To report investments on your taxes, most people need three 1099 forms from their broker (1099-INT for interest, 1099-DIV for dividends, and 1099-B for sales), plus Schedule B, Form 8949, and Schedule D on the Form 1040 itself. Add foreign accounts, futures, crypto, partnership investments, or income above certain thresholds and the list grows. Each form handles a different slice of what happened in your accounts, and leaving one out is a common trigger for IRS notices.
Below is the full working set, grouped by what each form does.
The 1099 Forms Your Broker Sends
These arrive by mid-February, on paper or through your brokerage’s online tax center. You don’t file them with your return; you use them to fill out the schedules that go with your 1040.
- Form 1099-INT reports interest from bank accounts, CDs, and bonds. Even small amounts get reported.1Internal Revenue Service. About Form 1099-INT
- Form 1099-DIV reports dividends and capital gain distributions from stocks, mutual funds, and ETFs, and separates ordinary dividends from qualified dividends because the two are taxed differently.2Internal Revenue Service. About Form 1099-DIV, Dividends and Distributions
- Form 1099-B reports proceeds from sales of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and other securities. It also indicates whether the brokerage reported your cost basis to the IRS, which affects how you fill out Form 8949.
- Form 1099-OID reports original issue discount on bonds bought below face value. If the discount is $10 or more, the issuer sends one, and the amount is generally treated as taxable interest.3Internal Revenue Service. About Form 1099-OID, Original Issue Discount
- Form 1099-DA reports digital asset transactions. Starting with the 2025 tax year, brokers and exchanges are required to issue it for cryptocurrency sales and exchanges.4Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8949
If you own an interest in a partnership, S corporation, or trust, you’ll also get a Schedule K-1 reporting your share of that entity’s income, gains, losses, and deductions. K-1 income can include interest, dividends, capital gains, and rental income, and each type flows to a different spot on your return. K-1s often arrive in March or April, which is one of the most common reasons investment-heavy returns get extended.
Schedule B: Interest and Dividends
Schedule B is where you list interest and dividend income from all sources. Filing it is required if your total taxable interest or ordinary dividends exceeded $1,500 for the year.5Internal Revenue Service. About Schedule B (Form 1040), Interest and Ordinary Dividends
Part I lists each payer and amount from your 1099-INTs. Part II does the same for ordinary dividends from your 1099-DIVs. The totals transfer to the income section of Form 1040. If you fall below the $1,500 threshold, you still report the income directly on Form 1040 without attaching Schedule B.
Tax-exempt interest from municipal bonds is reported too, on line 2a of Form 1040. You’ll find it in Box 8 of your 1099-INT or Box 12 of your 1099-DIV if you own a muni bond fund. It counts toward modified adjusted gross income even though no federal tax is owed on it, which matters for the Net Investment Income Tax and certain credits.
Form 8949 and Schedule D: Sales of Investments
Anytime you sell a stock, bond, mutual fund, or other capital asset, the transaction gets reported in two places. Form 8949 is the transaction-by-transaction log: date acquired, date sold, proceeds, cost basis, and any adjustments.6Internal Revenue Service. About Form 8949, Sales and Other Dispositions of Capital Assets
Each sale is either short-term (held one year or less) or long-term (held more than one year). Short-term gains are taxed at your ordinary rate; long-term gains get the preferential 0%, 15%, or 20% rate depending on income.7Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 409, Capital Gains and Losses
Your 1099-B tells you which securities are “covered” (broker reported the basis to the IRS) and which are “non-covered” (you’re responsible for the basis). Covered and non-covered transactions go on separate parts of Form 8949. If you disagree with the basis your broker reported, you can adjust it on the form and enter a code explaining the change.8Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1099-B
The totals from Form 8949 carry over to Schedule D, which nets short-term gains against short-term losses, long-term against long-term, and then combines the two. The final number lands on line 7a of Form 1040.9Internal Revenue Service. Schedule D (Form 1040) – Capital Gains and Losses
Wash Sales
If you sell a security at a loss and buy a substantially identical one within 30 days before or after the sale, the loss is disallowed under the wash sale rule. Your 1099-B usually flags these, and the disallowed loss gets added to the basis of the replacement shares. The adjustment is entered on Form 8949 using the appropriate code.
Loss Limits and Carryforwards
If your net capital loss for the year exceeds your net gains, you can use up to $3,000 of the excess against ordinary income ($1,500 if married filing separately). Anything beyond that carries forward indefinitely, keeping its short-term or long-term character, and shows up on next year’s Schedule D.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 US Code 1211 – Limitation on Capital Losses7Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 409, Capital Gains and Losses
Form 6781: Futures and Section 1256 Contracts
Regulated futures contracts, foreign currency contracts, and certain options on broad-based indexes are Section 1256 contracts, and they follow their own rules. Gains and losses are automatically treated as 60% long-term and 40% short-term regardless of holding period, and open positions are marked to market at year-end as if sold on December 31. You report them on Form 6781, and the resulting short-term and long-term amounts flow to Schedule D.11Internal Revenue Service. Form 6781, Gains and Losses From Section 1256 Contracts and Straddles
If you don’t trade futures or index options, you can skip this one.
Form 8960: Net Investment Income Tax
Higher-income investors owe an additional 3.8% tax on net investment income, calculated on Form 8960. The tax applies to the smaller of your net investment income or the amount your modified adjusted gross income exceeds the threshold for your filing status:12Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8960
- Single or head of household: $200,000
- Married filing jointly or qualifying surviving spouse: $250,000
- Married filing separately: $125,000
Net investment income includes interest, dividends, capital gains, rental income, and royalties. Wages and self-employment earnings don’t count. The thresholds are not indexed for inflation. If your MAGI crosses the line by even a dollar, complete Form 8960 and include it with your return.
Digital Assets: Where Crypto Goes
The IRS treats digital assets as property, not currency.13Internal Revenue Service. Digital Assets
Every sale, exchange, or trade of crypto for goods, services, or another digital asset is a taxable event. You report the transactions on Form 8949 and Schedule D the same way you would for stocks. Form 1040 also carries a yes/no question asking whether you received, sold, or disposed of any digital assets during the year, and you have to answer it either way.
Crypto earned through staking or mining is ordinary income at fair market value when you can sell or transfer it. If it’s not a trade or business, it goes on Schedule 1; if it rises to a business activity, it goes on Schedule C. That fair market value becomes your basis if you later sell the coins.
Foreign Accounts: FBAR and Form 8938
Holding investments in foreign financial accounts can trigger two separate filings that work independently. Neither substitutes for the other.
FBAR (FinCEN Form 114)
If the combined value of all your foreign financial accounts exceeded $10,000 at any point during the year, you must file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts. This is not an IRS form. It’s FinCEN Form 114, filed electronically through the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s BSA E-Filing System, separate from your tax return.14Internal Revenue Service. Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR)15Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. How Do I File the FBAR?
The $10,000 threshold is aggregate. Checking, savings, brokerage accounts, and accounts where you only have signature authority can all count.
Form 8938
Form 8938, filed with your tax return under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, covers a broader range of foreign financial assets. For an unmarried taxpayer living in the United States, the filing threshold is $50,000 in specified foreign financial assets on the last day of the year or $75,000 at any point during the year. Higher thresholds apply for joint filers and for taxpayers living abroad.16Internal Revenue Service. Do I Need to File Form 8938, Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets?
Many taxpayers who file one file the other. They aren’t interchangeable: different thresholds, different asset categories, different agencies.
How the Forms Flow to Your 1040
Once the individual forms are complete, the totals land on Form 1040 in these places:
- Taxable interest and ordinary dividends from Schedule B feed the income section
- Net capital gain or loss from Schedule D goes on line 7a
- Tax-exempt interest goes on line 2a
- Net Investment Income Tax from Form 8960 is added to the tax calculation
- Form 8938, if required, is attached to the return
- The FBAR is filed separately with FinCEN
If you e-file, the software assembles everything in the required order. If you paper file, attach the schedules and forms in the sequence the IRS specifies. One number worth double-checking before you send the return: confirm that your qualified dividends are being taxed at the preferential capital gains rate through the Qualified Dividends and Capital Gain Tax Worksheet, not at your ordinary rate. That single calculation is one of the most common ways investors overpay.