Updated October 19, 2026. Quick answer: Box 1 of Form 1099-LTC shows the gross long-term care benefits paid under a contract during the year, and box 2 shows the gross accelerated death benefits paid. The form goes to the policyholder on Copy B and to the insured on Copy C. The form itself points the policyholder to Form 8853 and its instructions for the next step.
What boxes 1 and 2 report
The policyholder copy defines both boxes in one line each. “Shows the gross benefits paid under a long-term care insurance contract during the year.” That is box 1. For box 2: “Shows the gross accelerated death benefits paid during the year.”
Two words in those sentences deserve attention. Gross means the form reports what was paid, not what was left after anything else. And the amounts belong to a single calendar year, the year printed on the form. The other boxes on the statement are laid out in the Form 1099-LTC boxes guide, and the per diem check mark in box 3 is covered in Form 1099-LTC box 3.
What the payer was told to enter
The payer works from its own set of instructions, which you do not receive with your copy. They are worth reading anyway, because they say exactly what was counted. For box 1: “These benefits are all amounts paid out on a per diem or other periodic basis or on a reimbursed basis.” For box 2, the instructions say the payer should “Include the amount paid by a viatical settlement provider for the sale or assignment of the insured’s death benefit under a life insurance contract.”
The same passage tells the payer that it does not have to sort the money into taxable and nontaxable pieces. The table below collects the points.
| Question | What the form and instructions say |
|---|---|
| Box 1, on the recipient copy | “Shows the gross benefits paid under a long-term care insurance contract during the year.” |
| Box 2, on the recipient copy | “Shows the gross accelerated death benefits paid during the year.” |
| Box 1, in the payer’s instructions | “Enter the gross long-term care benefits paid this year (other than accelerated death benefits).” |
| Who is counted in the payments | “It includes amounts paid to the insured, to the policyholder, and to third parties.” |
| Taxable or not | “You are not required to determine whether any benefits are taxable or nontaxable.” |
The last row matters for how you read the form. Boxes 1 and 2 are totals of what was paid. They are not a statement by the payer about what is taxable.
Who gets the form and which copy
The payer must send the statement to two people. The filer instructions say “you must furnish a statement or acceptable substitute to both the policyholder and to the insured as shown.” The recipient copies spell out the difference, as the table shows.
| Which copy | What the form says |
|---|---|
| Copy B (For Policyholder) | “A payer, such as an insurance company or a viatical settlement provider, must give this form to you for payments made under a long-term care insurance contract or for accelerated death benefits.” |
| Copy C (For Insured) | “If you are the insured but are not the policyholder, Copy C is provided to you for information only because these payments are not taxable to you.” |
| Insured who is also the policyholder | “If you are also the policyholder, you should receive Copy B.” |
The insured’s copy also carries a short notice: “Only the policyholder is required to report this information on a tax return.” If you hold both roles, Copy B is the one that matters to you.
What counts as long-term care benefits
The payer’s instructions define the term that drives box 1: “Any payments made under a product that is advertised, marketed, or offered as long-term care insurance (whether qualified or not)”, together with accelerated death benefits. Notice the words in parentheses. A form can report benefits from a contract whether or not it is a qualified contract. Box 4, covered in Form 1099-LTC boxes 4 and 5, is where the payer may say whether the contract was qualified.
The instructions list who must file: “Payers of long-term care benefits who must file Form 1099-LTC include insurance companies, governmental units, and viatical settlement providers.” If your form came from a company you do not recognize, a viatical settlement provider is one of the payers named there.
What accelerated death benefits are
The instructions give a plain definition: “An accelerated death benefit is any amount paid under a life insurance contract for an insured individual who is terminally or chronically ill.” “It also includes any amount paid by a viatical settlement provider for the sale or assignment of a death benefit under a life insurance contract for a chronically or terminally ill individual.”
The policyholder copy then states the exclusion rule in two sentences, which are the form’s own statement and are not paraphrased here. “Amounts paid as accelerated death benefits are fully excludable from your income if the insured has been certified by a physician as terminally ill.” “Accelerated death benefits paid on behalf of individuals who are certified as chronically ill are excludable from income to the same extent they would be if paid under a qualified long-term care insurance contract.”
In other words, the form ties the chronically ill case back to the qualified contract rule. The per diem limit that can apply to such payments is covered in Form 1099-LTC box 3.
Where it goes on the return
The policyholder copy does not carry the amounts to a line itself. It sends you onward: “See Pub. 525 and Form 8853 and its instructions for more information.”
The Form 8853 instructions explain who completes the long-term care part. “You (or your spouse, if filing jointly) were a policyholder who received payments under an LTC insurance contract or received any accelerated death benefits from a life insurance policy on a per diem or other periodic basis in 2025.” Those are the 2025 instructions, so confirm the matching year for the form you hold. For the return the amounts end up on, see the Form 1040 page, and for the broader topic of long-term care coverage, see the long-term care guide.
Edition and box numbers
This page reads Form 1099-LTC (Rev. April 2025) and the Instructions for Form 1099-LTC (Rev. April 2025), the current files irs.gov served on 2026-10-19. The filer instructions carry this line: “Use these instructions for tax year 2025 and subsequent years until a superseding revision is issued.” The Form 8853 passage above comes from the 2025 Instructions for Form 8853. Check the year and edition printed on the form you received before relying on any box description here, because box numbers can change between editions.
Common mistakes
- Treating box 1 or box 2 as the taxable amount. The payer’s instructions say “You are not required to determine whether any benefits are taxable or nontaxable.”
- Ignoring Copy C because it looks like a duplicate. The form says “Only the policyholder is required to report this information on a tax return.” so the question of which copy you hold decides who has the reporting job.
- Assuming box 2 is only for the terminally ill. The instructions say an accelerated death benefit is “any amount paid under a life insurance contract for an insured individual who is terminally or chronically ill.”
Related: Form 1040, and the long-term care guide.
Sources
- Form 1099-LTC, Long-Term Care and Accelerated Death Benefits (Rev. April 2025), with Instructions for Policyholder and Insured: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1099ltc.pdf
- Instructions for Form 1099-LTC (Rev. April 2025): https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1099ltc.pdf
- 2025 Instructions for Form 8853, Archer MSAs and Long-Term Care Insurance Contracts: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i8853.pdf
- IRS: About Form 1099-LTC: https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-1099-ltc
Read from the IRS documents linked above on October 19, 2026. General information, not tax advice. Your own facts decide the outcome, and a preparer, the account provider or the IRS is the right place to confirm anything consequential.