What to List for Bank or Brokerage on Form 1099-B

When you sell securities like stocks or bonds, your financial institution sends you Form 1099-B, “Proceeds from Broker and Barter Exchange Transactions.” This document is a summary of your sales activity for the year and reports the gross proceeds from these transactions to both you and the IRS. Receiving this form indicates you have transactions that must be reported on your income tax return.

The purpose of Form 1099-B is to provide the necessary details for you to calculate and report your capital gains or losses. Financial institutions, including brokerage firms and banks acting as brokers, are required to issue this form if you sold stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or other securities during the tax year.

Locating the Payer’s Name on Form 1099-B

On Form 1099-B, the entity that handled the sale is listed as the “PAYER” or “ISSUER.” You can typically find this information in the upper-left corner of the form. The payer’s name, address, and Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) will be clearly displayed in this section.

The name listed is the official name of the bank or brokerage firm responsible for reporting your sales to the IRS. This could be a well-known brokerage like “Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC,” “Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.,” or “ETRADE Securities LLC.” It could also be a banking institution that provides brokerage services, such as “JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.”

Regardless of the type of institution, the name printed in the Payer box is the one you must use for your tax reporting. You must use the exact name as it appears on the form. This ensures that the information you report on your tax return matches what the IRS has received from the payer.

Entering Broker Information on Form 8949

After identifying the payer on Form 1099-B, the next step is to report the transaction details on Form 8949, “Sales and Other Dispositions of Capital Assets.” This form is where you list each individual sale, which then gets summarized on Schedule D of your tax return. Form 8949 is divided into two main parts: Part I for short-term transactions (assets held for one year or less) and Part II for long-term transactions (assets held for more than one year).

For each transaction you report, you must identify the broker. This is done in column (a) of Form 8949, which is labeled “Description of property.” In this column, before describing the asset sold (e.g., “100 sh. XYZ Co.”), you are required to enter the name of the broker.

Tax software programs will have a specific field for this information, and if filing by paper, you will write the broker’s name directly in column (a). For example, you would write “Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC” followed by the description of the stock sold.

Common Scenarios for Reporting Broker Information

Taxpayers often encounter a few common situations that can add complexity to reporting. If you hold investments at more than one financial institution, you will receive a separate Form 1099-B from each one. You must report the transactions from each form on Form 8949, being careful to list the correct broker for each set of sales.

Many firms now issue a “Consolidated Form 1099,” which combines multiple tax forms like the 1099-B, 1099-DIV, and 1099-INT into one package. In this case, the single payer name shown at the top of the consolidated statement is the correct one to use for all transactions detailed in the 1099-B section of that document.

Another scenario involves transferring your account from one brokerage to another during the tax year. This action may result in you receiving two separate 1099-B forms, one from your old broker and one from your new one. You must report the sales transactions under the name of the specific broker that executed the sale and issued the corresponding 1099-B. Each form needs to be handled separately to ensure accurate reporting.