Am I safe to delete all of the carryover 1099s that have no 2017 data in them?

[nanciglassman]

When I import my basic data from last year to do 2017, it gave me many blank 1099's (based on last year's accts). Then, when I import my data from Fidelity, it doesn't use those 1099's, but creates new ones entirely. Am I safe to delete all of the original 1099s that now have no data in them?

[AnthonyC · Accepted solution]

Yes, if they are blank 1099s from last year (i.e they may show your account name and brokerage), then you can remove those empty holdovers if you have already successfully imported the new ones.  Two things - (1) just be careful you remove only the old ones and not accidentally a new one, and (2) make sure you keep your .tax2016 file (last years tax return) just in case you ever need to refer to the old ones.

[nanciglassman]

Since this was "messy" last year, I had hoped to delete the "no data 1099s" this year BEFORE I do the import.  Would that be good?

[AnthonyC]

You could do that since you are just going to reimport them.  For those types of 1099s (INT, DIV etc), the program keeps them to remind you about your accounts.  Now, the one caveat, some years the import feature for different brokers etc can run into hiccups.  If, for some reason, you weren't able to import your documents, then it would probably be easier for you if you had those old 1099s in there so you could refer back to them and make sure you don't miss any.

[nanciglassman]

Perfect - thank you!