Definitely something happened, although I hesitate to call it a transaction: I was the beneficiary of a non-qualified insurance annuity. I sent in notarized paperwork (insurance-company-provided forms) opting for the 5-Year Deferral Option for this annuity. The 1099-R, however, has 4D in Box 7 (if memory serves), which shows that they think that they made a payout on death. However, I have received no such payout. Nor does their system -- on the authority of whoever is responding to my phone calls -- show that I received a payout. They show that I elected the deferral option.
In the absence of a check and the presence of a 1099-R saying that I did receive $25,000 in a taxable distribution, I appreciate the guidance in tax filing that will give me a chance at staving off a disaster. Paying taxes is, well, paying taxes. But paying taxes on income one has not received ... Oof.
[If you want to know what I think happened, there are multiple beneficiaries for the same policy. I think one of them did get a check in their name, and that the insurance company has improperly connected me to that payout. The number of processing errors that this company has made in the short time I have been in contact with them is truly stunning. You are 100% right that a telephone representative may be incorrect; and in fact these representatives promise paper documentation that never arrives. Alas, what does arrive is often wrong and/or nonsensical, which occasions more phone calls. For example, letters kept arriving saying that they could not talk to me or process my claim in the absence of a death certificate; only by elevating to a higher-level phone representative was I able to get them to link the death certificate that they did have in their system to my claim. Sigh.]
