Who Must File Form 1099-INT: Thresholds, Nominees, and Deadlines

If you paid $10 or more in interest to someone during the year in the course of your trade or business, you must file Form 1099-INT with the IRS and send a copy to the recipient. That baseline captures who must file Form 1099-INT for the 2025 tax year, with recipient copies due February 2, 2026 and the IRS copy due March 2 (paper) or March 31 (electronic). The rest depends on the type of interest, the recipient’s status, and whether you withheld any tax.

Who Counts as a Filer

Federal law requires every person who pays at least $10 in reportable interest during a calendar year to file a 1099-INT for each recipient.¹ “Person” here is broad: individuals acting in a trade or business, corporations, partnerships, government agencies at every level, and nonprofit organizations all fall inside it.²

Banks, credit unions, and savings institutions are the obvious filers, since interest on deposit accounts is their business. But the obligation reaches much further. Insurance companies paying interest on life insurance proceeds or policy dividends file. A small business that borrows from an individual and pays interest on that loan files. A corporation paying interest on a late invoice files. If the payment happens in the course of business and clears the applicable threshold, the payer reports it.

The dividing line is the phrase “in the course of your trade or business.” Lend money to a friend as a personal favor and collect interest, and neither of you has a 1099-INT obligation. Route the same transaction through a business entity, and the reporting requirement attaches.²

Recipients You Do Not File For

Some interest payments are exempt from reporting based on who receives them. Even if the amount clears the threshold, you skip these recipients:

C corporations and S corporations
Tax-exempt organizations, including charities and foundations
IRAs, Archer MSAs, health savings accounts, and Medicare Advantage MSAs
Federal agencies, states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories
Registered securities dealers and brokers

The exemption looks at the recipient, not the payer. A bank still files 1099-INTs for its individual account holders; it just skips the corporate and tax-exempt accounts on this list.²

What Payments Trigger Filing

Whether a payment is reportable depends on the type of interest and the threshold that applies to it.

The $10 Threshold

Standard interest becomes reportable at $10 for the year. That covers interest credited on bank deposits, certificates of deposit, and credit union accounts, along with interest on bonds, debentures, and notes issued in registered form or offered to the public. Interest on U.S. Savings Bonds and Treasury obligations sits in a separate box on the form but uses the same $10 floor. Tax-exempt interest from municipal bonds is also reported at $10, even though the recipient owes no federal tax on it; the IRS tracks it in its own box.²

The $600 Threshold

Trade-or-business interest that does not fit the standard financial-institution categories uses a higher $600 floor. The IRS lists interest on delayed death benefits from a life insurance company, interest included in damage awards, and interest on state or federal income tax refunds as examples.² A business that pays more than $600 in interest on a private loan from an individual falls here too.

Payments With No Dollar Floor

Two situations require a 1099-INT no matter how small the interest payment. If you withheld any federal income tax under the backup withholding rules, you file. If you withheld and paid any foreign tax on the interest, you file.³

Backup withholding kicks in at 24% when a recipient fails to give you a correct Taxpayer Identification Number or the IRS notifies you the recipient is subject to it. Starting in 2026, the aggregate reportable payment threshold that triggers backup withholding on trade-or-business payments rises from $600 to $2,000 under P.L. 119-21, with future inflation adjustments.⁴ Any interest payment where withholding actually happened still requires a 1099-INT regardless of dollar amount.

Original Issue Discount

One boundary worth flagging: bonds sold at a discount usually get reported on Form 1099-OID, not 1099-INT. The exception is short-term obligations with a maturity of one year or less, where OID goes on 1099-INT instead.²

When You Are a Nominee

You can end up filing a 1099-INT even when you are not the original payer. If you receive a 1099-INT that includes interest belonging to someone else, you are a nominee. This happens often with jointly held bank accounts where only one owner’s Social Security number is on file: the bank issues a single form to the account holder of record, but some of that interest belongs to the co-owner.

As the nominee, you file a 1099-INT with the IRS showing the amount allocable to each other owner, listing yourself as the payer and the actual owner as the recipient. You furnish a copy to the other owner and submit Form 1096 as the transmittal. Spouses do not have to file nominee returns for interest belonging to each other.⁵

Deadlines for the 2026 Filing Season

Three deadlines govern the 1099-INT process, and each carries its own penalty exposure.

Recipient copy (Copy B): January 31. Because January 31, 2026 falls on a Saturday, the effective deadline shifts to Monday, February 2, 2026.
Paper filing with the IRS (Copy A): February 28. Because February 28, 2026 falls on a Saturday, the effective deadline shifts to Monday, March 2, 2026. Paper filers include Form 1096 as the transmittal cover sheet.⁶
Electronic filing with the IRS: March 31, 2026.

When a due date falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, filing by the next business day counts as timely.⁷

Electronic filing is mandatory if you file 10 or more information returns of any type during the calendar year. That count includes every form in the 1099 series plus W-2s, not just 1099-INTs.⁸ The IRS offers two systems for electronic submission: the legacy FIRE system and the newer IRIS, which handles filing, corrections, and extension requests through one portal.⁹ FIRE is targeted for retirement after filing season 2027.¹⁰

If you cannot meet the filing deadline, Form 8809 gets you an automatic 30-day extension with no justification required, as long as you submit it by the original due date. A second 30-day extension is possible but requires a written justification and paper filing before the first extension expires. Acceptable reasons include a federally declared disaster, serious illness or death of the person responsible for filing, or not receiving data like a Schedule K-1 in time.¹¹

Penalties for Missing or Botching a Filing

Penalties apply per form and hit twice: once for the IRS copy, once for the recipient statement. For returns due in 2026, the tiers are:¹²

Filed within 30 days of the due date: $60 per form.
Filed after 30 days but by August 1: $130 per form.
Filed after August 1 or not filed at all: $340 per form.
Intentional disregard: $680 per form, or 10% of the amount that should have been reported, whichever is greater, with no annual cap.

Small businesses get lower annual caps on the first three tiers; large businesses and government entities face higher maximums. Fifty overlooked forms at the lowest tier already runs $3,000 before you address the recipient-copy side.

If you spot an error after filing, submit a corrected form as soon as possible: check the “CORRECTED” box, file Copy A with Form 1096, and send the recipient a corrected copy. Corrections filed within 30 days of the original due date get the lowest penalty tier; corrections filed by August 1 get the middle tier; after August 1, the full penalty applies. A de minimis exception can wipe out penalties on a small number of incorrect returns entirely, but only if the originals were filed on time and corrections come in by August 1.⁵

State Filing on Top of the Federal Return

Many states want their own copy of Form 1099-INT when interest is paid to a resident or is sourced in the state. The IRS Combined Federal/State Filing program forwards return data automatically when you e-file through IRIS or FIRE and the state participates.¹³ Not every state participates, and some that do still impose separate requirements or deadlines. Check your state’s rules before the federal deadline arrives.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6049 – Returns Regarding Payments of Interest
2
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms 1099-INT and 1099-OID
3
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 1099-INT, Interest Income
4
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 15 (2026), Employer’s Tax Guide
5
Internal Revenue Service. 2025 General Instructions for Certain Information Returns
6
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 1096, Annual Summary and Transmittal of U.S. Information Returns
7
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 1099, General Instructions for Certain Information Returns (2026)
8
Internal Revenue Service. E-File Information Returns
9
Internal Revenue Service. E-File Information Returns With IRIS
10
Internal Revenue Service. Filing Information Returns Electronically (FIRE)
11
Internal Revenue Service. Form 8809, Application for Extension of Time to File Information Returns
12
Internal Revenue Service. Information Return Penalties
13
Internal Revenue Service. Combined Federal/State Filing (CFSF) Program State Coordinator Information FAQs