What is a K-1?

Funds issue K-1s after the year closes, usually once the audit and the underlying portfolio companies' own K-1s are in, so delivery often runs past the personal filing deadline and extensions are common. The figures are taxable allocations, not cash received, and can differ from distributions. Non-U.S. investors typically get other forms, such as a 1042-S, and often invest through a blocker.

Say an investor owns part of a fund. It receives a K-1 showing its share of the fund’s income and gains for the year, and uses those figures in its own return.

Investors cannot file until they have it, and late K-1s are a familiar annual complaint about private funds.