As individual taxpayers prepare for filing their 2012 tax returns, they use various income documents which they have received from banks, investment management organizations, real estate lawyers, state governments, and various other entities.

Many of these forms are called ‘Form 1099’ and are submitted to the Internal Revenue Service electronically as well as being sent to the taxpayer. The first part of the IRS auditing process is to match for each taxpayer, the income reported on the Form 1040 with the details supplied by the organization which created the particular Form 1099.

As the Emperor sang in the Gilbert and Sullivan 19th century musical, “I’ve got a little list”. So does the IRS.

If you have barter income, you may have a Form 1099-B, if your debt has been canceled you may have a Form 1099-C, If you have dividends, you will have a Form 1099-DIV, interest income Form 1099-INT, miscellaneous non salary earned income, Form 1099-MISC, taxable retirement income, Form 1099-R, and you have sold your house Form 1099-S, and other Forms 1099.

If the amounts reported on your 2012 tax return based on Forms-1099 differ from the IRS totals, you are likely to receive an IRS notice stating that there is a difference, and that you need to correspond with that agency to reconcile the difference, and possibly pay more taxes.

For the above reasons, tax preparers ask their clients to include copies of ANY Forms 1099 when they meet with and/or send their 2012 tax data.