A taxpayer has a joint tenancy with rights of survivorship (JTWROS) with her mother (who is alive) for a brokerage account. The 1099 of the brokerage was issued for the account with the mother's social security number as the recipient. Does the daughter have any tax liability for the 1099?

ANSWER

The BIDaWIZ Team's Answer:

The mother must be the primary holder of the brokerage account and thus the 1099 was issued with her SSN. Please note that you can only have 1 SSN on a 1099. The daughter does not necessarily have a tax liability and the mother can report the entire amount on her tax return. However, if both the daughter and the mother contributed funds into the brokerage account, the mother can nominee a portion of the income to her daughter based on their pro-rata share of the contributions into the account. The mother would issue a 1099 to her daughter to nominee that income. However, this is not applicable if the daughter didn't contribute into the account.

References: IRS Publication 17
State: Tennessee