Electronic Delivery of Forms 1099-DA in Proposed Regulations and Notice 2026-4

Excerpt

SIFMA ¹ provided comments to the U.S. Department of the Treasury (DOt) on the proposed regulations ² regarding electronic delivery of Forms 1099-DA, and Notice 2026-4, Request for Comments on Electronic Furnishing of Certain Payee Statements.

Summary

In summary:

1. The proposed regulations are tied to a framework established before electronic delivery became standard practice and overemphasize potential problems with electronic delivery without considering the many disadvantages of regular mail delivery. This approach should be re-examined.
2. The proposed regulations' requirement that customers separately consent to electronic delivery of tax forms is out of step with other consent requirements and should be replaced with a requirement that consent be obtained in the same manner as other contractual terms.
3. Notifications to customers that Forms 1099 are available should be made through whatever channels customers actually use, not just e-mail. Designating e-mail as the only primary notification method risks technological obsolescence and fails to give customers and financial institutions control over the methods that work best for them.
4. Forms 1099-DA should not have separate rules for electronic delivery as compared to other Forms 1099. Customers of traditional financial institutions, like customers of digital asset brokers, communicate electronically as a matter of course. There is no reason to think that customers of digital asset brokers are uniquely capable of receiving Forms 1099 electronically.
5. Financial institutions should be able to provide each customer a composite Form 1099 that includes all transactions and payments relevant to the relationship with the customer, without arbitrary exclusions of certain form or payment types.
6. The rules should clarify that, in situations where a customer has lost electronic access to an account because it has been closed, frozen, or taken over due to fraud, a financial institution is considered to have furnished the Form 1099 if it mails a paper Form 1099, and that there is no requirement to continue to make the electronic Form 1099 available online.