Extensions and Due Dates and Forms – Oh, My!

Recently we sent out a quick fact sheet on which forms and documents you should expect to receive from your IRA Custodian over the coming days and weeks, along with some tax filing dates for 2022 that you need to be aware of. This week, we wanted to send you this video that gives you a little more information on them.

2022 Tax Filing Date

First off is the tax filing date for this year. The deadline to file your 2021 tax returns (or an extension to file and pay any tax owed) is Monday, April 18th for most taxpayers. By law, Washington, D.C., holidays impact tax deadlines for everyone the same way that federal holidays do. The due date was moved back for everyone except taxpayers who live in Maine or Massachusetts because of the Emancipation Day holiday in the District of Columbia. For taxpayers in Maine or Massachusetts, those folks have until April 19th to file their returns due to the Patriots’ Day holiday on the 18th in those states. Anyone filing for an extension will have until Monday, October 17th of this year to file.

What Forms to Expect

As far as certain tax forms are concerned, your forms that deal with your work – your W2s and 1099 MISC – should have already been sent out to you, on or around the 31st of January. In addition, the 1099’s from your retirement accounts, the 1099-R, were also sent out on January 31st.

One catch with the 1099R that sometimes causes a headache or two down the road: if you did a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) last year where you sent money directly from your IRA to a charity, you’ll need to tell your tax preparer that you did so.

This is because the QCD does not get reported on the 1099-R form – there is no code for it, so to the IRS, it’s just part of your IRA distribution. I guess the Custodians don’t want to be responsible for determining whether or not your charity was an eligible 501(c)(3) organization. Whatever the reason, you need to be sure to keep your tax preparer informed about any QCDs from last year so you don’t end up paying taxes on the money that went to your favorite charity.

If you own investments outside of an IRA, assets in your individual name, or a joint or trust account, you should expect to receive a “Consolidated” 1099 after February 18th. The Consolidated 1099 would include the 1099-INT for the interest you earned, 1099-DIV for dividends and 1099-B for any sales you made during 2021. You might receive this form earlier than mid-February if your account is very simple. But you also may get “Revised” consolidated 1099s through March if you have more complex holdings in your non-IRA accounts.

Then you’ve got your K-1 Forms. These don’t get sent out until March 15th to business partners, S-Corp shareholders, and investors in limited partnerships and other “Pass-Through” entities. The K-1 reports the individuals’ share of the gains, losses, and deductions from the entity. This form can be especially confusing because the issuer reserves the right to revise them later on – and they often do. This is generally due to the complexity of calculating partners’ shares and the need to individually calculate every partner’s K-1. So just be aware that the one that’s sent to you by March 15th may not be the last one you get for the tax year.

One other form you may be getting is 5498. This is where the Custodian of your IRA reports to the IRS any contributions you made, including any catch-up contributions, as well as RMDs, and the account’s fair market value as of the end of the tax year. Most of the time, these forms are mailed AFTER the April tax filing deadline (although sometimes they come out earlier). But please know that regardless of when you receive it, Form 5498 is for informational purposes only. You are not required to file Form 5498 with your tax return. So don’t worry if you see that form arrive after you’ve filed your tax return.

USPS Informed Delivery

And by the way – if you’re expecting important tax documents or paper statements in the regular mail, but you’re not sure when they’ll arrive (or you don’t want to check the mailbox every day), there’s a free service offered by the U.S. Postal Service that can notify you via email of which letters will soon be arriving in your mailbox.

It’s called “Informed Delivery,” and it’s available right now in select zip codes around the country via USPS dot com. Just sign up, and you’ll get a daily email from the USPS with a photo of each of your letter-sized pieces of mail that are scheduled to arrive that day. Again, it’s a free service, and if you want to check it out, go to USPS dot com.

Yes, there are lots of forms, deadlines, and potential revisions, and it can all be daunting and confusing. As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to call us here at Lucia Capital Group, and we’ll help sort it all out for you. How can we help you the most? Just let us know!