Reprieve for Farmers Filing Late Due to MF Global

Most farmers file by March 1 of each year to escape having to pay estimated tax payments in January.  This year, many farmers received their Form 1099 from MF Global very late and in many cases after March 1.

The IRS just announced penalty relief for any farmers who had to file their return after March 1 due to MF Global.  This release indicated that the IRS understood the magnitude of the records and associated untangling of MF Global records delayed the issuance of forms 1099, so they have provided instructions on how to get out of the penalty.

The text of this release is located here.

A farmer will need to file form 2210-F with their return, but write “MF Global” at the top of the form and attach a statement indicating they were late due to the untimely receipt of form 1099s from MF Global (a hint for those farmers who want to try this without actually having an account at MF Global; we would highly recommend not doing this since the IRS will match this up in the return).