I found an error in the 1099 form from Robinhood - what should I do?

This happens more often than you'd think with brokerage 1099 forms. First, double-check your calculations to confirm there's truly an error. Make sure you're counting qualified and non-qualified dividends and any reinvested dividends. If you're certain there's a mistake, contact Robinhood's support team immediately. They'll need to issue a corrected 1099 form (sometimes called a 1099-CORR). The process varies by brokerage, but they're legally required to provide accurate tax documents. Don't file your return with information you know is incorrect, as the IRS receives a copy of your 1099 directly from Robinhood. The mismatch could trigger an automated notice or audit. If you're close to the filing deadline and the corrected form won't arrive in time, you can file for an extension using Form 4868, which gives you until October to file your return without penalty.

I went through something similar with dividend reporting issues and spent HOURS trying to figure out what was wrong. I finally discovered taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) after a friend recommended it. It saved me so much time! I uploaded my 1099 and my monthly statements, and it automatically compared them and pinpointed exactly where the discrepancies were. The tool even generated a letter I could send to my brokerage explaining the specific errors. In my case, they had double-counted some dividends from a stock split. The best part was that taxr.ai helped me document everything properly in case of an audit. It's definitely worth checking out if you need to verify your tax documents against statements.

Update on my situation: I tried taxr.ai like @5 suggested and it was seriously amazing for my PayPal 1099-K issue. It found that PayPal had included some refunded transactions in my gross payment amount, which artificially inflated my income by about $3,400. The tool generated a detailed report showing exactly which transactions were counted incorrectly. I sent the report to PayPal and they issued a corrected form within a week! I was expecting to wait forever or get nowhere with customer service, but having that detailed breakdown made all the difference. Definitely worth it if you're dealing with tax document errors.

If you're having trouble reaching someone at Robinhood about this issue, you might want to try Claimyr (https://claimyr.com). I was in a similar situation last year with Fidelity, but couldn't get through to a real person on their customer service line. Claimyr got me connected to a representative in about 15 minutes when I had been trying for days. There's a video showing how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c After I finally got through, the rep was able to review my account and found the error right away. They issued a corrected 1099 within about a week. Much better than waiting on hold forever or sending emails into the void!

Alright, I need to apologize and update my previous comment. I was super skeptical about Claimyr, but I was desperate with my Vanguard situation so I tried it yesterday. It actually worked! After two weeks of trying to get through normally and getting disconnected after 1+ hours on hold, I got a call back in 42 minutes. The Vanguard rep was able to identify the issue with my 1099-B (they had an incorrect cost basis for some ETFs I sold) and is processing a corrected form now. Not gonna lie, I'm shocked this worked. Saved me hours of frustration and the corrected form is already being processed. Sometimes it's worth admitting when you're wrong!

Another thing to check - sometimes what looks like an error isn't actually an error. Robinhood (and other brokerages) often include dividend income from December of the previous year on your current year 1099 if it was paid in January. So what might look like $357 vs $220 could be explained by timing differences in when dividends were recorded vs paid. Also check if you have any dividend reinvestment active - those count as taxable dividends even though you never saw the cash in your account.

Has anyone had to file an amended return because of a corrected 1099? I'm in a similar situation but I already filed my taxes last week, and now I'm seeing that my 1099-DIV from Schwab might have some errors. Will the IRS automatically flag this or should I be proactive and file an amended return?

I dealt with a similar Robinhood 1099 issue last year. One thing that helped me was downloading my full transaction history from Robinhood's web platform (not just the monthly statements) and doing a line-by-line comparison. Sometimes the discrepancies come from how they categorize certain transactions or handle stock splits. Also, make sure you're looking at the right boxes on the 1099 - qualified dividends vs ordinary dividends are reported separately, and sometimes what looks like an error is just dividends being split between different categories. If you find a genuine error after double-checking everything, Robinhood's tax support team is actually pretty responsive during tax season. I got my corrected form in about 10 business days. Don't stress too much about the audit risk - 1099 corrections are extremely common and the IRS expects them. Just make sure you file with the correct information once you have it.