What Is Form 1099-INT? How It Works and What to Do

Many or all of the products featured here are from our partners who compensate us. This influences which products we write about and where and how the product appears on a page. However, this does not influence our evaluations. Our opinions are our own. Here is a list of our partners and here's how we make money.
A 1099-INT tax form is a record that a person or entity paid you interest during the tax year.
Sometime in February, you might receive a 1099-INT tax form (or more than one) in the mail. You need to hang on to it because it can have a big impact on your tax life. Here's how Form 1099-INT works.

What is a 1099-INT tax form?
A 1099-INT tax form is a record that someone — a bank or other entity — paid you interest. If you earned more than $10 in interest from a bank, brokerage or other financial institution, you’ll receive a 1099-INT.
The 1099-INT is a common type of IRS Form 1099, which is a record that an entity or person — not your employer — gave or paid you money.
You might receive this tax form from your bank because it paid you interest on your savings.
The form will have your Social Security number or taxpayer identification number on it, which means the IRS will know you’ve received interest — and it will know if you don’t report that income on your tax return.
Simply receiving this tax form doesn’t necessarily mean you owe taxes on that money. You might have tax deductions that offset the income, for example, or some or all of it might be sheltered based on characteristics of the asset that generated it. In any case, remember: The IRS knows about it.
What do I do with a 1099-INT tax form?
You use your IRS Form 1099-INT to help figure out how much income you received during the year and what kind of income it was. You’ll report that income in different places on your tax return, depending on what kind of income it was.
If you need help estimating how interest income on a Form 1099-INT could affect your tax bill, check out our free tax calculator.
Get ready for simple tax filing with a $50 flat fee for every scenario
Powered by
Don’t miss out during the 2024 tax season. Register for a NerdWallet account to gain access to a tax product powered by Column Tax for a flat rate of $50 in 2024, credit score tracking, personalized recommendations, timely alerts, and more.
for a NerdWallet account
What does my 1099-INT tax form mean?
If you received this tax form from a bank or other entity because you have investments or accounts that earned interest, you might also get a few other tax forms in the mail.
1099-DIV
The 1099-DIV reports dividends you received. This doesn’t include dividends on your share account at the credit union. The IRS considers those interest, so they appear on the 1099-INT.
1099-OID
You might receive Form 1099-OID if you bought bonds, notes or other financial instruments at a discount to the face value or redemption value at maturity. Typically, the instrument must have a maturity of more than one year.
1099-R
If you got distributions from a pension, retirement plan, profit-sharing program, IRA or annuity, you might receive a 1099-R. (Remember, many retirement plans are tax-advantaged, so this form might be simple record-keeping on behalf of the IRS.) If you took a loan from your retirement plan, you might have to treat it as a distribution, which means it might be on this form, too, as well as permanent and total disability payments under life insurance contracts.
On a similar note...

