1099R Delivery Disruption
On January 29th all annuitant members were sent a 1099R IRS Tax Form via the United States Postal Service - First Class Mail. These forms are required to be mailed prior to February 1st of each tax year. In our estimation, several thousand were received within 3-5 business days. However, the Fund began receiving numerous calls in the second week of February regarding undelivered forms. At the time of mailing, we expected the USPS to meet a reasonable delivery standard of 10 business days; those expectations were not met. As such, the process of preparing and mailing replacement documents was initiated on February 13th. Since that time all members who have contacted the Fund have been provided with a replacement form. Some of you may have received two forms and for that we apologize.
We understand this situation created frustration for those members affected. The Board and staff are also frustrated by this breakdown. We contacted the Postal Service and initiated a request for REQUIRED DISCLAIMER The information set forth herein is believed to be reliable but is not guaranteed as to accuracy or completeness by and is not to be construed as a representation of the Firemen’s Annuity & Benefit Fund of Chicago, the Retirement Board (the “Board”) or any member of the Board except the Secretary. The information and expressions of opinion contained herein are subject to change without notice. All expressions of opinion, whether expressly so stated, are intended merely as such and not as representations of fact. Financial information contained in this newsletter is as of a certain date, is unaudited and should not be relied on. an investigation. Currently, the postal service and the Postal Inspection Office have not provided us with any substantive details as to why the delay occurred. Our records indicate the mail parcels were delivered timely to the main post office at Harrison Street in Chicago, Illinois. Furthermore, we can determine no geographic pattern to the documents that were not delivered timely.
Now what!
• First, we commit to every member that the appropriate form required to prepare your tax return will be provided by the Fund. We understand the urgency to get this done. If you need a replacement 1099R contact the Fund by calling (312) 726-5823 or send an email to info@fabf.org. The replacement process will continue until all members have received their necessary tax documents.
• Second, we will continue to seek answers from the Postal Inspection Service to determine what may have caused this disruption and report back if we can identify the problem.
• Third, we are looking at digital delivery options or a secure portal to augment our process in the future. For our members that are not able to utilize a digital solution, a mailed form continues to be the best option. However, a secure and readily available digital solution to supplement a mailed copy would provide a significant level of improvement to our membership.
• To that end, we are working on a website enhancement – hopefully, due this summer. Within the new site we are considering options that would allow you to securely access and obtain digital forms including your 1009R. We are stewards of your personal information, and as such we want to proceed with these types of services with the highest level of cyber security.
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