Information for  
Brokers and  
Other Middlemen(p3)

The following discussions contain specific instructions for brokers and middlemen who hold or redeem a debt instrument for the owner.

In general, you must file a Form 1099 for the debt instrument if the interest or OID to be included in the owner's income for a calendar year totals $10 or more. You also must file a Form 1099 if you were required to deduct and withhold tax, even if the interest or OID is less than $10. See Backup Withholding, later.

If you must file a Form 1099, furnish a copy to the owner of the debt instrument by January 31 in the year it is due. File all your Forms 1099 with the IRS, accompanied by Form 1096, by February 28 in the year it is due (March 31 if you file electronically).

You can issue Form 1099-OID electronically with the consent of the recipient.

For more information, including penalties for failure to file (or furnish) required information returns or statements, see the General Instructions for Certain Information Returns (Forms 1098, 1099, 3921,3922, 5498, and W-2G) for the appropriate calendar year.

If you redeem a short-term discount obligation for the owner at maturity, you must report the discount as interest on Form 1099-INT.

To figure the discount, use the purchase price shown on the owner's copy of the purchase confirmation receipt or similar record, or the price shown in your transaction records.

If the owner's purchase price cannot be determined, figure the discount as if the owner had purchased the obligation at its original issue price. A special rule is used to determine the original issue price for information reporting on U.S. Treasury bills (T-bills) listed in Section III-A. Under this rule, you treat as the original issue price of the T-bill the noncompetitive (weighted average of accepted auction bids) discount price for the longest-maturity T-bill maturing on the same date as the T-bill being redeemed. This noncompetitive discount price is the issue price (expressed as a percent of principal) shown in Section III-A.

A similar rule is used to figure the discount on short-term discount obligations issued by the organizations listed in Section III-B through Section III-G.

There are 13-week and 26-week T-bills maturing on the same date as the T-bill being redeemed. The price actually paid by the owner cannot be established by owner or middleman records. You treat as the issue price of the T-bill the noncompetitive discount price (expressed as a percent of principal) shown in Section III-A for a 26-week bill maturing on the same date as the T-bill redeemed. The interest you report on Form 1099-INT is the OID (per $1,000 of principal) shown in Section III-A for that obligation.

If you hold a long-term OID debt instrument as a nominee for the true owner, you generally must file Form 1099-OID. For this purpose, you can rely on Section I of the OID list to determine the following information.

• Whether a debt instrument has OID.
• The OID to be reported on the Form 1099-OID.

In general, you must report OID on publicly offered, long-term debt instruments listed in Section I. You also can report OID on other long-term debt instruments.

On Form 1099-OID for a calendar year show the following information.

• Box 1. The OID for the actual dates the owner held the debt instruments during a calendar year. To determine this amount, see Figuring OID, next.
• Box 2. The qualified stated interest paid or credited during the calendar year. Interest reported here is not reported on Form 1099-INT. The qualified stated interest on Treasury inflation-protected securities may be reported on Form 1099-INT in box 3 instead.
• Box 3. Any interest or principal forfeited because of an early withdrawal that the owner can deduct from gross income. Do not reduce the amounts in boxes 1 and 2 by the forfeiture.
• Box 4. Any backup withholding for this debt instrument.
• Box 5. The CUSIP number, if any. If there is no CUSIP number, give a description of the debt instrument, including the abbreviation for the stock exchange, the abbreviation used by the stock exchange for the issuer, the coupon rate, and the year of maturity (for example, NYSE XYZ 12.50 2006). If the issuer of the debt instrument is other than the payer, show the name of the issuer in this box.
• Box 6. The OID on a U.S. Treasury obligation for the part of the year the owner held the debt instrument.

You can determine the OID on a long-term debt instrument by using either of the following.

• Section I of the OID list.
• The income tax regulations.

If the owner held the debt instrument for the entire calendar year, report the OID shown in Section I for the calendar year. Because OID is listed for each $1,000 of stated redemption price at maturity, you must adjust the listed amount to reflect the debt instrument's actual stated redemption price at maturity. For example, if the debt instrument's stated redemption price at maturity is $500, report one-half the listed OID.

If the owner held the debt instrument for less than the entire calendar year, figure the OID to report as follows.

1. Look up the daily OID for the first accrual period in the calendar year during which the owner held the debt instrument.
2. Multiply the daily OID by the number of days the owner held the debt instrument during that accrual period.
3. Repeat steps (1) and (2) for any remaining accrual periods for the year during which the owner held the debt instrument.
4. Add the results in steps (2) and (3) to determine the owner's OID per $1,000 of stated redemption price at maturity.
5. If necessary, adjust the OID in (4) to reflect the debt instrument's stated redemption price at maturity.

Report the result on Form 1099-OID in box 1.

Instead of using Section I to figure OID, you can use the regulations under sections 1272 through 1275 of the Internal Revenue Code. For example, under the regulations, you can use monthly accrual periods in figuring OID for a debt instrument issued after April 3, 1994, that provides for monthly payments. (If you use Section I-B, the OID is figured using 6-month accrual periods.)

For a general explanation of the rules for figuring OID under the regulations, see Figuring OID on Long-Term Debt Instruments under Information for Owners of OID Debt Instruments, later.

If you hold a bank certificate of deposit (CD) as a nominee, you must determine whether the CD has OID and any OID includible in the income of the owner. You must file an information return showing the reportable interest and OID, if any, on the CD. These rules apply whether or not you sold the CD to the owner. Report OID on a CD in the same way as OID on other debt instruments. See Short-Term Obligations Redeemed at Maturity and Long-Term Debt Instruments, earlier.

If a coupon from a bearer bond is presented to you for collection before the bond matures, you generally must report the interest on Form 1099-INT. However, do not report the interest if either of the following apply.

• You hold the bond as a nominee for the true owner.
• The payee is a foreign person. See Payments to foreign person under Backup Withholding, later.

Because you cannot assume the presenter of the coupon also owns the bond, you should not report OID on the bond on Form 1099-OID. The coupon may have been "stripped" (separated) from the bond and separately purchased.

However, if a long-term bearer bond on the OID list is presented to you for redemption upon call or maturity, you should prepare a Form 1099-OID showing the OID for that calendar year, as well as any coupon interest payments collected at the time of redemption.

If you report OID on Form 1099-OID or interest on Form 1099-INT for a calendar year, you may be required to apply backup withholding to the reportable payment at a rate of 28%. The backup withholding is deducted at the time a cash payment is made. See Pub. 1281, Backup Withholding for Missing and Incorrect Name/TIN(s), for more information.

Backup withholding generally applies in the following situations.

1. The payee does not give you a taxpayer identification number (TIN).
2. The IRS notifies you that the payee gave an incorrect TIN.
3. The IRS notifies you that the payee is subject to backup withholding due to payee underreporting.
4. For debt instruments acquired after 1983:
   1. The payee does not certify, under penalties of perjury, that he or she is not subject to backup withholding under (3), or
   2. The payee does not certify, under penalties of perjury, that the TIN given is correct.

However, for short-term discount obligations (other than government obligations), bearer bonds and coupons, and U.S. savings bonds, backup withholding applies only if the payee does not give you a TIN or gives you an obviously incorrect number for a TIN.

Backup withholding applies to OID on a short-term obligation only when the OID is paid at maturity. However, backup withholding applies to any interest payable before maturity when the interest is paid or credited.

If the owner of a short-term obligation at maturity is not the original owner and can establish the purchase price of the obligation, the amount subject to backup withholding must be determined by treating the purchase price as the issue price. However, you can choose to disregard that price if it would require significant manual intervention in the computer or recordkeeping system used for the obligation. If the purchase price of a listed obligation is not established or is disregarded, you must use the issue price shown in Section III.

If no cash payments are made on a long-term obligation before maturity, backup withholding applies only at maturity. The amount subject to backup withholding is the OID includible in the owner's gross income for the calendar year when the obligation matures. The amount to be withheld is limited to the cash paid.

If a registered long-term obligation has cash payments before maturity, backup withholding applies when a cash payment is made. The amount subject to backup withholding is the total of the qualified stated interest (defined earlier under Definitions) and OID includible in the owner's gross income for the calendar year when the payment is made. If more than one cash payment is made during the year, the OID subject to withholding for the year must be allocated among the expected cash payments in the ratio that each bears to the total of the expected cash payments. For any payment, the required withholding is limited to the cash paid.

If the payee is not the original owner of the obligation, the OID subject to backup withholding is the OID includible in the gross income of all owners during the calendar year (without regard to any amount paid by the new owner at the time of transfer). The amount subject to backup withholding at maturity of a listed obligation must be determined using the issue price shown in Section I.

If a bearer long-term obligation has cash payments before maturity, backup withholding applies when the cash payments are made. For payments before maturity, the amount subject to withholding is the qualified stated interest (defined earlier under Definitions) includible in the owner's gross income for the calendar year. For a payment at maturity, the amount subject to withholding is only the total of any qualified stated interest paid at maturity and the OID includible in the owner's gross income for the calendar year when the obligation matures. The required withholding at maturity is limited to the cash paid.

If you report the gross proceeds from a sale, exchange, or redemption of a debt instrument on Form 1099-B for a calendar year, you may be required to withhold 28% of the amount reported. Backup withholding applies in the following situations.

• The payee does not give you a TIN.
• The IRS notifies you that the payee gave an incorrect TIN.
• For debt instruments held in an account opened after 1983, the payee does not certify, under penalties of perjury, that the TIN given is correct.

The requirements for backup withholding and information reporting apply to payments of OID and interest made outside the United States to a U.S. person, a controlled foreign corporation, or a foreign person at least 50% of whose income for the preceding 3-year period is effectively connected with the conduct of a U.S. trade or business.

The following discussions explain the rules for backup withholding and information reporting on payments to foreign persons.

Backup withholding and information reporting are not required for payments of U.S.-source OID, interest, or proceeds from a sale or redemption of an OID instrument if the payee has given you proof (generally the appropriate Form W-8 or an acceptable substitute) that the payee is a foreign person. A U.S. resident is not a foreign person. For proof of the payee's foreign status, you can rely on the appropriate Form W-8 or on documentary evidence for payments made outside the United States to an offshore account or, in case of broker proceeds, a sale effected outside the United States. Receipt of the appropriate Form W-8 does not relieve you from information reporting and backup withholding if you actually know the payee is a U.S. person.

For information about the 28% withholding tax that may apply to payments of U.S.-source OID or interest to foreign persons, see Publication 515.

Backup withholding and information reporting are not required for payments of foreign-source OID and interest made outside the United States. However, if the payments are made inside the United States, the requirements for backup withholding and information reporting will apply unless the payee has given you the appropriate Form W-8 or acceptable substitute as proof that the payee is a foreign person.

For more information about backup withholding and information reporting on foreign-source amounts or payments to foreign persons, see Regulations section 1.6049-5.