Numerous federal retirees have been issuing complaints about weeks of delay in receiving necessary tax forms to file their 2025 income taxes — notably IRS From 1099-R that reports the retirement pension distributions for CSRS and FERS.
OPM recent years, OPM mailed the 1099-R forms by the end of January. But due to a policy change last year to modernize its Retirement Service operations, federal retirees and annuitants who have an email address in their OPM online log-in account would only get a digital copy of the form 1099-R unless they specifically request the paper copy be mailed to them.
SEE ALSO: How to Get Your 1099-R for CSRS/FERS Annuity and TSP
A letter from a group of a group of Democratic lawmakers urged OPM to address the delays.
“We have heard from numerous constituents who still have not received their Form 1099-R or annuity statements, even after waiting well beyond the maximum two-week delivery window communicated by your staff,” the House members wrote yesterday in the letter to to OPM director Scott Kupor.
“Many of these individuals subsequently attempted to contact OPM through your phone help line but were unable to reach a representative. This has been a persistent and deeply frustrating problem for retirees who call repeatedly without ever receiving assistance. OPM is required to provide retirees with their tax documents and there is absolutely no justification for your failure to uphold this basic service,” they wrote.
“It is unacceptable for the federal agency responsible for the tax documentation of millions of retired Americans to fall short in providing timely, reliable service to all of them. We strongly urge you to address this serious gap in support and ensure that every impacted retiree can obtain the documents they need to file their taxes,” wrote the lawmakers.
It is reported that an OPM spokesperson responded: “OPM has made 1099 forms available digitally with one-click access, and users no longer need a PIN to sign in. Anyone without a Retirement Services Online account was mailed a paper copy, and some deliveries may have been delayed by recent winter storms in the DC and Northeast region. We are advising recipients to allow about 10 days for mail delivery.”
SEE ALSO: How to Get Your 1099-R for CSRS/FERS Annuity and TSP
Representatives James Walkinshaw (D-VA) and Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) led the House group.
Below is the full text of the letter sent to OPM:
Director Scott Kupor
U.S. Office of Personnel Management 1900 E Street NE
Washington, D.C. 20415 Director Kupor,
We write regarding the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) online platform, Retirement Services Online (RSO), and the significant difficulties our constituents have encountered when requesting physical copies of their tax documents. We urge you to immediately expand support services for impacted retirees who require access to their own tax documents.
Each year, OPM states that it will mail physical Form 1099-R documents to any annuitant who does not have an email address on file after January 31.1 Despite this policy, we have heard from numerous constituents who still have not received their Form 1099-R or annuity statements, even after waiting well beyond the maximum two-week delivery window communicated by your staff.
Many of these individuals subsequently attempted to contact OPM through your phone help line but were unable to reach a representative. This has been a persistent and deeply frustrating problem for retirees who call repeatedly without ever receiving assistance. OPM is required to provide retirees with their tax documents and there is absolutely no justification for your failure to uphold this basic service.2
We are requesting the following information to ensure our constituents are receiving the best possible service from your office:
1. What is the current status of mailing Form 1099-R to retirees, including statistical information on how many have yet to be mailed?
2. What is the current average call and wait times at the Office of Retirement Services’ help line?
3. Does OPM collect customer service satisfaction data for the ORS help line and, if so, what metrics does OPM use to gauge successful outcomes?
4. What measures, if any, is OPM planning to take to ameliorate these issues and improve its overall customer satisfaction with the retirees it serves?
It is unacceptable for the federal agency responsible for the tax documentation of millions of retired Americans to fall short in providing timely, reliable service to all of them. We strongly urge you to address this serious gap in support and ensure that every impacted retiree can obtain the documents they need to file their taxes.
We look forward to your timely response.
1 Office of Personnel Management. Get your 1099-R tax form. https://www.opm.gov/support/retirement/how-to/get-your-1099-r-tax-form/
2 Internal Revenue Service. Publication 721. February 11, 2026. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p721.pdf