Do I need to report bank interest income under $600 when banks don't send 1099s?

You're absolutely right to be concerned about this! Even though the banks don't issue 1099-INT forms for interest under $600, you're still required to report ALL interest income on your tax return, regardless of the amount. The $600 threshold is just for the bank's reporting requirement, not your obligation to report the income. The easiest way to handle this is to review all your bank statements for the year and add up the interest payments. Then, report the total on Schedule B of your tax return if your total interest income is more than $1,500. If it's less than $1,500 total, you can just report it directly on Form 1040. Most tax software will walk you through this process and ask you to enter each interest amount separately.

I used to have this exact same problem with multiple bank accounts and trying to track down all the little interest payments! I found this amazing tool called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that completely solved this headache for me. You just upload your bank statements and it automatically finds and categorizes all your interest income, even from those accounts that don't send 1099s. Last year I had like 7 different accounts with small interest amounts, and I was stressing about making sure I got every penny right. I used taxr.ai and it caught everything - even found some interest I'd forgotten about from an old savings account I barely use anymore. It organized everything I needed for my tax forms without me having to manually go through months of statements.

Just wanted to follow up about taxr.ai that I asked about earlier. I decided to try it with my bank statements and wow - it really does work! I was missing interest from an account I had completely forgotten about (only like $37 but still). The tool found and categorized everything, and I didn't have to provide any sensitive login info, just uploaded my statements. Super easy to use and gave me confidence that I'm reporting everything correctly. Definitely worth it for peace of mind!

If you're worried about unreported interest and potential IRS issues, I've got another helpful tip. I was in a similar situation last year and had questions about some unreported interest. I tried for DAYS to reach someone at the IRS to clarify - literally spent hours on hold multiple times before giving up. Then I found this service called Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) that got me through to an actual IRS agent in under 45 minutes! You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. The agent confirmed that yes, I needed to report all interest regardless of amount, and helped me understand exactly how to document everything properly. Getting direct confirmation from the IRS gave me total confidence in how I was handling the situation, and saved me from constantly worrying about doing something wrong.

I need to apologize for my skeptical comment about Claimyr. After posting that, I was still struggling to get through to the IRS about my bank interest reporting question, so I decided to try it anyway out of desperation. I'm honestly shocked - it actually worked exactly as described. Their system handled all the waiting and called me when an agent was on the line. The IRS agent confirmed that all interest income needs to be reported regardless of amount, and explained exactly where to report small amounts on my tax forms. I wasted so much time trying to get through myself before this. Sometimes it's worth admitting when you're wrong, and in this case I definitely was!

Important note that a lot of people miss: the threshold for banks sending you a 1099-INT actually changed recently. It used to be $10, then it went up to $600 several years ago. But banks still report ALL interest to the IRS through other forms! The $600 threshold is just about whether they have to send YOU a form. I used to work at a bank and saw people get dinged by the IRS for not reporting small interest amounts all the time. They'd come in confused because they didn't get a 1099, but the IRS still knew about the interest. Don't make that mistake!

Has anyone had the IRS actually come after them for not reporting tiny amounts of interest? Like seriously, is the IRS really going to care about my $23 of savings account interest? Seems like they have bigger fish to fry lol.

Just FYI for everyone - if you use tax software like TurboTax or H&R Block, they usually have a specific section for reporting interest income that didn't come with a 1099. They'll walk you through entering each bank's information and the interest amount. Makes it pretty easy to stay compliant even without the official forms!

This is such a common situation! I went through the exact same thing last year with multiple high-yield savings accounts. You're absolutely correct that you need to report ALL interest income, regardless of whether you receive a 1099-INT or not. Here's what I learned from my experience: First, log into each of your bank accounts and look for an annual summary or year-end statement - most banks provide these in their online portals by January. If you can't find that, your December statement should show year-to-date interest earned. For reporting, if your total interest income from all sources is over $1,500, you'll need to use Schedule B and list each payer separately. If it's under $1,500, you can just report the total on Line 2b of Form 1040. The key thing to remember is that banks DO report all interest payments to the IRS through information returns, even when they don't send you a 1099. So the IRS will know about this income eventually. It's much better to report it correctly upfront than deal with a notice later asking why your reported income doesn't match their records. Keep good records of where each amount came from - screenshot those online statements or save PDFs, because you'll want documentation if questions come up later.

This thread has been incredibly helpful! I'm dealing with a similar situation where I have interest from 4 different banks, all under $600 each. One thing I wanted to add that I learned from my tax preparer last year: make sure you're keeping track of which accounts are actually "dormant" versus just low-activity. If you've been moving money around between accounts during the year, some banks will pro-rate the interest reporting based on when you opened/closed accounts or made significant deposits. This can make the math trickier when you're trying to reconcile everything. Also, for anyone using multiple high-yield savings accounts to chase rates (like OP mentioned), consider keeping a simple spreadsheet throughout the year with bank name, account type, and running interest totals. I started doing this after spending way too much time in January trying to hunt down all my statements. Makes tax time so much less stressful when you're prepared! The bottom line everyone's mentioned is spot on - report it all, no matter how small. The peace of mind is worth way more than the few extra dollars in taxes you'll pay.