Identifying Unknown 1099B Entries on IRS Wage and Income Transcript

This is actually a common issue with IRS Wage and Income Transcripts. Those mystery 1099Bs could be from a few different sources. First, check if you've had any mutual funds that generated 1099Bs - they sometimes come with different tax IDs than your main broker. Another possibility is that your broker might use different entities for different types of transactions, each with their own TIN. The easiest way to identify them is to compare the amounts on your transcript with the 1099Bs you've received directly from your financial institutions. Look for matching amounts and dates. If you still can't identify them, call your broker and ask them if they use multiple TINs for reporting different types of transactions.

After struggling with a similar situation last year, I found a tool that saved me hours of headache with my investment tax documents. Check out https://taxr.ai - it helped me identify mystery financial forms by analyzing my tax transcript against my trading history. The tool matched transaction patterns even when the broker names were different or incomplete. I was getting really frustrated trying to match everything manually until I uploaded my documents there. Turns out some of my "unknown" 1099Bs were from subsidiary companies of my main broker that reported separately.

Just wanted to update that I tried taxr.ai after posting here and it actually solved my mystery 1099B problem! It identified two of my unknown payers as clearing houses used by my broker for different types of securities. The third one turned out to be from a dividend reinvestment plan I completely forgot about from years ago. The system matched transaction patterns and even flagged a reporting error where one of my brokers reported the same set of trades twice under different entity names. Saved me from potentially over-reporting income. Definitely worth checking out if you're in the same boat with unidentified 1099Bs.

If you're still struggling to identify these mystery payers, you might need to speak directly with an IRS agent who can see the full information. I had this exact problem and spent weeks getting nowhere until I used https://claimyr.com to get through to a real person at the IRS. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c Before using it, I'd been trying to call the IRS for days but kept getting the "call back later" message. With Claimyr, I had an IRS agent on the phone within 30 minutes who could see the full payer information and gave me the complete details of every mystery 1099B on my transcript.

I was completely wrong about Claimyr. After posting my skeptical comment, I was still struggling with identifying my mystery 1099Bs and getting nowhere with the regular IRS phone line (20+ attempts, always busy). Decided to try it out of desperation - had an IRS rep on the phone in 40 minutes who pulled up my full transcript. Turns out three of my mystery 1099Bs were from a brokerage account I opened and forgot about years ago when they were offering free stocks for signing up. The agent gave me the full company name and contact information so I could request duplicate forms. Just filed my taxes with the correct information instead of playing guessing games. Definitely less hassle than I expected.

Has anyone tried just using your brokerage's customer service? I had a similar issue and called Fidelity - turns out they could tell me which subsidiaries and clearing houses use which Tax IDs. Saved me from having to deal with the IRS at all.

One trick that worked for me: look at the amounts on those mystery 1099Bs. If they're for small amounts (like under $10), they might be from fractional share dividends or micro-investments. I found that Acorns, Robinhood and some dividend reinvestment plans generate separate 1099s with different TINs than the main investment platform.

Another angle to consider - if you've done any cryptocurrency trading, those mystery 1099Bs might be from crypto exchanges or their payment processors. Many crypto platforms use third-party companies for fiat transactions, and these often have completely different TINs than the main exchange. I had this exact situation with Coinbase - turns out they use different entities for different types of transactions, and some of my crypto-to-USD conversions showed up as separate 1099Bs with TINs I didn't recognize. Check if any of the amounts or dates align with crypto activity you might have forgotten about. Also, don't overlook employer stock purchase plans or 401k brokerages - these often use specialized clearing firms that report separately from your main retirement account provider.