At the end of January, the Public Employees’ Retirement System of Mississippi mailed an Internal Revenue Service Form 1099-R to individual retirees who are receiving benefits through PERS. However, the Payer’s Federal Identification Number, found above box three on the 1099-R form, should have been nine digits, but some beneficiaries only received an eight digit number.
According to the PERS’ website, PERS provides retirement benefits for people working in state government, public schools, universities, community colleges, municipalities, counties, Legislature and highway patrol.
“As soon as we became aware of the issue from our beneficiaries, we identified and mailed a corrected form to those who were affected,” Executive Director of PERS Pat Robertson said. “It was a proofing error, the printer left off the last digit and when they were proofed, it was missed. However, the files sent to the IRS and printer were correct.”
The ID number identifies the plan from which the beneficiary retired, she said.
Robertson said the lack of the ninth digit affected those who filed their taxes online.
According to a press release from PERS, PERS has posted the correct Payer’s Federal Identification Number for participating plans on it’s website at www.pers.ms.gov. Retirees who would like to received a printed 1099-R with the correct number can contact PERS at 800-444-7377, the release states. The PERS newsletter, which will be mailed on Feb. 11, will alert retirees to this issue, the release states.
“Our call center operators are aware of this matter and can help,” Robertson said.