Overview
Form 1096 is a summary form issued by the IRS on which are collated all the totals from the 1099 forms, including 1099-MISC and 1099-R, which are issued when payments are made by an employer to persons that are non-employees during the course of the previous year. Also required to be included is the information from the 1099-DIV forms detailing dividend payments to shareholders.
The 1099-MISC, 1099-DIV and 1096 forms must all be sent to the Internal Revenue Service by February 28 of the following year, and tough penalties apply if they are submitted late or are completed incorrectly. The deadline is extended to March 31 for electronic filing.
The form 1096 requires information about the company submitting and the total amounts reported and withheld. There is also a list of checkboxes to indicate the types of form accompanying it. You must submit a separate form 1096 for every type of 1099 form submitted, even if only one 1099 of each kind was issued. So, as an example, issuing 3 x 1099-MISC and 1 x 1099-R forms to a contractor will require 2 x 1096 forms summarizing each of them.
Completion
On the 1096 form, the ‘FILER’ is the business. Enter the full address; contact name and number, email and fax details.
If you have no EIN, enter your employer ID in Box1 and SS number in Box 2.
Box 3 is for the total number of forms accompanying the 1096.
Box 4 is where you should enter the total tax withheld on the submitted forms. Enter ‘0’ if this does not apply.
Enter total reported payments on submitted forms in Box 5.
Box 6 is to indicate the type of forms being submitted. There is just the one box for this because a separate 1096 accompanies each type of 1099. Mark with an ‘X’.
Additional points
Electronic rather than paper filing is required if the total number of forms being submitted is more than 250. Double-check before submission that your employer details entered under ‘FILER’ are the same on the 1096 and the accompanying 1099 forms.
The red form is the one to submit to your nearest IRS after signing and dating it. The IRS cannot scan 1096 forms downloaded and printed from the internet. They are shown on the website solely for the information of the viewer. An information return made to the IRS that contains a form that cannot be scanned may result in a fine of $50 being levied.
The other copies of the 1099-MISC forms have to be sent to the payee’s home state’s tax revenue bureau by the end of February of the year following.
Official IRS forms can be obtained by calling 1-800-TAX-FORM (1-829-3676) or via
Order Information Returns and Employer Returns Online.
