Dear overeager taxpayers:
As an employer and a tax professional, I am asking you in the nicest way possible: please be patient.
I know you want to file your tax return already. Apparently you’re one of the lucky folks getting a refund this year. And I know you want your money.
But give us some time, okay?
You should receive your forms W-2 and most forms 1099 by January 31, 2012. That’s a couple of weeks yet. For some of us, it’s a couple of long, long weeks.
If that day comes and goes and you haven’t received your forms, you should first contact your employer (or the issuer). It might be crazy easy to fix. You might not have received the form because of an incomplete or bad address, so check to make sure that your info is correct. Or maybe it got lost in the mail. If that’s the case, your employer can simply furnish you with another form. Problem solved. So don’t be nasty or rude about it.
But what about employers who are no longer in business or those that have moved? I still recommend trying to contact your employer. Again, it’s the fastest, easiest solution. If you don’t know where they’ve moved, try putting something in writing to the last known address: it’s quite possible that there is a forwarding order at the post office. Businesses that have wrapped up their affairs are not excused from filing their tax forms so some arrangements should have been made to take care of these matters. Don’t assume that’s not the case.
If after all of that, you still don’t have your forms (or if your forms aren’t correct), contact the IRS. But don’t jump the gun: the IRS does not want to hear from you about missing forms until after February 14. Then, consider it your little love note to them on Valentine’s Day. Contact the IRS by calling 1.800.829.1040. You’ll need to have your personal info handy, including address, phone number, Social Security Number, your dates of employment, and the name, address and phone number of your employer. Do yourself (and the IRS) a favor and have all of that info together before you call. You don’t want to sit on hold for an hour and then find out that they can’t help you because you don’t have the right info.
After you contact them, the IRS will contact your employer (or the form issuer) with a Form 4598, Form W-2, 1098 or 1099 Not Received, Incorrect, or Lost. You’ll receive a copy of the Form 4598, along with a form 4852, Substitute for Form W–2 or Form 1099–R. If your employer is smart, they’ll send your docs right out to you. But if they’re not? If you still don’t receive your form W-2 after all of that, you should use file a form 4852 (downloads as a pdf). But that will definitely slow down the preparation of your return: the IRS requests that you not file the form 4852 until April 17.
But remember at the beginning when I said: “most forms 1099”? There are some exceptions to that January 31 deadline. You might not receive some info by the January 31 deadline on purpose. Those include forms 1099-B, 1099-S, and 1099-MISC (if amounts are reported in boxes 8 or 14): those are due to taxpayers by February 15. The February 15 deadline also applies to statements furnished as part of a consolidated reporting statement. You should also expect, as stragglers, Schedules K-1 from partnerships and pass-through entities. A good rule of thumb: if you’re a beneficiary of a trust or estate, or a shareholder, partner or member of an LLC, LLP, s corp or other small company, give a quick call to the person in charge to find out when you can expect your forms. But don’t pester. Pestering is rude. And it won’t get you anywhere.
And do me one more favor: do not – I repeat, do not – attempt to file your returns until you’ve received your forms. I know it’s tempting. I know you think you know what’s on those forms… but what if you’re wrong? What if you’ve missed something? Not only are you making it hard on your preparer when you ask them to decipher your year-end check stub or your year-end investment statement, but you’re also asking them to break the rules: the IRS specifically prohibits preparers from submitting electronic returns prior to the receipt of all Forms W-2, W-2G and 1099-R.
You’re also begging for an audit. Begging. At the most basic level, the IRS matches your forms W-2 and forms 1099 to your tax returns. And if they don’t match, they’re going to want to know why. My mom – who is right almost all of the time – used to tell me that it was okay to be different. That might be true in junior high but it’s not true at the IRS. Trust me. You want your return to look like every other return. Don’t give the IRS a reason to pull yours out and look at it again.
Let’s be careful out there.
Sincerely,
Taxgirl
