I have several accounts with a bank. The account holders are my wife, I, and my daughter. I file joint return. For the interest in these accounts, who should file to IRS?
- posted
2 years ago
Who should report the interest income?
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- posted
2 years ago
Are the accounts listed as joint tenants or tenants in common? Where did the money originally come from? Details matter.
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- posted
2 years ago
Whose SSN is on the 1099-INT? I'd be guided by that. On most joint accounts I have had, the name listed first is generally the one whose SSN gets the interest.
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2 years ago
The situation is this: my wife and I have two accounts in a bank. Because we were going abroad, we were afraid that due to security concerns, we might not be able to access our accounts from abroad. We added my daughter's name to the account so she could make transactions for us. She then created accounts of her own. All under one userid and password. Although all accounts are kept separated financially, the main account holder now is my daughter and all statements are sent to her. I called the bank and asked who should report the interest income and the answer I got was all parties need to report the interest income. That sounds strange to me. That's why I came here to ask the question.
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- posted
2 years ago
You haven't answered the question that Rick asked: Whose Social Security number is on the 1099-INT? This is the most important factor. How many 1099-INT forms did your daughter get? For each 1099-INT, whose Social Security number is on it, and who does the money in the account actually belong to? The user ID and password don't matter. Who the statements get mailed to doesn't matter.
Do you and your wife file jointly?
Bob Sandler
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2 years ago
Those are important from a practical standpoint. But from a legal standpoint they are largely irrelevant. If an account is in joint tenancy the legal owner for tax purposes is the person who put his/her own money into the account. If it's tenants in common it's presumed to be a gift so it belongs to each equally.
If one person's SS# is on the account, that indicates the interest is his, but it's not definitive. That person can issue nominee 1099s to show the interest should really be allocated to someone else.
Again, a very practical issue but doesn't really address the primary question.