Form 1099-B is the statement that reflects the dividends or distributions your mutual fund passed on to you after selling a portion of its holdings in the prior year. (Whether you actually had a gain in 2008 is another story altogether.)

The change, which is effective for tax-season 2009 and beyond, is in response to the investment industry's concerns that it wasn't getting all the information from individual mutual funds in time to process and send out the tax statements to clients by January 31. Last tax season, 12-14 percent of all 1099-Bs had to be re-sent with corrections, says Travis Larson, a spokesman for the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA). The meant some taxpayers had to delay their tax filings anyway, or filed an amended return. 

"Each year the transaction volume increases and more firms have had to send out corrections because the fund changed its distribution or something else," Larson says. The process of producing 1099-B also has been further complicated by new laws passed in the last couple of years that changed the tax treatment of certain distributions. 

Last tax season, some brokerages asked for and got extensions in sending out their 1099-Bs. Now, it's official for everyone. 

Adam Banker, a spokesman for the investment giant Fidelity, said his company included information on the change in its December and January statements to clients, and will have the same information on the Fidelity Web site. Banker said Fidelity plans to begin mailing out tax statements throughout January and into February--basically, as soon as it gets the proper information. As a result, many customers may not notice much of a difference. 

If your investments didn't make any distributions or dividends--say, you just have interest income, reported on Form 1099-INT--your tax statements may come shortly after January 31, as usual.