Robinhood is a very good option for those who are just starting to invest. You can start investing without commissions.
The app allows you to invest in stocks and buy cryptocurrencies. You can also make various other transactions.
However, what about taxes on the money you earned? Robinhood will send you a 1099 form which will allow you to pay all taxes on the money you earned or spent last year.
What is a 1099 form
1099 is a document that shows your income. There are several types of 1099 forms:
- Form 1099-B reports income from securities transactions, which include stock and bond sales, short sales, redemptions, tenders and maturities, and it also reports gains and losses on futures.
- Form 1099-INT reports interest income, including taxable and nontaxable rate-dividends on mutual funds that you were paid for the year.
- Form 1099-OID shows the annual amortization of interest rates on discount bonds that are taxable.
- Form 1099-DIV is a statement of the total dividends credited to your account during the year. It also has information about short-term capital gains distributions, total capital gains distributions, and nondividend distributions (return of capital), dividends paid by foreign corporations, mutual funds, and money market funds.
- Form 1099-MISC reflects amounts received as deductions in your account, stock lending payments, and non-taxable pro bono rates. It also shows the taxable income from advisor fees and soft-dollar fees.
- Form 1099-R contains distributions from IBKR IRA accounts of the “traditional”, “rollover”, and “named dew” types.
When Robinhood sends the 1099 forms
Robinhood usually sends all 1099 forms you may need in mid-February. You may have multiple forms if you have done transactions through Robinhood Securities and Robinhood Crypto during the year.
Also, if you need a corrected 1099, it will be available from Robinhood at the end of March. If you no longer need any tax documents, you will be sent an email in mid-February.
How to read a 1099
Sometimes it can be difficult to read 1099 if you have never done one before. In fact, all of the information in it is not that difficult to understand. To read your Form 1099 from Robinhood Securities you can use a few simple instructions below :
- At the top left is the block where the Robinhood address and your taxpayer identification number are written. This is used by the government to identify you and your tax reports
- Next, in the middle of the second line, there is a block with your account information: your account ID, address and TIN. You can use your account ID to upload your 1099 to TurboTax
- Then in the top line on the right you will see the ID of the document, it is also necessary to import your 1099 into TurboTax
- In the middle of the document on the left side is the Dividend and Disbursement information (IRS Form 1099-DIV). This will show income from any dividends or distributions from investments during the past year
- To the right of the previous block will be Miscellaneous Income (IRS Form 1099-MISC): this will show miscellaneous income during the year. An example would be a gift or prize for something.
- Next, at the bottom, the leftmost column is the Income Summary (IRS Form 1099-B):
- Short – these are investments that were held for one year or less
- Long investments are those held longer than a year
- The next column to the right is the Cost Basis, which is the original cost of the asset that has been adjusted for any corporate actions or “wash” sales during the year.
- The column to the right is the Wash sales loss disallowed column, which is the amount of released losses that violate the IRS wash sales rule
- The rightmost column at the bottom is the net gain or loss, which shows the total gain or loss on all items you sold during the tax year.
How to access your 1099 forms
It’s very easy to do. All forms will be available to you in the Robinhood mobile app. Follow these instructions to get these documents:
- Open the Robinhood app on your smartphone
- Click on Account in the bottom right corner
- Next you need to click on Statements & History
- Then click on Tax Documents
If you have a large document, you will want to start downloading it using the web version of the app.
Why didn’t you receive a 1099
If you did not receive your documents in mid-February, there could be a few different reasons:
- You received less than $10 in dividends last year
- You didn’t sell any stock in the last tax year
- You didn’t make sales of more than $10 in cryptocurrencies
If none of these reasons apply to you, then you can contact support to find out at what stage the problem with your Form 1099 occurred.
