WSJ tax columnist Tom Herman discussed why some recent changes in IRS regulations may bring confusion in investment income reporting, and you'd better to wait for your brokerage firms to sort it out before filing your return.

Major financial-services companies are struggling to avoid what some fear could be an unusually severe recurrence of a problem that has bedeviled investors the past three years.

The issue is 1099 forms, those statements that banks, brokerage houses and mutual funds send out to account holders around the end of January. Since 2004, millions of taxpayers have received revised 1099 forms -- typically in late February, March and even April -- restating information, such as dividends, that was reported on their initial 1099s.

This year, some financial executives worry that things may get even worse, thanks in part to a recent tax-law change. Seeking to minimize the problem, a few firms have asked the Internal Revenue Service for more time to mail out their 1099 forms to investors.

Among the firms that have received extensions from the IRS are Wachovia Securities, a unit of Wachovia Corp., and Morgan Stanley. A Wachovia spokeswoman says the company plans two waves of 1099 mailings to investors in February and is counseling clients to sit tight.