Identifying Unknown 1099B Payers on IRS Wage and Income Transcript

Those mystery 1099Bs are likely from underlying companies related to your investments. Many people don't realize that when they invest through mutual funds, ETFs, or certain investment products, the actual transactions can generate 1099Bs from entities other than your primary broker. The easiest way to identify these is to contact your broker directly. They should be able to provide you with a complete list of all 1099Bs that were issued in connection with your account, including those from third-party entities. You can also check your year-end consolidated 1099 statement from your broker, which often includes detailed information about all reportable transactions. Another approach is to compare the amounts on these mystery 1099Bs with your trading records. Sometimes you can match them based on transaction dates and dollar amounts, which might help you identify which investment generated the form.

When I had a similar issue with mysterious 1099B forms, I almost drove myself crazy trying to match everything up! Then I discovered taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) which literally saved me hours of confusion. I uploaded my IRS transcript and my brokerage statements, and it automatically matched all the 1099Bs to their sources, even identifying those weird third-party ones that had me completely stumped. The system actually explained that some of my mystery 1099Bs were from underlying companies after my ETF had a corporate action event, and others were from dividend reinvestment transactions that got reported separately. Would've never figured that out on my own!

Just wanted to update after trying taxr.ai from the suggestion above. I was super skeptical but desperate after spending a whole weekend trying to match my 1099Bs manually. Holy crap it actually worked!! It identified all my mystery payers - turns out two were from corporate spin-offs of companies I owned in my ETFs, one was from a DRIP (dividend reinvestment) that generated its own 1099B, and the rest were from mutual fund capital gains distributions that got reported separately. The system even flagged three transactions that my broker had reported with incorrect cost basis info and showed me how to request corrections. Definitely saved me from a potential audit headache!

If you're still struggling after checking with your broker, try calling the IRS directly to get more info about those mystery payers. BUT... good luck actually reaching a human being at the IRS these days 🙄 I spent 4+ hours on hold last week trying to sort out a similar issue with unidentified forms on my transcript. After getting disconnected twice, I found Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) - they have this system that holds your place in the IRS phone queue and calls you back when an agent is about to answer. There's a demo video here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c I was skeptical it would work but the IRS agent I spoke with was actually super helpful. She gave me the full names of the companies associated with those partial TINs on my transcript, which made everything click into place.

I need to eat some humble pie here. After my skeptical comment about Claimyr, I got so frustrated with hold times that I actually tried it myself yesterday. I was 100% wrong. It worked exactly as described. Got a callback after about 2 hours and the IRS rep was able to tell me the full company names for those mysterious partial TINs on my transcript. Turns out most of mine were from corporate actions (mergers, spinoffs) in some ETFs I own, plus one from an old 401k rollover that somehow generated its own 1099B. Matching everything up was still a pain, but at least now I know who all the forms are from. Just finished my taxes and everything reconciles properly. Definitely recommend calling if you can't figure out the mystery payers from your statements.

Another thing to check - do you have any investments in partnerships or K-1 generating entities? Some of those can create 1099Bs that seem unrelated at first glance. Last year I had a similar issue and it turned out that a small investment in a real estate limited partnership had sold some property, generating several 1099Bs from entities I didn't recognize. The amounts were small but still had to be reported.

Has anyone tried just using the IRS "Get Transcript" tool to download the actual 1099Bs? Sometimes the online version shows more details than what they mail you.

One thing that helped me was creating a spreadsheet with all the mystery 1099Bs from my transcript, then systematically going through each investment account statement from the tax year. I included columns for the last 4 digits of the TIN, the dollar amounts, and transaction dates. What I discovered was that some of my "mystery" 1099Bs were actually from dividend reinvestment plans (DRIPs) that I had completely forgotten about. These often get their own separate reporting even when they're associated with stocks you hold in your main brokerage account. Also check if you have any old retirement accounts or 401(k)s from previous employers. Sometimes when you do rollovers or transfers, there can be interim reporting from custodial companies that generates 1099Bs you wouldn't expect. The amounts are usually small but they still need to be accounted for properly. If all else fails, you might want to consider getting a tax professional to help reconcile everything. It's frustrating to pay for something you feel like you should be able to figure out yourself, but the peace of mind is worth it when you're dealing with dozens of forms.