How CPA firms request a 1099-INT from clients
By Arthur Teboul, DokuTrak · Published
In short
Ask business clients for every Form 1099-INT issued in the business’s name and EIN: business savings, money market accounts, CDs, and Treasury bills held at a brokerage or TreasuryDirect. Banks send them by January 31. Ask for each account’s December statement too, because interest below the reporting threshold can arrive without a form.
Why CPA firms need a 1099-INT
Interest earned on business accounts is income of the business, reported on the entity return and, for an S corporation or partnership, passed to the owners on their K-1s as a separately stated item. Interest on Treasury obligations is generally exempt from state income tax, so it has to be identified apart from bank interest. The IRS matches 1099-INTs filed under the EIN against the business return.
What exactly to ask for
Every 1099-INT for the tax year issued to the business EIN, from each bank, brokerage and TreasuryDirect account the business holds. Ask for a list of every business account open during the year, including accounts closed mid-year, and the December statement of each, so you can account for interest that came without a form.
What to check when it arrives
- The name and EIN on the form are the business’s, not the owner’s Social Security number.
- Box 3 interest on Treasury obligations is kept apart from box 1 bank interest, for the state returns.
- Every account on the client’s list has either a 1099-INT or a statement showing the year’s interest.
Email to send your client
Replace the bracketed parts. The same text fits in the message of a DokuTrak request (up to 1,000 characters).
Subject: Interest forms for the business accounts
Hi [Client name],
For the business return I need every Form 1099-INT issued to the company this year: business savings, money market, CDs, and any Treasury bills held in a brokerage or TreasuryDirect account.
They are usually in each bank’s online banking under Tax documents. Please also send the December statement for each account, since small amounts of interest sometimes come without a form. If an account was closed during the year, include it as well.
Could you send them by [date]? If you are not sure which accounts were open, send what you have and we will go through the list together.
Thanks, [Your name]
Ask once. DokuTrak does the chasing.
- Your client uploads from one link, with no account and no password.
- Reminders go out on a schedule, by default 2, 5, 10 and 14 days after the request, until the file arrives.
- With AI review switched on in your workspace (it is off by default), each upload gets a first pass that flags a file that is not a 1099-INT, an unreadable or blurry scan or a copy where one of these is missing or cut off: the recipient’s name, the interest income amount. It says so when it is not sure.
- You accept every file or mark it for re-upload, and your client gets the note by email. The AI never accepts a file.