IRS Form 1099-INT – Interest Income

Form 1099-INT reports interest income and related items from a payer to a recipient and the IRS. Banks, credit unions, brokers, government issuers, businesses, and other payers use it when the reporting rules apply. The current form is the January 2024 revision and is designated for continuous use, so it has no single printed tax year; the filer enters the calendar year being reported.

The form available on IRS.gov is an information copy. Copy A uses a scannable red-ink format and cannot be filed from the ordinary PDF printout. Paper filers must use official scannable forms, while electronic filers use an approved IRS system. Recipient copies and acceptable substitute statements follow separate presentation rules.

When an interest payer must file

A payer generally files Form 1099-INT for a person paid at least $10 of reportable interest, interest on U.S. Savings Bonds or Treasury obligations, or tax-exempt interest, under the applicable reporting rules. Filing can also be required at lower amounts when federal income tax was withheld under backup-withholding rules or foreign tax was withheld and paid on the recipient’s behalf.

Special thresholds and rules apply to certain payments in the course of a trade or business and to specified institutions. Nominee recipients who receive interest belonging to another person may have their own information-reporting duty. A payer should use the separate instructions to determine whether an account, instrument, payee type, or payment is exempt rather than treating every balance credited as reportable interest.

Use one form for each recipient and payer relationship as required, including a unique account number when multiple accounts or statements make identification necessary. Obtain and validate the recipient’s name, address, and taxpayer identification number. Backup withholding may apply when a taxpayer identification number is missing or incorrect or after an IRS notice.

The income boxes identify different tax treatment

Box 1 reports taxable interest not entered in another interest box. Box 2 reports an early withdrawal penalty charged to the recipient; the penalty may be deductible even though the gross interest remains reportable. Box 3 separately identifies interest on U.S. Savings Bonds and Treasury obligations, which is federally taxable but generally exempt from state and local income taxes.

Box 4 shows federal income tax withheld. Boxes 5 and 6 report investment expenses and foreign tax paid, and box 7 identifies the foreign country or U.S. possession. Boxes 8 and 9 distinguish tax-exempt interest and specified private activity bond interest. Market discount, bond premium, and tax-exempt bond premium appear in later boxes and can affect the recipient’s basis, interest income, or alternative minimum tax computation.

Recipients reconcile the form to their return

A recipient generally reports taxable interest even if no form arrived, and generally reports the amount for the year it was credited and available. Multiple Forms 1099-INT should be combined with interest from private loans, seller-financed transactions, and other sources. Schedule B may be required based on total interest and dividend income or because of foreign accounts, trusts, or nominee reporting.

Do not subtract box 2 from box 1. Report the gross interest and claim the early withdrawal penalty separately on the line specified by the return instructions. Similarly, tax-exempt interest is reported for informational purposes even when it is not included in federal taxable income. Private activity bond interest can affect alternative minimum tax.

U.S. Treasury interest should be identified for a state return. A consolidated brokerage statement may include supplemental detail that allocates mutual-fund dividends or government obligations by state. The federal Form 1099-INT alone does not answer every state allocation question.

Basis adjustments matter for debt instruments

Market discount can become ordinary interest income when a bond is disposed of or when an election includes it currently. Bond premium may offset stated interest under an election, while tax-exempt bond premium generally reduces basis and is not deductible. Boxes 10 through 13 help the recipient apply these rules, but the broker may not possess every election or acquisition fact.

Original issue discount is generally reported on Form 1099-OID rather than Form 1099-INT, although an account statement can contain both forms. Accrued interest paid to a seller, amortizable premium, and interest on stripped securities require careful separation. Keep purchase confirmations and tax-lot schedules for instruments acquired between payment dates or at a premium or discount.

Current filing calendar for 2026 interest

Because the form is continuous-use, the January 2024 revision can be used to report 2026 interest. Under Publication 1099 for 2026, the recipient statement is generally due January 31 of the following year, shifted to the next business day when the date falls on a weekend or legal holiday. For 2026 interest, that produces a general recipient deadline of February 1, 2027.

The general IRS due date is February 28 after the reporting year for paper filing and March 31 for electronic filing, with business-day rules. For 2026 returns, the general dates are March 1, 2027, for paper filing and March 31, 2027, for electronic filing. Special rules can apply to trustees and middlemen of widely held fixed investment trusts.

Filers required to submit 10 or more information returns in aggregate generally must file electronically. The threshold combines covered information-return types, not merely Forms 1099-INT. IRIS and other authorized methods are available. Extensions, corrections, and recipient-statement rules remain distinct processes.

Corrections should preserve the reporting trail

If a payer discovers an incorrect amount, name, taxpayer identification number, or return type, follow the correction procedure in current Publication 1099. Some errors require a corrected return; others require voiding the first form and filing the correct form type. Furnish a corrected statement to the recipient and retain the original data and reason for correction.

• Payers should reconcile interest expense or account systems to Forms 1099-INT before transmission.
• Recipients should compare every box with year-end statements and actual account ownership.
• Nominees should identify amounts belonging to another person and satisfy any downstream reporting duty.
• Both sides should retain taxpayer identification number solicitations, withholding records, and correction confirmations.

The form’s compact layout hides several tax categories. Treat box 1, government interest, tax-exempt interest, foreign tax, and bond adjustments as separate data rather than collapsing them into one interest total.

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