No 1099 -- what's the best way forward?

[slowreader]

Treasury Direct doesn't send out 1099s. Instead, we must go online and look at the tax information there. My wife died in May, and it took me till January to regain control of her Tsy Dir account. It was a trust; I'm the successor trustee, which requires a new tax ID instead of her Social Security Number. New tax ID means a new account, and the new account has absolutely no tax information except for interest earned on March 15 and April 1 -- and that of course is for 2024 and no use. I have spent hours on the phone with their "help" people, who all say that I can't get a paper 1099 for 2023. (I'm pretty sure they're wrong, because our daughter died in September and did get a paper 1099 in the mail, but I couldn't convince the "help" people of that. You can't believe how arrogant and unhelpful they are.) I wrote a letter to Minneapolis asking for a paper form but of course have received no answer.

So what's my best way forward? I have an extension, but since it took eight months to change the tax ID and actually log into her account, I'm not optimistic that I'll have the information before October. Should I use a rough estimate of the figure, based on the brokerage account where the interest was deposited last year? And how do I actually enter that information -- fake up a 1099-INT in TurboTax?

Any advice gratefully received. Thanks! - Dan

[mirassou]

TT has a provision where you indicate that you did not receive a 1099 and enter the information on your own. The year end statement would have the most accurate information for you to complete the form.

[slowreader]

Thanks! How do I access that option? Step-by-Step? In Forms, I see the option to add a new 1099, but that brings up the actual form; it's not a way to work around the absence of a form. I typed NO 1099 in the help menu and got a lot of unrelated answers.  I'm not nearly so familiar with Step-by-Step, but when I look at it, I see the same thing: I can add a new 1099 but I don't see anyway to enter the information separately, the way I can do on Schedule C by inserting a figure in a separate line where I got a $400 check from a magazine that didn't send out tax forms because the amount was under $600. In the case of interest, the minimum is only $10 so I figure that it can just be forgotten as a rounding error.

[DianeW777 · Accepted solution]

Yes, you can enter it as though you did get a 1099-INT and use the information from the account for the close estimate of the interest your wife received.

Use the steps outlined in the link below to enter the interest even though you do not have the 1099-INT.

• Where do I enter my 1099-INT?
• Enter the Payer's Information which is only the name - nothing else is required about the Payer.

Please update here if you have more questions and we can help.  I send my sympathies for the losses you have endured.

@slowreader 

[slowreader]

Thanks for the reassurance! - Dan