Tax information reporting

Tax information reporting in the United States is a requirement for organizations to report wage and non-wage payments made in the course of their trade or business to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). This area of government reporting and corporate responsibility is continuously growing, carrying with it a large number of regulatory requirements established by the federal government and the states. There are currently more than 30 types of tax information returns required by the federal government, and they provide the primary cross-checking measure the IRS has to verify accuracy of tax returns filed by individual taxpayers.

The tax information return most familiar to the greatest number of people is the Form W-2, which reports wages and other forms of compensation paid to employees. There are also many forms used to report non-wage income, and to report transactions that may entitle a taxpayer to take a credit on an individual tax return. These non-wage forms are the Forms 1099 (of which there are 16 types), Forms 1098 (of which there are four types), and Forms 5498 (of which there are three types).

Each information return reports a different type of payment or transaction; some are used for multiple types of transactions. In addition, each information return has its own unique rules on when, what, and the amount to report, making it difficult to track reporting obligations. The complexity that arises in filing large volumes of information returns requires many filers to depend on third party information reporting software.

Form 1099-INT reports interest paid on deposits at financial institutions (and some other types of business interest as well). Form 1099-S reports income from the sale of real estate. Form 1099-R reports payments from pensions, annuities, retirement and profit-sharing plans, IRA accounts, and some forms of insurance. Forms 1099-DIV, 1099-B and 1099-OID report various investment income and transactions. Form 1099-MISC reports a variety of payments including rent, crop insurance proceeds, so-called "golden parachute" payments, royalties, payments for medical treatment, income from fish that are sold for cash, and payments for business services.

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