If you are required to file Form 1099-G, you must provide a statement to the recipient. Furnish a copy of Form 1099-G or an acceptable substitute statement to each recipient, except as explained below under Box 2. State or Local Income Tax Refunds, Credits, or Offsets. Also, see part H in the 2004 General Instructions for Forms 1099, 1098, 5498, and W-2G.

Enter payments of $10 or more in unemployment compensation including Railroad Retirement Board payments for unemployment. Enter the total amount before any income tax was withheld. If you withhold Federal income tax at the request of the recipient, enter it in box 4.

Enter refunds, credits, or offsets of state or local income tax of $10 or more you made to recipients. If recipients deducted the tax paid to a state or local government on their Federal income tax returns, any refunds, credits, or offsets may be taxable to them. You are not required to furnish a copy of Form 1099-G or a substitute statement to the recipient if you can determine that the recipient did not claim itemized deductions on the recipient's Federal income tax return for the tax year giving rise to the refund, credit, or offset. However, you must file Form 1099-G with the IRS in all cases.

A tax on dividends, a tax on net gains from the sale or exchange of a capital asset, and a tax on the net taxable income of an unincorporated business are taxes on gain or profit rather than on gross receipts. Therefore, they are income taxes, and any refund, credit, or offset of $10 or more of these taxes is reportable on Form 1099-G. In the case of the dividends tax and the capital gains tax, if you determine that the recipient did not itemize deductions, as explained above, you are not required to furnish a Form 1099-G or substitute statement to the recipient. However, in the case of the tax on unincorporated businesses, you must furnish a Form 1099-G or substitute statement to the recipient in all cases, as this is a tax that applies exclusively to income from a trade or business. See Box 8. Trade or Business Income (Checkbox), below and Rev. Rul. 86-140, 1986-2 C.B. 195.

If you pay interest of $600 or more on the refund, you must file Form 1099-INT, Interest Income, and furnish a statement to the recipient. For interest payments of less than $600, you may choose to enter the amount with an appropriate designation such as “Interest Income” in the blank box on Copy B of the Form 1099-G.

No entry is required in box 3 if the refund, credit, or offset is for the 2003 tax year. If it is for any other tax year, enter the year for which the refund, credit, or offset was made. Also, if the refunds, credits, or offsets are for more than 1 tax year, report the amount for each year on a separate Form 1099-G. Use the format “YYYY” to make the entry in this box. For example, enter 2002, not '02.

Make no entry in this box.

Enter any amount of a taxable grant administered by a Federal, state, or local program to provide subsidized energy financing or grants for projects designed to conserve or produce energy, but only with respect to section 38 property or a dwelling unit located in the United States. Also, enter any amount of a taxable grant administered by an Indian tribal government.

Report amounts of other taxable grants of $600 or more. A Federal grant is ordinarily taxable unless stated otherwise in the legislation authorizing the grant. Do not report scholarship or fellowship grants. See Scholarships in the Instructions for Form 1099-MISC.

Enter USDA agricultural subsidy payments made during the year. If you are a nominee that received subsidy payments for another person, file Form 1099-G to report the actual owner of the payments, and report the amount of the payments in box 7.

If the amount in box 2 is a refund, credit, or offset attributable to an income tax that applies exclusively to income from a trade or business and is not a tax of general application, enter an “X” in this box.