I worked for 2 big name IT consulting firms and 1 big name bank. The job of my team was to fix the always messed up billing and accounting systems at various client companies, as well as to fix the billing / accounting of interest rates / finance charges / fee calculations / penalties charged to credit card customers / loan customers of this very large bank.
Many of these calculations are very complicated to code into software, and even after extensive testing, people find errors. Then when it seems that everything is working, if the rules or regulations change, everything is broken again.
At the large bank, it was so complex that at any given time, more than 2 million accounts out of 6.5 million were always getting overcharged or billed improperly. We would do our best to fix those accounts, but we never got them all. The bank just waited for people to notice and call customer service to complain and then try to fix the accounts one by one. It’s very likely that you have been a part of a Class Action Settlement with one of these companies and received some sort of check.
So what are the chances that your 1099B is incorrect? Actually quite high. I get amended 1099s all the time, and have had to personally call in several times when I noticed errors to get the 1099s fixed. In 2019 I got 3 versions of my 1099B from Etrade- the original and 2 amended…
The IRS could care less about this problem getting fixed. There can only be an overpayment of taxes as a result of this, never an underpayment of taxes.
