IRS Link to Form — Found Here

Sources of retirement plan income, such as pensions, annuities, and IRAs, will be associated with a 1099-R filing.

The form is filed by the company making the distribution. The taxpayer uses the information on it for when filing income taxes. The IRS receives Form 1099-R from the companies making distributions from retirement plans.

They have categorized all annuity contracts as retirement plans by default, so those are included, as are pensions, profit sharing plans, other forms of employer-sponsored retirement plans, cash-value life insurance distributions, and individual retirement accounts (IRAs). The company making the distribution sends the 1099-R to the IRS and the account owner.

The taxable portion will generally be taxed at income tax rates, but not all of the distribution is necessarily taxable. If a person made after-tax contributions to an IRA (which can be “non-qualified”) or annuity, this portion at least will not be taxable.

Life insurance cash value will not require a 1099-R if the distributions are categorized as a loan, which is non-taxable; only surrenders and distributions from life insurance contracts categorized as Modified Endowment Contracts (MECs) will require a 1099-R. Transfers and rollovers also generate a 1099-R, but they will be non-taxable events when handled properly.