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The part that gets me is the IRS will take as gospel the reporting of a third party. Those same third parties will get a deficiency notice if a different third party erroneously reports income about them. So the IRS will take the same company's reporting as gospel in one case and totally disregard their reporting on their tax return and books at the same time. Just Crazy. Tom Newark, CA

It was KC's posting last year that reminded me; this year I remembered. PTIN Renewals underway

Renewed my PTIN and have my credits for AFSP. In view of all of our health issues this year; that is amazing.

Zero success; especially from investment companies who issue 1099 R.

Then you are ahead of me. At this point, I don't even bother to ask as I have easier ways to waste my time.

I have had zero success, but I don't try very hard to get people to correct forms. I tried years ago, a few times, to get Fidelity to stop putting the code for early distribution on my late sixties age client. I gave up on that and just used Form 5329, exception to penalty on Line 2, and did the tax return correctly. That's my policy - just do the tax return correctly, and try to satisfy IRS matching as I go. Say for example, somebody puts a figure in 1099-Misc, Box 7 that they shouldn't have, I enter a figure as income on Sch C, then back it off with an explanation on p. 2. Then enter the figure wherever it should go. If my clients want to chase the issuer of an incorrect form, they can. I don't have time.

That mirrors my experience. Box 3, Box 7, Box 6... I have seen ALL of those used for one client for whom the work is all the same and definitely SE work. I have seen honoraria of less than $150 reported in Box 7 when it was clearly NOT SE work (and under the $600 threshold). All manner of nonsense on these forms where many are clearly prepared by people who have no idea what they are doing; they've just been told "send these out." So while what @mcb39 and @Jack from Ohio state may well be the official IRS position, it does not absolve us from firing up the old neurons and seeing if the information presented to us is good - or garbage. GIGO, after all.

"Many of the identity thefts resulted from thieves getting past security filters on the agency’s website, according to the IRS." I question if they have this right, and if so..........Who is asleep at the wheel. There is a neat little car on Mars with a camera taking pictures....How did that happen???

then I guess those "teachers" are assuming that the 1099's are prepared correctly. Remember, they are being prepared by those same people here that disagree on how the income should be reported, so why assume that the 1099's are correct. I do 100 of buildings and I can't tell you how many times I get 1099's with the rent reported in box 3 or 7. Even errors on 1099's prepared by big institutions like Hospitals and even some local municipalities.

Well, while the PAYER has a $600 threshold, the RECIPIENT has a $400 threshold for SE tax, remember. Unless this truly is a one-time activity never at all likely to be repeated, I'd put it on the C-EZ because while it might not be his PRIMARY business, it clearly was "work, for compensation" and thus is "self-employment income".

What? You're saying I have to report each tax prep fee even if it's under $600? But don't I get to deduct the value of my time from what I report?

Absolutely correct. I would have no income from tax prep if the first $599 from each payer was not income.

I believe the $600 amount is only for the issuer of the 1099. The recipient of less than $600 is still required to claim it as income. Ha!