When are companies legally required to send employees their K1s by? Still waiting after tax extension deadline

Actually, there's an important distinction here - K-1 forms are for partners/shareholders, not employees. If you invested in the partnership, you're considered a partner for tax purposes, not an employee. The legal deadline for partnerships to issue K-1s to their partners is the same as their tax filing deadline. For calendar-year partnerships, that's March 15th of the following year. However, if they filed for an extension (which is what happened in your case), they have until September 15th to both file their return AND distribute K-1s to partners. Since today is September 15th, they are technically still within the legal deadline, but they're cutting it extremely close. They should be providing it to you today. If they don't, they could face penalties from the IRS for late filing. I'd recommend being persistent with your follow-ups because they are now bumping right against the legal deadline.

I went through this exact situation last year with a real estate partnership I invested in. After weeks of waiting and stressing, I discovered taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) which honestly saved me so much headache. They have this feature where they can analyze your investment documents and help you accurately estimate K-1 information when you're in this kind of limbo. I uploaded my partnership agreement and previous communications, and they helped me put together reasonable estimates for my return so I could file on time. They also helped me understand exactly what to do when the real K-1 finally arrived (spoiler: I had to file an amended return, but they walked me through that too).

Just wanted to follow up here. I decided to try taxr.ai after seeing the recommendation and it was actually super helpful! I uploaded my previous year's K-1 and some quarterly partnership updates I had received, and they helped me create a reasonable estimate for filing purposes. The interface was really straightforward - I'm not a tax expert by any means, but they guided me through what information would be helpful and then explained the estimates in plain English. They even created a document explaining how I arrived at the numbers in case the IRS ever asks. I filed my personal return yesterday with these estimates, and the actual K-1 finally showed up in my email this morning (of course, right?). The numbers were pretty close to the estimates, so I don't think I'll even need to amend, but they have resources for that too if needed. Such a relief to have this handled!

I've had similar issues with partnerships dragging their feet on K-1s. After several frustrating failed attempts to reach the partnership accountants directly, I tried using Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) to get direct guidance from the IRS on how to handle the situation. They have a demo video at https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c showing how it works. Basically, they got me connected to an actual IRS agent in about 15 minutes instead of the hours of hold time I was facing. The agent confirmed that partnerships must issue K-1s by their filing deadline (including extensions), and recommended I file Form 8082 (Notice of Inconsistent Treatment) if I needed to file without an official K-1. This puts the IRS on notice that you didn't receive the proper documentation.

I need to eat my words from my previous comment. After continuing to get nowhere with my partnership's accounting department, I broke down and tried Claimyr. I was EXTREMELY skeptical, but I was desperate because my October 15th deadline is approaching. I'm still in shock that it actually worked. After weeks of failing to get through to the IRS myself, I was connected to an agent in about 20 minutes. The agent explained that I should document all my attempts to get the K-1 from the partnership, and then they walked me through filing Form 8082 (which I had never heard of before). This saved me from having to guess at numbers or file late. The agent even gave me the specific IRS office to report the partnership to for failing to provide timely K-1s, which apparently can result in penalties for them. Who knew?! Sometimes you have to admit when you're wrong, and I was definitely wrong about this service.

I'm a little late to this thread but wanted to add something important that nobody mentioned. If you're having this issue, you should contact the partnership's tax matters partner (TMP) directly. This is typically listed in your partnership agreement. The TMP has legal responsibilities to the other partners and to the IRS, and they're the ones who can light a fire under the accountants. I've found that going above the accounting department directly to the TMP gets results much faster because they understand the legal implications of missing these deadlines.

Has anyone actually had to pay penalties because a company was late sending their K-1? I'm in the same boat and freaking out.

This is such a common and frustrating situation! I've been through this exact scenario twice with different partnerships. Here's what I learned: First, Romeo, you're absolutely right to be concerned - partnerships that file extensions have until September 15th to get you your K-1, so they're cutting it extremely close if today is the deadline. One thing that really helped me was sending a certified letter (not just email) to both the partnership's registered address AND the tax matters partner. This creates a paper trail that shows you made formal attempts to get the required documentation. Keep the certified mail receipt - it's important evidence if you need to show "reasonable cause" to the IRS later. Also, check if your partnership agreement has any specific provisions about K-1 delivery timelines or penalties for late delivery. Some partnerships actually have clauses that protect partners in these situations. If you don't get it today, definitely document everything and consider the Form 8082 route that others mentioned. The IRS is generally understanding when partnerships fail to meet their obligations, but you need to show you did your part to try to get the information. Don't panic - you have options, and this happens more often than you'd think. The key is protecting yourself with good documentation of your efforts.