Many people have been asking when the deadline is for year-end tax forms to be mailed out to customers.  The IRS has set a deadline of today, February 15th.  This is the day by which brokerage firms are supposed to have 1099-B forms in the mail to customers.  This deadline used to be on January 31st.  But the IRS extended the deadline to February 15th in hopes that the forms would be more accurate and require fewer revisions.  As many of you know, 1099-B forms often get revised and re-mailed as we get closer to the April 15th filing deadline.  This happens when a company makes a change to the tax-qualified status of dividends that were paid out in the previous year.  Any time this happens, brokerage firms have to re-send corrected 1099’s to all of its customers who owned that stock.  For this reason, I like to advise clients to hold off on preparing their taxes as long as possible just in case you end up getting a corrected or revised 1099.  This will save you money by not having to go back to your tax preparer for your return to be revised.  I have had clients who got their taxes all prepared, signed and mailed in, only to find a corrected 1099 in the mailbox the next day.  That will ruin your day!

Just yesterday I was informed by Fidelity Investments that the IRS granted them an extension to the Feb 15th mailing deadline.  Fidelity made this request due to delays from certain third-parties, causing tax information to not being available yet.  The deadline extension was approved by the IRS and Fidelity says they are committed to mailing the documents by the end of February.

The good news is that this extension will likely reduce the number of corrected 1099’s that will be sent out in March or later.