Filed taxes last week, need to amend for an account we forgot

I really hate the fact that ING doesn't send 1099's in the mail. We set up the account awhile ago and totally forgot about the interest it was earning until yesterday, 6 days after we filed our taxes. It earned about ~$170 in interest last year and we want to make sure that we report it properly.

Should I go ahead and file the 1040x right now before we have received our tax return? Or should I wait until we receive the return, then proceed to mail in the 1040x with the check for the difference (I assume the difference will only be $10-20, if that). We did e-file and it has already been accepted.

Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

I would wait till the refund post.

I agree w/ the above two posts.

I'd send in the amendment and payment by April 15. Your refund should have been processed by then.

Even if you send it later, the penalty and interest will be minimal: 1/2 of 1% per month plus interest - under $1.

Attached is the IRS refund schedule. If you efiled between March 19 and March 26, your refund should be direct deposited by April 3 or mailed by April 10.

tripleB said: If your organization of your finances is so bad that you forgot one of your accounts a week after filing, then maybe you should wait a few more weeks before amending in case you forgot more.His refund is due April 3 (direct deposit) or April 10 (paper check).

Would waiting 5 or 12 more days until April 15 to amend will change anything?

Don't you think that this one situation will encourage OP to do a thorough inventory of transactions affecting his taxes?

On a side note:

1. Has anyone ever been audited for such a small amount? It is not worth the hassle on a $25.00 overpayment to re-file and not worth an audit on a $25.00 underpayment.

2. With everything being digital now, why can't we just download a prepopulated 1040 once all of the w2's/1099's are in. Obama wants to streamline the healthcare system with digitalization, why are ~200M Americans sifting through paper w-2's and 1099's. Even if it took another month that's fine.

JimTravel73 said: An unreported 1099 will generate a line item audit. It may take two years, but it's not even a question - it will happen. And the interest and penalties will count for something at that point. That's the joy of computers -- they will catch these things.
But you'd think a computer could catch it almost instantaneously. I asked about this on another message board, and a former IRS employee told me that the IRS uses a computer system from the 1960's. They are working on modernizing it though:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_Account_Data_Engine

I hope that some day we can just log into irs.gov and "see" all of our W-2s/1099s.

Slightly off topic, when I did my taxes this year I noticed that my efile federal return last year had a may have had a mistake. The total gross income I reported was about $80 less then my paper records. I will need to go back and figure out the mistake, if I did under report, what is the proper steps to correct this?

Battleshipnote said: Slightly off topic, when I did my taxes this year I noticed that my efile federal return last year had a may have had a mistake. The total gross income I reported was about $80 less then my paper records. I will need to go back and figure out the mistake, if I did under report, what is the proper steps to correct this?File IRS form 1040x to amend your return.

Remit any additional tax. You can calculate the penalty and interest or let them do it (easier this way).

You may need to amend your state return as well unless at the time you lived in a state with no income tax.

beethovengirl said: Xnarg said: beethovengirl said: ...I hope that some day we can just log into irs.gov and "see" all of our W-2s/1099s.Should the IRS provide similar online access to our (taxable) sales on eBay_?

How about our mortgage interest, property tax, sales tax, tuition, charitable contributions, etc.?

I'm interested in how far you want to take this.
All I meant was that 1099s are reported to the IRS anyway, so it would be easier if the IRS just compiled it on irs.gov for taxpayers to view.
Here is a little secret: The IRS does not see your W-2 until close to the end of the year. Employers send W-2s to the SSA, not the IRS. The SSA does not immediately pass them on to the IRS.

Additionally, the deadline for payers to file 1099 Forms with the IRS is Feb 28 (on paper) or March 31 (electronically) and automatic extensions are available. I shudder to think of the implications for the RAL industry if no refunds could be issued until after March 31!

The IRS actually was working on a web site called something like myIRSaccount.gov. It would have allowed you to check the status of your IRS accounts, payments, filings, etc. Their efforts were derailed by objections from lobbyists from the tax preparation industry. (These are the same lovely folks who have prevented the IRS from instituting a real e-file system you could use directly without going through a tax-prep company.) Their argument is that taxpayers would be "confused" if they had to go to TurboTax.com to file their tax returns and then go to myIRSaccount.gov to check whether the IRS received their check. They demanded that the IRS instead prepare a portal for private tax preparation services to use so they could transmit the information to taxpayers instead of having the IRS transmit.

fallbird said: beethovengirl said: Xnarg said: beethovengirl said: ...I hope that some day we can just log into irs.gov and "see" all of our W-2s/1099s.Should the IRS provide similar online access to our (taxable) sales on eBay_?

How about our mortgage interest, property tax, sales tax, tuition, charitable contributions, etc.?

I'm interested in how far you want to take this.All I meant was that 1099s are reported to the IRS anyway, so it would be easier if the IRS just compiled it on irs.gov for taxpayers to view.The IRS actually was working on a web site called something like myIRSaccount.gov. It would have allowed you to check the status of your IRS accounts, payments, filings, etc. Their efforts were derailed by objections from lobbyists from the tax preparation industry.
While this wouldn't surprise me, do you have a source? As of last summer, IRS was still planning myIRSaccount.gov:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pia/mirsa-pia.pdf

user12345 said: aphexII said: Thanks for the helpful replies, its much appreciated.

It doesnt matter if you wait until you get the refund or not. What matters is if you file the amendment by Apr 15th, which would guarantee you won't be charged any penalties. If the IRS sends you a refund for the original return and then gets the amended return, they will simply mail you a bill for the difference. Believe it or not, they know how to balance an account as well as ask for what is owed.....

I assume if I send the check along with the 1040x it should be fine as well?

Rhetorically, if there would not be a change in the amount owed, but if an amount was mistakenly added to a wrong line on a submitted return, would filing a 1040x be advisable?

For example, someone with under a thousand of 1099 income puts the income in the wrong place. However, the deductions/credits wipes the entire amount out and results in no tax owed.

beethovengirl said: JimTravel73 said: An unreported 1099 will generate a line item audit. It may take two years, but it's not even a question - it will happen. And the interest and penalties will count for something at that point. That's the joy of computers -- they will catch these things.
But you'd think a computer could catch it almost instantaneously. I asked about this on another message board, and a former IRS employee told me that the IRS uses a computer system from the 1960's. They are working on modernizing it though:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_Account_Data_Engine

I hope that some day we can just log into irs.gov and "see" all of our W-2s/1099s.

Sure, but I think a situation was brought up in another thread where the state of the return as of April 15 is not sufficient to make that call. It's the old end-of-year 1099 trick.

The payer issues a check to the receiver in late December of 2008. The receiver gets the check a few days later, in January of 2009. By the cash method rules, that is 2009 income to the receiver, but it is 2008 expense to the payer. The payer reports it to the IRS as a 2008 1099. The receiver does not report it on his tax return until a full year later and then some.

The result ends up that, because the IRS does not know the actual date of payment (just the year), it has to wait the extra year to complain just in case the income on the 1099 was issued in December and received in January.

cszulc said: I had a similar case of this - filed my taxes in mid-February and one of the ETFs I owned over the year sent me a K-1. I still have to amend and add it to the return but it totally is going to be a waste of my time.The due date for K-1 forms is March 15.

I received my 1099-div late of feb. which by then I already filed tax. I entered in TurboTax to amend and I'll get back additional money (it's not much). Do I need to file even though the IRS have to pay? Do I need to file 1040x for the state also?

No, because I paid for foreign taxes which I can get back.

tran1981 said: I received my 1099-div late of feb. which by then I already filed tax. I entered in TurboTax to amend and I'll get back additional money (it's not much). Do I need to file even though the IRS have to pay? Do I need to file 1040x for the state also?
You should file Form 1040X with IRS, not only to get your refund, but because the IRS matching program will eventually notice the unaccounted for 1099-DIV and question you about it. You should also file an amended state return as many are based on federal AGI and you probably will owe additional state tax (no foreign tax credit). Also, most states receive information from IRS on amended or audited federal returns and you probably would be contacted sooner or later by the state.

tran1981 said: jhburgess said:
You should file Form 1040X with IRS, not only to get your refund, but because the IRS matching program will eventually notice the unaccounted for 1099-DIV and question you about it. You should also file an amended state return as many are based on federal AGI and you probably will owe additional state tax (no foreign tax credit). Also, most states receive information from IRS on amended or audited federal returns and you probably would be contacted sooner or later by the state.

Yeah, I owed money to the state. I filled out 1040x for both state and fed. I just mail in 1040x along with my 1099-div right? Do I need other forms? I never do paper mail before and always get tax return. Do you also send in check with your tax forms?
Just send IRS the 1040X along with a copy of your return as originally filed marked "As Filed" and a new 1040 with the corrected information marked "As Corrected". For your state, if they have an amended return form, send that along with "As Filed" and "As Corrected" copies of the state returns. Some states don't require an amended return like the 1040X - just the copies of the original and corrected returns. Send a check for the additional tax due with the state returns.
You do not need to send copies of the 1099-DIV to either the IRS or state tax department.

aphexII said: No state taxes here, so its only federal that we have to amend. The difference came out to $30 on the dot. Question though, it asks for an explanation as to why we are filing the 1040x, think this would suffice?

"All changes are attiributed to ING Direct savings account interest. ING Direct does not send 1099-INT forms in the mail and as a result we didn't realize we forgot to include the ING Direct interest until we logged into ING Direct's website a few days after filing our 1040 and noticed our mistake."

Better:
"I omitted $x in interest income from the original Schedule B."

fallbird said: Better: "I omitted $x in interest income from the original Schedule B."

If I could applaud on a forum, I would. That's all the IRS needs to know. The circumstances surrounding ANY statement of fact to the IRS are absolutely none of their business until they ask.

aphexII said: fallbird said: aphexII said: Just one more quick question, got it all ready to go but wanted to check on something first.

TurboTax printed out the 1040X along with the amended 1040A. However, TurboTax doesn't mark the 1040A as amended anywhere. Should I go ahead and write anything on the new 1040A indicating that it is the amended version? Or just send it all as TurboTax provided?
Take a pen, pencil, marker, lipstick, or crayon and write in big letters across the top of each page of the amended 1040A and any other schedule "AMENDED." Do not write this on the 1040X.Thanks. Kinda surprised TurboTax doesn't just plaster it on there somewhere, I mean I wouldn't think it would take much to add it in the program.One reason that a tax program might not "plaster it on there somewhere" is that there is no space on many forms for additional wording. The word "AMENDED" would may need to go outside the printable margins - where a printer can't print.