IRS Granting brokers extension to send out 1099 DIV.

[Ringers]

I just received a notice from my broker (Stifel Nicolaus) that they "have been granted an IRS extension of time to issue 1099 to recipients."  Then it goes on to say that

"your 1099 information will be processed the beginning of March and is currently scheduled to be postmarked by March 15, 2016."

Has anyone else received this type of information from any other brokers?

The extension will put most of my clients back about a month from when they ordinarily file and cause a real traffic jam between 3/15 and 4/18.

[Lynn EA USTCP in Louisiana]

^{might be your specific broker.  I have already received my statements from Merrill lynch .}

[Lion EA]

I have some clients with their statements.  I also have some clients who seem to always get corrected statements in March or later, so I try not to let them file too soon.  Never heard of Stifel Nicolaus, so can't add to what they told you.

[JohnH]

So far I've seen less brokerage statements with the "You may get changes" notice this year.  But for the past 3 years I've been telling alll my clients who receive brokerage statements that we will probably need to file extensions.  That takes Apr 15 off the table as a relevant date and enables me to avoid a crunch in those situations.  Better to give them advance notice than to be scrambling in early April. 

[Abby Normal]

Yes tax season is compressed for most of our clients now into 4-6 weeks, solely due to qualified dividends. I'd like to string up the fool who invented that concept.

We don't transmit any returns with brokerage accounts until 4/7 unless the 1099 says it's final or it's a very simple account. They all sit in purgatory. We still get corrected 1099s during the summer, but they rarely make much difference.

[JohnH]

Going back a few years, I did have a client who was eager to get his return filed before Apr 15, but his brokerage statement had that little blurb that they might be changing it.  So I told him we could file based on the info in hand, but if the subsequent statement gave us any significant difference, he would have to pay for an amended return.  He agreed, so we filed based on the first 1099-Div/B. 

As it turned out, the final 1099-Div/B did have an adjustment which was slightly in his favor, but my charge for the amended return would exceed the tax savings.  He chose to just leave things as they were.  So all's well that ends well. At least we had properly set the table for what was to come.

[JRS]

From Fidelity:

Update: Your 1099 tax form will be available by March 17

[Lee B]

This has been going ever since  enhanced basis reporting on brokerage statements began to phase in back in 2011, I believe.

[Jack from Ohio]

Brokerage houses spent their lobbying money well.  They bought the extension of time.

We have the best tax system that lobbyists can buy!!

[Roberts]

1 hour ago, cbslee said:

This has been going ever since  enhanced basis reporting on brokerage statements began to phase in back in 2011, I believe.

The reality is that most of the corrections on the 1099 for us are because the firms are bringing in information from 1000+ different sources and there are either simple errors or complex errors. Our most common error is a mutual fund / trustee coding a distribution a wrong thing and it takes a long time to catch it. A principal re-payment on a bond gets labeled interest and all of a sudden 200k 1099's need to be corrected.