Court: Form 1099 wasn’t fraudulently filed.
In a complex dispute between two businessmen, one (the payor) wrote a check to the other for the amount he believed was owed. The payee didn’t cash it. The payor filed a Form 1099 with the IRS for the amount and sent a copy to the payee. A U.S. District Court held the 1099 filing was fraudulent because the check wasn’t cashed. But the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the decision, ruling that, because the payee never communicated a rejection of the check, the payor wasn’t willfully fraudulent. (3/16/17, 2017-542)
