Oct 3, 2006

Reassurance On SSA 1099s To Attorneys

Everett Jackson, who is in charge of Social Security's plan to collect Social Security number information on attorneys and others qualified for direct payment of fees for represesting Social Security claimants, was kind enough to call me in response to an e-mail I had sent.

The information from him is that attorneys will provide their individual SSNs on each client, but will also provide their firm's Employer Identification Number (EIN) on a one time basis. Social Security will then issue 1099s to the individual attorneys and to the law firms as well. The 1099s to the attorneys will show the income in Box 14, but the IRS does not pay attention to the information in Box 14. The law firm's 1099 will show the income in Box 7, which is the one that the IRS pays attention to. Social Security will use a database to link the individual attorney information into the composite 1099 for the firm.

Jackson also told me that there will be another Federal Register notice on November 18 concerning direct deposit of attorney fees.

The concern that I have with direct deposit is identifying the client to whom the direct deposit pertains. That can already be a problem with checks, but may be even more of a problem with direct deposits, depending upon the electronic information that accompanies the check. He was unaware that this might be a problem, but seemed willing to work to make sure we can solve the problem.

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