2009 | Tax Guide

 

This comprehensive and informative guide is a tool to assist you or your tax professional with the preparation of your tax returns. It contains examples, explanations and illustrations from Internal Revenue Service (IRS) schedules to help you use your Tax Information Statement.

 

 

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What’s New for the 2009 Tax Information Statement

IRS Form 1099-B Changes for 2009

If you held an interest in a unit investment trust (UIT), mortgage-backed security, royalty trust, Holding Company Depositary Receipts (HOLDRS®) trust or commodities trust, we are now required to report certain details regarding transactions for these securities on IRS Form 1099-B, because these securities are considered to be WHFITs (widely held fixed investment trusts). The 2009 Form 1099-B Tax Information Statement contains two new required categories of information: Transaction Type and Cost Basis Factor.

Additional Written Statement

An Additional Written Statement will be provided as appropriate and as required by the IRS for WHFITs by March 15, 2010. This statement provides details of income and expense amounts reported on Form 1099.

Supplemental Information Section

If you owned a royalty or HOLDRS trust in your brokerage account in 2009, we are required to report additional information to you (and not the IRS) by March 15, 2010. A royalty trust and HOLDRS trust Supplemental Information page will be provided in your Tax Information Statement.

Tax Information Statement Instructions

Please refer to the instructions on your Tax Information Statement for more information. The instructions are now displayed below the transaction details for each section to assist you or your tax professional with the preparation of your return.

Changes to Form 1099-R Reporting for 2009

Box 2a (Taxable Amount) will generally be left blank for IRA distributions. Per IRS Instructions for Form 1099-R: Generally, Box 2a should be left blank when reporting distributions from traditional or SEP IRAs, unless otherwise instructed later (in the form instructions). In these cases, the taxable amount not determined in Box 2b will be checked.

Please review the Tax Guide for further information on these and other topics.

Coming Soon: Mutual Fund Tool

Supplemental information regarding the percentages of tax-exempt income on municipal funds by state and the percentage of government agency, direct federal and foreign source of funds will be available on March 1, 2010.

Read Before You File

If you held a mutual fund, real estate investment trust (REIT), WHFIT, widely held mortgage trust (WHMT) or UIT in 2009, we may send you a revised Tax Information Statement. Please be aware that some issuers did not make their final distribution information available until after January. See the Dividends and Distributions section of the Tax Guide.

 

 

Disclaimer: This website is not intended to provide tax advisory services. We suggest that you consult your tax professional to discuss the appropriate federal, foreign, state, and local tax treatment of your transactions. This guide, as well as your Tax Information Statement, is solely intended to assist you in accumulating data to prepare your income tax returns and should not be construed or relied upon as tax advice. All amounts and transactions displayed in this guide are only illustrations and do not represent actual transactions. Accordingly, no guidance should be inferred as to any specific transaction from the illustrations in this guide.