Where to receive K-1s and 1099s without mixing them into Gmail
Finmail Product
K-1s and 1099s are ordinary attachments with an outsized life: they get forwarded, printed, and copied into whoever’s inbox sits on the thread. If that thread is your main Gmail, tax packets sit next to shopping and newsletters. If it is the employer tenant, they follow retention and eDiscovery you do not set.
This page is where to receive those packets — the address you give Schwab, Fidelity, IBKR, a partnership, and your CPA. It is not IRS e-file, not a CPA portal, and not a pitch that accounting firms should buy Finmail.
Keep Gmail (or Outlook) for mail that already works.
What should leave the everyday inbox
| Packet | Who sends it | What to change |
|---|---|---|
| 1099-B / composite 1099 | US broker | The broker’s statement and tax-form email (see Schwab, Fidelity, IBKR below) |
| K-1 | Partnership, fund, or issuer | The investor tax contact they have on file — often a form, not only Gmail filters |
| Organizer, questions, wire details | Your CPA as counterparty | The address you give them for your return |
Leave employer, deal-team, and firm LP mail on Workspace or Microsoft 365. The longer work-versus-personal split is a second email for tax season.
A second Gmail is often enough
A second @gmail.com isolates tax mail inside Google: same phone, same recovery, $0. Most people should stop there. Filters and labels on the same Gmail still mix the archive.
Choose something other than Google only if this slice should not live in Google’s account at all:
- Proton if the requirement is Swiss hosting and end-to-end encryption.
- Fastmail if you want generic paid IMAP. That is usually enough; Finmail is not a Fastmail alternative. See Finmail vs Fastmail.
[email protected]if you want a US-hosted, finance-only mailbox (Virginia production, Hong Kong operations) and you will actually change the counterparties’ records.
Finmail Professional is $29/mo, 14-day trial, card required. It is IMAP the server can read — not end-to-end encryption. Hosted @finmail.com is weaker than a domain you own.
Change the brokers, then the accountant
Brokers will not follow a Gmail filter. Update the address on their sites:
- How to change your Charles Schwab email for statements
- How to change your Fidelity email for statements and tax forms
- How to change your Vanguard email for statements and tax forms
- How to update Interactive Brokers notification email
- How to change your Chase email for statements
Then tell the CPA: “For my K-1s and organizers, use you@….” Do not ask their firm to leave Outlook. Practice software stays on their side.
When you send a K-1 onward and expect it to be forwarded, use a password-protected Secure Share instead of a raw PDF. If they must reopen the packet next week, do not use burn-after-read. Walkthrough: send a K-1 without a raw attachment.
Keep the old inbox through one tax season until a 1099 and a CPA thread arrive at the new address.
Cross-border US tax mail
If you live in Hong Kong or Singapore and still receive US 1099s or K-1s, this is the same split: the US rail can leave Gmail; local bank mail does not have to. The product is not an offshore privacy mailbox.
What this is not
- Not “Gmail cannot receive a 1099.” It can, and issuers use it every day.
- Not TaxDome, SafeSend, or the IRS.
- Not a promise that AI prepares the return. On-demand read-pane insights are optional and metered.