Form 1099-INT Deadlines: Recipient, IRS, and Extensions

Form 1099-INT deadlines come in three parts: recipient copies are due January 31, paper filings to the IRS are due the last day of February, and electronic filings are due March 31. For tax year 2025 forms filed in 2026, January 31 and February 28 both land on a Saturday, so those deadlines shift to Monday, February 2, 2026 and Monday, March 2, 2026. The March 31 e-file deadline is a Tuesday and does not move.¹

The 2026 Filing Season Dates at a Glance

Recipient copies (Copy B): Monday, February 2, 2026
Paper Copy A to the IRS (with Form 1096): Monday, March 2, 2026
Electronic Copy A to the IRS: Tuesday, March 31, 2026

The three dates cover different obligations, and missing one does not excuse the others. A payer who mails Copy A on time but forgets to send recipients their statements can be penalized for the recipient failure alone.²

Paper or Electronic: Which Deadline Applies to You

Electronic filing is mandatory for any payer required to file 10 or more information returns in a calendar year. That count aggregates across nearly all return types, including Forms W-2 and every variety of 1099. A payer issuing five Forms 1099-INT and five Forms 1099-DIV crosses the threshold and must e-file both sets.³

Filers under the 10-return threshold can still choose to e-file and pick up the extra month. Paper filers must include Form 1096 as a cover sheet summarizing the batch.¹

Extending the Recipient Deadline

The January 31 deadline for recipient copies has its own extension process, separate from the one used for the IRS filing. A payer who cannot furnish statements in time must fax Form 15397 to the IRS Technical Services Operation no later than the due date. If approved, the IRS grants a maximum of 30 additional days. Mailed requests are not accepted; fax is the only method.⁴

The extension is not automatic. Unlike Form 8809 for IRS filings, Form 15397 requires a reason, and approval is at the IRS’s discretion.

Extending the IRS Filing Deadline

For the deadline to submit Copy A to the IRS, payers can request an automatic 30-day extension by filing Form 8809 on or before the original due date. The IRS grants the first extension automatically for Form 1099-INT, and no explanation is needed.⁵

If 30 extra days still isn’t enough, a second 30-day extension is possible but not automatic. The second request must be submitted on paper before the first extension expires, and it must include a qualifying reason. The IRS lists acceptable justifications such as a federally declared disaster that made records unavailable, serious illness or death of the person responsible for filing, a fire or natural disaster affecting operations, or the filer being in its first year of existence.⁵

Form 8809 does not extend the January 31 recipient deadline. Those are two independent tracks, and payers who need more time on both must file the extension request for each.⁵

Penalties for Missing a Deadline

Penalties apply separately to the IRS filing and to the recipient copy, so a single late Form 1099-INT can generate two penalties. The per-form amounts for returns due in 2026 scale with how long the failure goes uncorrected:²

Corrected within 30 days of the due date: $60 per form
Corrected after 30 days but by August 1: $130 per form
Corrected after August 1 or never filed: $340 per form
Intentional disregard: at least $680 per form, with no annual cap

Intentional disregard means the payer knowingly ignored the filing requirement or deliberately reported incorrect information. Every other tier is subject to an annual cap that depends on business size.²

Annual Caps for Larger Filers

Payers whose average annual gross receipts over the prior three tax years exceeded $5 million face these ceilings for returns due in 2026:

30-day tier: $683,000 maximum
August 1 tier: $2,049,000 maximum
After August 1 tier: $4,098,500 maximum

Annual Caps for Smaller Filers

Payers with average annual gross receipts of $5 million or less face lower ceilings:

30-day tier: $239,000 maximum
August 1 tier: $683,000 maximum
After August 1 tier: $1,366,000 maximum

When You Don’t Need to File at All

The deadlines only bind you if a Form 1099-INT is actually required. A payer must file when a person received at least $10 in interest during the tax year, covering ordinary taxable interest, U.S. Savings Bond and Treasury interest, and tax-exempt interest from state or municipal bonds. A higher $600 threshold applies to certain trade-or-business interest payments outside those standard categories, such as interest paid on delayed death benefits.⁶

One rule overrides the dollar thresholds: if you withheld any federal income tax under backup withholding rules or paid any foreign tax on someone’s interest, you must file regardless of the amount.⁷

Several recipient categories are exempt entirely. No Form 1099-INT is required for interest paid to corporations, tax-exempt organizations, IRAs, health savings accounts, government agencies, registered securities dealers, or brokers. Interest on obligations issued by individuals, certain foreign-source interest paid outside the United States, and tax-deferred interest that hasn’t been distributed (such as interest accumulating inside an IRA) also stay off the form.⁶

1
Internal Revenue Service. General Instructions for Certain Information Returns (2025)
2
Internal Revenue Service. IRM 20.1.7 – Information Return Penalties
3
Internal Revenue Service. E-File Information Returns
4
Internal Revenue Service. Extension of Time to Furnish Statements to Recipients
5
Internal Revenue Service. Form 8809 (Rev. December 2025) – Application for Extension of Time to File Information Returns
6
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms 1099-INT and 1099-OID
7
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 1099-INT, Interest Income