2020 Tax Forms FAQs

Most, but not all tax forms are issued by January 31st. This includes tax forms for: 

• Most IRAs. 
• Thrivent Mutual Funds. 
• Annuities and life insurance (including Thrivent and third-party providers).  

Tax forms for taxable brokerage accounts (often referred to as non-qualified or brokerage or non-IRA brokerage accounts) take longer to aggregate. Tax forms for taxable brokerage accounts begin to issue in late January but may take until mid-March to issue.  

Fidelity and NFS release these tax forms in waves:  

• Wave 1: mid-February. 
• Wave 2: late February. 
• Wave 3: mid-March.  

Fidelity offers an estimate of when your tax forms will be ready. You can check by logging into your Fidelity.com account and clicking the Tax Forms section.  

Please find step-by-step instructions for the following providers:  

• Fidelity
• National Financial Services (via Thrivent.com)
• National Financial Services (via PKS Wealthscape)
• Thrivent Annuity & Life Insurance
• Thrivent Mutual Funds

If you opened a new account this year you are liable to have two tax forms – one from each provider, for each account. (The transfer itself was not a taxable or reportable event.) 

Common new accounts situations included: 

• Thrivent Mutual Funds transferring to Fidelity brokerage.
• Thrivent (NFS) brokerage transferring to Fidelity brokerage. 
• Thrivent (NFS) brokerage transferring to PKS (NFS) brokerage.

For those with taxable brokerage accounts, you will likely receive two tax forms – one from each provider.  

Only if distributions were taken from your IRA while the funds were at each provider will you receive a 1099-R tax form from that provider. You may still receive a 5498-tax form even if no distributions were taken while at that provider. 

For most, this should be the last year you receive a tax form from the previous provider. 

Our recommendation is to assume that each account will generate tax forms and to check all accounts/all providers to verify. 

Many annuity contracts went through a simple “Change of Broker Dealer” transition which changed the broker dealer to Purshe Kaplan Sterling Investments (PKS). Since the funds stayed at the same provider, there will not a second tax form issued. 

Common contracts with the Change of Broker Dealer: 

• Thrivent Variable Annuities 
• Thrivent Variable Universal Life Insurance 
• NEST 529 plans 
• Lincoln Variable Annuities 
• Jackson Variable Annuities 

As mandated under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, the IRS changed the deadline for mailing tax forms to Feb. 15. In an effort to reduce the number of corrected tax forms a member may receive, Fidelity and NFS both request an extension from the IRS that allows for mailing 1099 tax statements beyond the mid-February date for accounts holding certain mutual funds or certain complex securities.  

Most tax forms are available by Jan. 31st, the notable exception being consolidated 1099s for taxable brokerage accounts (often referred to as “non-qualified” or “brokerage” or “non-IRA brokerage” accounts.) 

Each fund held in your taxable brokerage account independently reports data to NFS/Fidelity. All funds held must have report data before NFS/Fidelity can aggregate it into your consolidated 1099 tax form.  

1099-R: This tax form reports income from your IRAs (R for Retirement). 

5498: This tax form reports contributions made to IRAs including rollovers. It also reports some informational only things like required minimum distributions and fair market value. 

Consolidated 1099: This tax form reports various forms of income (i.e., dividends, interest, capital gains) for taxable brokerage accounts.  

Consolidated refers to the various components included in this report and may include:  

• 1099-Div for Dividend income. 
• 1099-Int for Interest income. 
• 1099-B for Capital Gains. 

Generally, a taxable or reportable transaction will generate a tax form. So, if no distribution was taken from an IRA (which was common in 2020 since required minimum distributions were not required) no 1099-R will be generated. 

For IRAs that may include: 

• IRA Distributions: 
• Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs): See specific QCD FAQ below for more.  
• IRA Rollovers: 
• Though this is often not taxable, it is reportable. A 1099-R showing the withdrawal can be offset by a 5498 showing the rollover deposit. 

For taxable brokerage accounts that may include: 

• Dividend income. 
• Interest income. 
• Capital Gains. 

Note: Generally, all taxable (non-IRA) brokerage accounts will receive a consolidated 1099 tax form.  

Even if funds were given directly from your IRA to a charity or church, you should still expect to receive a 1099-R tax form.  

Providers cannot – and do not verify that the third-party recipient of the funds are a qualified charitable organization eligible for qualified charitable distributions. Therefore, the income is reported. Investors should work with a tax professional and use receipts issued by the receiving organization as proof of the charitable contribution.  

Even if the funds were redeposited, the initial distribution still occurred. Therefore, you will still receive a 1099-R tax form showing the distribution. You should also receive a 5498-tax form showing the indirect rollover.  

We recommend working with a tax professional for proper reporting. 

There are two main reasons why the amounts on your tax forms might be noticeably different in 2020 than previous years: 

• First, The CARES Act suspended the need to take required minimum distributions (RMDs). For many, fewer or no IRA distributions were taken in 2020. 
• Secondly, because of the market correction in the spring, many of you may notice lower than normal income reported on your consolidated 1099 tax form for taxable brokerage accounts. This is partially due to strategic trading, which resulted in the capturing of capital losses and partially due to a relatively muted year for capital gains distributions from our stable of funds. 

What a year! We are so grateful for your trust and partnership as we transitioned to the Thrivent Advisor Network last fall. To help with this inaugural year, Parable Wealth Partners is offering additional assistance as you prepare for tax season. 

Please see the email from team@parablewealth.com with a link to schedule a 15-min zoom call with one of our team members. We will help verify that you have collected all your tax forms. 

• During this meeting, we will help review your tax form collection to verify that you have all tax forms. 
• To most effectively use this time together, please use the resources in this article to collect all your tax forms that have been issued.