fleet owners and independent cab drivers are required to file form 1099-k. Non compliance with the new rules and regulations by the transport industry could result in hefty penalties.

According to Section 6050W, IRS requires banks or entities such as third party settlement organizations to provide 1099-k form to transport companies that accept credit card as a form of payment for tax year 2011. Transport companies can expect to receive the 1099k form from its bank early 2012. The 1099-k form will report the total gross receipts for the company from credit card transactions processed in year 2011.

On the other hand, besides receiving form 1099-k from the bank or other third party settlement organization, transport companies under ‘aggregate payee rule’ are supposed to issue and file a 1099-k form for each driver that it hires on an independent contract basis. In other words, if a transportation company receives the proceeds of credit card transactions from its bank (or other entity that settles electronic payment transactions), on behalf of its independent contractor drivers who accept credit card payments, and that transportation company then distributes the proceeds to the driver, then in such case the transportation company must issue a Form 1099-K to each driver reporting the gross proceeds from credit card payments.

Hence, under this rule the transportation company will not only receive a Form 1099-K from its bank (or card processor), but it will also have to file a Form 1099-K for each independent contractor driver to whom it has paid or credited amounts on account of fares and tips paid by credit card, reporting the gross amount paid to the independent contractor driver.

Thus if you are an owner of a transport company and have hired 15 independent cab drivers who accept credit cards payment  from passengers and the transactions are processed through your company, then it is your duty to provide each driver a 1099-k form.

There are no 1099-k form filing exceptions for Cab drivers

Many people are asking if there are any exceptions to 1099-k form filing. However till now for payment card processing companies there are no exceptions. A single credit card transaction is enough to trigger the filing of 1099-k form. But, there is a de minims rule for third party settlement organizations which says that third party settle network must have minimum of $20,000 annual gross payment or minimum 200 transactions. However this rule does not apply for credit card transactions or to the "aggregate payee" requirement that a transportation company issue Forms 1099-K to drivers who have accepted credit card transactions.

1099-k form reporting requirement for transport industry and cab drivers

There are certain questions being asked by transport companies such as ‘being an owner of a transport company am I required to file 1099-k form for fares paid to driver using company voucher?’ or ‘Do I have to file form 1099-k or receive form 1099-k from banks if I have drivers as employees?’ The answer to both these questions is NO. Fares paid by credit card are legible to be filed using form 1099-k but not fares paid using company voucher. If your company has hired cab drivers as employees and you pay them monthly salary, then the company will receive form 1099-k from its bank that process credit card transactions but is not required to issue a 1099-k form to its employee drivers.

Certain transactions that trigger the filing of IRS 1099-k form are: lease payments paid by drivers using personal credit card, if a business pays its monthly invoice using credit card and if a customer purchases prepaid cab fare card using a credit card.

However, there are certain transactions that do not require form 1099-k to be filed by a transport company. These transactions include:

• Issuing a credit card to a driver as an alternate form of payment
• Using a debit card to withdraw cash from ATM
• Cash advances on credit card

A transport company before filing form 1099-k should ensure that they have all the information necessary to file 1099-k form. It’s best that the company gets form W9 filled by the driver so that they can have the driver’s tax identification number (EIN, SSN), legal name and address on an official form.

In Order to avoid tax withholding and other possible penalties it is advisable that it is important that companies keep accurate records reflecting the amount of credit card fares submitted by each driver in order to prepare and file an accurate Form 1099-K. Form 1099-k must be filed with IRS by Feb 28^th 2012 for paper filers and by April 2^nd if opting to efile 1099k

IRS update: Considering that this is the first year when form 1099-k will be used by businesses all over, hence IRS is granting penalty relief for inaccurate data submitted on form 1099-k provided that the payer has made a good faith effort to report the correct information, and has actually filed Forms 1099-K in a timely manner and provided a copy to the payee.

The regulations under section 3406 require that backup withholding apply to section 6050W payments made after December 31, 2011, if a payee has not furnished a correct taxpayer identification number (TIN) for form 1099-k. However the backup withholding rule has been postponed and will apply only after December 31^st 2012.

IRS provides penalty relief for 2011 form 1099-k filers

IRS has announced transitional relief from penalties for a section 6050W filer reporting incorrect information on information returns (Form 1099-K) and payee statements filed under section 6050W of the Internal Revenue Code. The relief provided by this notice is available for information returns and payee statements to be filed only in 2012, based on payments made in calendar year 2011, provided that the section 6050W filer makes a good faith effort to accurately file the appropriate information return and the accompanying payee statement.

1099-k form background:

Under section 6050W, added by section 3091 of the Housing Assistance Tax Act of 2008, Div. C of Pub. L. No. 110-289, 122 Stat. 2653 (the Act), a payment settlement entity (“payor”) making payment to a participating payee (“payee”) in settlement of reportable payment transactions must make an information return for each calendar year to be filed with the Internal Revenue Service setting forth the gross amount of such reportable payment transactions, as well as the name, address, and taxpayer identification number (TIN) of the payee. A similar statement must be furnished to the payee setting forth the gross amount of such reportable payment transactions, as well as the name, address and phone number of the information contact of the person required to make such return.

Section 6050W applies to two types of transactions: (1) payment card transactions and (2) third party network transactions. All payments made in settlement of payment card transactions must be reported in the manner described above.

Payments made in settlement of third party network transactions need be reported only if gross payments to a payee exceed $20,000 and the number of such transactions exceeds 200 with respect to the participating payee. The information is to be reported to the IRS on Form 1099-K, Merchant Card and Third Party Network Payments.

Section 6721 imposes penalties on a person for, among other things, failing to include all required information or including incorrect information on an information return. Section 6722 imposes penalties on a person for, among other things, failing to include all required information or including incorrect information on a payee statement. Sections 6721 and 6722 are applicable to section 6050W payers that must file information returns for payments made in settlement of reportable payment transactions.

However, In order to provide additional time to develop appropriate procedures for compliance with these new reporting requirements, the IRS will not impose penalties under sections 6721 and 6722 on payers that must file information returns and payee statements provided that they make good-faith efforts in filing accurate IRS Forms 1099-K and furnishing the accompanying payee statements.

This notice does not apply to a payer who erroneously fails to file information return or payee statement. Additionally, the relief provided by this notice only applies to information returns and payee statements pertaining to reportable payments (form 1099k) made in calendar year 2011.