Bank didn't issue my 1099-INT even though I earned over $10 in interest income - what should I do?
Title: Bank didn't issue my 1099-INT even though I earned over $10 in interest income - what should I do? 1 I've got a situation with my online bank that's confusing me. Everything I've read says banks are supposed to provide a 1099-INT form if you earned $10 or more in interest during the year. Well, I definitely earned more than that threshold in 2024 (it's actually quite a bit more than just $10 - more like several hundred dollars in interest). The weird thing is when I checked my online banking portal and even contacted customer service, they told me I won't be receiving a 1099-INT form. This doesn't make sense to me based on what I understand about tax reporting requirements. So now I'm wondering - am I supposed to just report this interest income on my own without the official form? And does the bank not issuing a 1099-INT mean they aren't reporting this interest to the IRS? Some websites I've read suggest that if you don't get a form, the bank isn't reporting it, but that seems sketchy to me. I want to make sure I'm handling this correctly on my taxes. Any advice would be appreciated!
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Natasha Ivanova
12 You absolutely need to report all interest income on your tax return regardless of whether you receive a 1099-INT or not. The $10 threshold is for the financial institution's reporting requirement to the IRS, but your obligation to report all taxable income exists independent of whether forms are issued. When you file your taxes, you'll report this interest on Schedule B (Interest and Ordinary Dividends) and include it in your total income. You can get the exact interest amount from your December bank statement or year-end summary in your online banking portal. As for why your bank isn't issuing a 1099-INT despite exceeding the threshold - that's unusual and possibly an error on their part. Sometimes online banks have different systems or might have missed something. The bank is legally required to issue the form if you earned $10+ in interest, and they should also be reporting this to the IRS.
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Natasha Ivanova
•4 Thanks for the info. I'm still confused though - if I report the interest but the bank doesn't issue a 1099-INT, will this create a mismatch in the IRS system? Could this trigger an audit since what I'm reporting doesn't match what the bank submitted (or didn't submit)?
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Natasha Ivanova
•12 You're asking a good question. Actually, reporting income that isn't matched by a corresponding information return from a third party generally doesn't increase audit risk - if anything, failing to report income that the IRS eventually receives documentation for is what typically causes problems. The IRS is much more concerned about unreported income than "extra" reported income. Just keep your bank statements showing the interest earned as documentation in case there are any questions. If the bank truly failed to issue a required 1099-INT, that's their compliance issue, not yours.
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Natasha Ivanova
8 After dealing with a similar situation last year, I discovered taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) which was super helpful for documenting income without official tax forms. Their system lets you upload bank statements showing your interest payments and it creates documentation you can use to properly report the income. I was worried about reporting interest without a 1099-INT, but their tool helped me create a proper paper trail.
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Natasha Ivanova
•15 How exactly does it work? I'm confused about what they do that I can't just do myself by looking at my bank statements and writing the number on my tax forms.
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Natasha Ivanova
•23 I'm a bit skeptical - doesn't the IRS already have systems to handle income reporting without forms? I've been just putting my interest income on Schedule B for years even when I didn't get forms for smaller accounts. What makes this service worth using?
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Natasha Ivanova
•8 The main benefit is that it analyzes your bank statements to extract all the interest income automatically, which saves you from having to manually hunt through statements, especially if you have multiple accounts. It correctly categorizes different types of interest and flags any unusual patterns. For your question about doing it yourself - you absolutely can just look at your statements and write down the numbers. Where taxr.ai helps is creating organized documentation that clearly shows how you arrived at your reported amounts if you ever need to explain your calculations to the IRS.
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Natasha Ivanova
23 I was skeptical at first too, but I tried taxr.ai after my credit union messed up my forms last year. It actually caught that they had calculated my interest incorrectly on my statements vs what was showing in my transaction history. The documentation it created helped me correctly report about $340 more in interest than I would have just going by the year-end summary. The service essentially paid for itself in peace of mind alone knowing I wasn't leaving anything uncounted or incorrectly reported.
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Natasha Ivanova
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Natasha Ivanova
•6 Wait, how does this actually work? Does the service somehow jump the line with the IRS? That seems impossible given how backed up their phone systems are.
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Natasha Ivanova
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Natasha Ivanova
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Natasha Ivanova
9 I have to admit I was completely wrong about Claimyr. After posting that skeptical comment, I had a major issue with missing tax documents and decided to try it out of desperation. Got connected to an IRS agent in about 35 minutes (on a Monday morning, no less). The agent was able to confirm exactly what I needed to do in my situation with unreported interest. Definitely worth it for the time saved and stress avoided - especially with tax deadline approaching.
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Natasha Ivanova
3 I work at a credit union (not giving tax advice!), but banks sometimes make mistakes with the 1099-INT thresholds. One possibility is that they're counting the interest on a different schedule than the calendar year. I've seen this cause confusion when interest posted on Dec 31st or Jan 1st. Have you tried downloading your statements for all of 2024 and adding up the interest yourself? Sometimes the year-end summary can be incorrect. Also, check if any of your interest came from tax-exempt sources, as those wouldn't require a 1099-INT.
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Natasha Ivanova
•1 I did actually add up all the monthly interest payments from my statements and the total was $387.42 for 2024. Nothing tax-exempt as far as I know - it's just a regular high-yield savings account. I'll double-check the December statement to see if there might be some cutoff date issue like you mentioned.
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Natasha Ivanova
•3 That's definitely above the threshold then. One more thing to check - is this a joint account? Sometimes the primary account holder gets the tax forms. Or verify the tax ID (SSN) they have on file for you is correct. If those look good, you should contact them again specifically mentioning the $10 threshold requirement and ask why they aren't issuing the form.
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Natasha Ivanova
21 FYI - you can actually request a 1099-INT directly from your bank! I had this exact issue with my online bank last year. I called customer service and specifically asked for their tax department. Explained the situation and they admitted it was an error in their system for certain account types. They issued me the form within a week once I escalated it properly.
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Natasha Ivanova
•7 Good advice! I just wanted to add that some online banks have weird systems where the 1099s don't show up in the same place as your regular statements. On mine, I had to go to a completely separate "Tax Documents" section that wasn't obvious at all. Might be worth checking if there's a special tax section in your online banking.
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Ashley Simian
This is a frustrating situation that happens more often than it should. Banks are definitely required to issue 1099-INT forms when you earn $10+ in interest, so your bank is likely making an error. Here's what I'd recommend: First, report the interest income on your tax return regardless - you're legally required to report all taxable income whether you get a form or not. Use Schedule B and include the exact amount from your bank statements. Second, contact your bank's tax department (not regular customer service) and specifically mention the IRS requirement for 1099-INT forms when interest exceeds $10. Many online banks have had system glitches with their tax document generation, especially for newer account types. Keep detailed records of your monthly interest earnings from your statements as backup documentation. The IRS actually prefers when taxpayers report more income than what third parties submit rather than the reverse. If the bank continues to refuse to issue the form, you can file a complaint with their primary federal regulator (usually the FDIC or OCC for most banks). But for your immediate tax filing needs, just report the income based on your statements and keep moving forward.
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Savannah Vin
•Great comprehensive advice! I'm dealing with something similar with a different online bank. One thing I'd add - when you contact the bank's tax department, ask them to check if your account was flagged as "business" instead of "personal" by mistake. I've seen this cause 1099-INT issues because business accounts sometimes have different reporting thresholds or procedures. Also, if they claim it's a "system limitation," ask for written confirmation of that - banks hate putting compliance failures in writing and it often motivates them to find a solution quickly.
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