Panel Attorney Claims: Which Tax Year Will My Payment Fall In?
The Judicial Council has informed us that claims they transmit to the State Controller’s Office (SCO) for payment by December 23, 2022, will be reported on your 2022 Form 1099.
If you want payments to be counted for the 2023 tax year, then we suggest waiting until December 23-or well after to be safe-to submit your claim to FDAP.
If your goal is to have your payment count for the 2022 tax year, that is still possible and you should submit your claim as soon as possible, but we cannot make any promises and we cannot take requests for special processing. We at FDAP would have to complete our multi-step review process and transmit the claim to the JCC by December 21 in order to have a chance for transmission to the SCO by December 23. The reason that we cannot promise it will be included on your 2022 Form 1099 is that there are too many variables that can delay a claim: the complexity of the claim and the press of other work for our staff sometimes means we need up to the full 10 business days we target for reviewing a claim; sometimes we have to ask the panel attorney to correct or add information; sometimes the JCC needs extra time because of the multi-level review for claims over $7,500; and sometimes the JCC rejects or holds a claim for other reasons. For all these reasons, even claims received today or later could still end up on your 2023 Form 1099. That said, if you prefer to have your payment count for the 2022 tax year it’s still possible and you should submit your claim a.s.a.p. We will process it in the normal course of things and it might just work out that the SCO receives it in time to count for 2022.
We share this information so that you can consider the deadlines in deciding when to submit your claim. However, we cannot accept special requests to expedite or delay the processing of claims in order to get it to fall in a specific tax year.