I just called to Fidelity, they discussed it with tax people without connecting me to them, and the reply was that I should wait for the final version of 1099 and if there is any issue I should contact IOFIX directly. So I will wait.
I have 19(a) forms from March to November 2020 as pdf files. Note that the forms 19(a) are not personal, my name is not present on them, they are addressed to ALL shareholders. However, I am not sure that one can use them for filing tax returns since each of them says that this is just AN ESTIMATE, not for tax reporting. Each form that I have says that approximately half of the distribution is ROC, the March form is special, it says that 100% of it is ROC. This is very different from what I see on my preliminary 1099; let us hope that this issue will be clarified.

Thank you very much for responding. I believe that as of now, prior to sending us 1099 form, Fidelity considered all their distributions as dividends (as listed in my yearly report), and I know that they did not subtract ROC from my basis in IOFIX yet. In fact, IOFIX did not even send its 19(a) form for December yet.
I just received a preliminary version of 1099 Div from Fidelity. (They wait for some info from another fund, they have full information from IOFIX, but incomplete info from another fund.). They list all distributions from IOFIX as ordinary dividends, not a word about ROC. Thus as of now it seems that there is a problem.

@AndyJ .For 2019 IOFIX distributions included 10.71% in Federal obligations. I cannot remember how I got that figure but I would have not used it if it was not correct. Depending on the amount invested this could be a good chunk of a deduction on state taxes if the % amount was similar this year. I decided to go with SVARX which has a chunk of IOFIX in it. Thanks for the other fund info. Much appreciated.

I agree that Fidelity seems to get the 1099 details right, consistently. I've never found a mistake on cost basis and ROC (non-div distrib) accounting, nor on their treatment of wash sales. They don't figure for you the state tax deductions you'd likely get from fed obligations and your state's tax-exempt muni distributions.
The only problem I've had with Fido lately has been four consecutive times they accounted for a specific-shares sale as first in-first out. Every time I called to correct that, I asked them to fix the problem with their programming. Finally, this week, they did.
From reports I used to read when I owned IOFIX, it didn't look like they ever held much if anything in qualifying fed obligations, so I don't think you're missing anything there, @finder. Plus there are quite a few structured credit funds out there, so I doubt you'll miss AlphaCentric if you still want to invest in that category. Newer ones include JASSX and DBLNX.

I did receive my 1099 concerning IOFIX; my shares are held with the transfer agent; not a brokerage.
We receive a Form 2439 (Notice to Shareholder of Undistributed Long-Term Capital Gains) for the same company; one is from the transfer agent and the other one is from the brokerage. Form 2439 from the transfer agent is generally received weeks ahead of the one from the brokerage.

FWIW, I held a different fund through Fidelity where about 5% of the dividends were ROC. I also sold some of the shares in November.
Fidelity handled everything well. It reduced the amount of divs (box 1a) on the 1099 by the ROC amount and reported the ROC in box 3. To my delight it correctly prorated the ROC between the shares sold and the remaining shares and adjusted cost bases of each lot of shares accordingly.
So at least on the Fidelity end, they know what they're doing. They even provided the 1099 on Feb 13th, two days before required. As far as the Alphacentric end is concerned, you'll have to see if some investors in IOFIX have more information.

I wonder whether IOFIX informs brokerages like Fidelity or TD that in 2020 about half of its distributions were not dividends but return of capital (ROC)? When I talked to IOFIX and Fidelity, they said that I should not worry and everything will be properly mentioned in 1099, but I have heard from a friend with an account at TD that this may not be the case.
So I wonder whether anybody received 1099 correctly describing dividends and ROC in the distributions of IOFIX? Any other related experience/comments?

Also, @FD1000 might better explain SVARX (ER around 3%).

This is mainly a fund of funds. In their top 5 holdings they have IOFIX+BDKNX both expense ratio about 1.5%. Then they use leverage, and they still want to make money.
The only explanation that I care about is performance which is after expenses + risk attributes(SD, Max Draw, Sharpe, Sortino, others).
I never invested in SVARX because I do my own trading + going to cash and my performance + SD in the last 3 years is better. My portfolio max loss from any last top was lower than 1%.

I see no cratering like IOFIX !
Stay Safe, Derf

I bought SVARX at firstrade, FWIW. Very happy. My view is that this is a solid fund in normal times but excels in market dislocations, like picking up IOFIX after it cratered.

FWIW....Just a few of my current thoughts about SVARX in relation to my current modest investment in it.
SVARX successfully navigated bond market changes as the pandemic unfolded last year. The pandemic will continue to impact market conditions as vaccines get distributed this year. Perhaps this will bodes well for SVARX's prospects this year.
It makes sense for SVARX to describe its investments based on bond market sector exposures. It invests in more than one fund per sector at any one point in time and as time passes. Describing its investment exposure by sector allows changes in it's investments to be meaningfully expressed through time.
The bond markets are currently bumping along a bottom (unless the Fed alters its policy on negative interest rates). But how long will that last? And, how far and how rapidly might rates rise in the future? It makes sense to be aware that a rate increase may impact leverage expenses. But, how much will any expense increase be per unit rate increase? And, how much will any incremental expense increase reduce the total annual return of SVARX? There is much that is uncertain and that I don't understand here. So, the leverage cost issue is just something I will keep in mind for now.
SVARX has thus far successfully mitigated its investment risks by diversifying its investments, by rapidly entering and exiting individual investment positions (its investment positions can be traded daily), and by rapidly varying its use of leverage. It appears unlikely it will suffer a perfect storm event similar to what IOFIX experienced last year. For example, this chart provides a look at how it varied its investment exposure during a recent two year period.

SVARX does a lot of trading of funds. Per their 11/30/20 Monthly Strategy Focus update the portfolio allocation was 86.45% on 10/31 and 178.08% as of 11/30 with the note "Can contain derivatives and/or short position". Per the Fact Sheet you linked, the allocation was 148.89% on 12/31.
I initiated an investment on 11/30. It's performance has closely tracked with IOFIX (another investment) since then ( chart ). I suspect SVARX still owns some IOFIX.

I only started following this fund in the last several months.
SVARX is a fund of other fixed income funds. The ER=2.95 is very high, but the results are very good. Several of these funds have ER of 1.5% already. BTW, in 03/2020 the fund lost less than 2% peak to trough. The risk-adjusted performance easily beat VBINX+VWIAX
As of 1/15/2020: (One year SD is from PortVis)
SVARX performance/SD...............1 year=23.4%/6.4.......3 year=10.4% annually/5.4.....5 year=11.4% annually/4.9.
VBINX (60/40) performance/SD.....1 year=23.4%/16.8.....3 year=11.2% annually/11.9...5 year=11.15 annually/9.7.
VWIAX (40/60) performance/SD.....1 year=23.4%/11.55...3 year=7.2% annually/7.7......5 year=8.0% annually/6.3.
When you look at their (site) they do a good job not to mention the fact they invest in other fixed income funds.
Their top funds from M* as of 9/30/2020 are and by now it's probably different :)
IOFIX=special securitized
NHYIX=HY
Recv Nuveen Prf Secs Inc
Pimco Govt Mm Instl
BDKNX=special securitized
Eaton Vance Floating=bank loans
Ishares Tr Pfd Inc S (-10%)
CMOYX=CLMAX=special securitized
The yield is low under 1% for 2020 and about 3-3.5% for 2019 and about 2.5% in 2018.
So, if you are looking for a good risk/reward fund, maybe that's the one. See one year (chart) and change to 3-5.
===================
I'm not sure what the managers of SVARX are doing, but I managed my own portfolio with the following goals: making more than 6% annually, never losing more than 3% from any last top, SD under 3. In the last 3 years, since retirement in 2018, I have used mainly bond funds with several very short term (hours-days) of stocks/ETF/CEFs, usually very concentrated in 2-3 bond OEFs, using momentum and switching between best performing funds but also selling to cash when risk is very high as I did in Q4/2018 and Q1/2020. My portfolio risk-adjusted performance below as of 12/31/2020 are actually even better. Directly from Schwab, you can see below that SD=2.3 for both one and three years. The portfolio never lost more than 1% from any last top during 2018-2020.

Year-end portfolio tinkering.
Me thinks perhaps the market forces the Fed unleashed in March 2020 will continue to play out in 2021 as vaccines get distributed. With that in mind, a couple of "exotic" funds were added to the fund portfolio.
Bond Pot: Added SVARX. Sold PFOAX. Pot includes PTIAX, PONAX, RCTIX, SVARX, IOFIX. IOFIX will probably be eliminated as it continues to recover in 2021 (replace with GIBLX or ?).
Mixed I Pot: Added GBLMX. Sold HBLAX. Pot includes VWINX, GBLMX, DHHIX, PFANX, TRECX.

I've got some PONAX but expenses keep rising and the fund seems to be struggling since the management changes. I have LBNDX on my radard to replace my PONAX. That said, both LBNDX anda GIBLX (better longer term) have really high turnover rates.

Year-end portfolio tinkering.
Me thinks perhaps the market forces the Fed unleashed in March 2020 will continue to play out in 2021 as vaccines get distributed. With that in mind, a couple of "exotic" funds were added to the fund portfolio.
Bond Pot: Added SVARX. Sold PFOAX. Pot includes PTIAX, PONAX, RCTIX, SVARX, IOFIX. IOFIX will probably be eliminated as it continues to recover in 2021 (replace with GIBLX or ?).
Mixed I Pot: Added GBLMX. Sold HBLAX. Pot includes VWINX, GBLMX, DHHIX, PFANX, TRECX.

dtconroe.
I'm OK with VCFIX but the meltdown of over 18% was too much, even PIMIX was down less than that around 11%. I don't put a lot of faith in Schwab bond selections. I think Fidelity is better and free to all investors even if you are not a client, right now their selected Multi list(link) is as follows:PTIAX, HSNAX, BMSAX, DINAX, JHFIX (PONAX/PIMIX used to be on this list for years). Fidelity always promote their funds as selected but I disregard it until I verify their superiority and in most cases I can find better choices.
I think funds like TSIIX,PTIAX are more of a hold than VCFIX.
As usual, I don't trust any fund/managers, volatility can show up any time and I hope not to be there.
wxman, GIBLX is still doing well in its category at one month=2.2% and 3 months=1.4% This is still in the top 15% in its M* category. For most investors who are looking for a ballast, performance and longer term hold, it's a great fund.
For a much smaller group of investors like me, who rely more on bonds for higher performance and use momentum successfully, I hardly ever use Core and Core Plus funds. I would not recommend this for most investors.
Junkster, I stayed away from IOFIX for several months after the crash, I made most of my money after that with HY munis. I wanted to see more calm and was glad the Fed actions worked. I sure missed a lot of performance from the bottom but I also missed all the meltdown in March of 2020 (documented in this thread). Every Saturday I write down my portfolio performance for the last week and YTD. I can't complain too much when I'm up 18% in 2020, only one week loss at -0.3%, 5 weeks at zero and the rest are all up.

Great work FD, I wish I could say the same for my portfolio...but happy I'm up a bit. Been about 47% cash all this year. On the other hand, you could have stayed in ANBEX (one of your choices) and been up over 17% YTD while you did nothing but sip wine and coffee!

Talk about the hackneyed “ different strokes for different folks”. The sole purpose of my bond email group in April was the recapture of value play in the beaten down mortgage funds. This was the result of the Black Swan liquidity meltdown. Our selection basis was focusing on the ones who had the WORST peak to trough. So throughout the spring and summer our three main players were BDKAX, IOFIX, and SEMPX - the funds that had the most recapture value. Then eventually based on performance came down to almost solely IOFIX. But basically you could have used any of the many bond categories that were impacted by the March meltdown such as junk corporates, junk munis, and even many investment grades areas.
Can’t recall his name but one prescient market analyst was spot on when he said in late March/early April this would be a credit story/rally recapture of value play. This recapture of value play has been the steadiest, most persistent rise with nary a down day I have ever seen since my first bond trade in January 1991. Just when you think you have seen it all, along comes this one of a kind rebound. There was a similar credit rebound - and in many cases a greater one percentage wise - among almost all bond categories in 2009. But it hasn’t had the trend persistency exhibited by the mortgage funds.
Edit: By the way, something I haven’t mentioned here before but in the past month Alphacentric (IOFIX) has finally begun cracking down on in and out traders via a lifetime ban - or at least the ones they deem disruptive to the fund, And they give you no warning notice either - just the ban. It is about time although I would have preferred a 1% or 2% short term redemption fee.

FD: "I'm OK with VCFIX but the meltdown of over 18% was too much, even PIMIX was down less than that around 11%. I don't put a lot of faith in Schwab bond selections."
We all look at criteria a bit differently in our analysis of bond oef selections. I calculated peak to trough losses in the March crash, and determined that IOFIX had a peak to trough loss of 41%, SEMMX a peak to trough loss of 24.5%, PUCZX a peak to trough loss of 16.8%, VCFIX a peak to trough loss of 16%, JMSIX a peak to trough loss of 14.8%, and PIMIX had a peak to trough loss of 12.8%. If I were looking only at peak to trough losses, I would definitely avoid IOFIX and SEMMX, of the other remaining funds PIMIX looks like the best choice. But I also look at how volatile the rebound performance is after the trough period, and funds like PIMIX and PUCZX, were very choppy and not smooth at all.
VCFIX peak to trough loss is troublesome, but its performance after the trough loss, has been one of the smoothest of all these funds. I am not all "comfortable" with VCFIX as a "safe" choice now, but it shows some positive, low risk, low volatile after crash performance. It is just a fund worth considering, but everyone has to be comfortable with the criteria they have adopted. I am not recommending VCFIX to anyone, so everyone has to look at it from the perspective of their investing approach. You and I both got criticized significantly after the March crash because we did not do a good job of telling others that we were doing a lot of selling of the funds mentioned above, and as a result I will not tell anyone what I am investing in any longer. I only mentioned VCFIX as a fund worth looking at again based on Schwab recommendations and the smooth rebound performance pattern of VCFIX

dtconroe.
I'm OK with VCFIX but the meltdown of over 18% was too much, even PIMIX was down less than that around 11%. I don't put a lot of faith in Schwab bond selections. I think Fidelity is better and free to all investors even if you are not a client, right now their selected Multi list(link) is as follows:PTIAX, HSNAX, BMSAX, DINAX, JHFIX (PONAX/PIMIX used to be on this list for years). Fidelity always promote their funds as selected but I disregard it until I verify their superiority and in most cases I can find better choices.
I think funds like TSIIX,PTIAX are more of a hold than VCFIX.
As usual, I don't trust any fund/managers, volatility can show up any time and I hope not to be there.
wxman, GIBLX is still doing well in its category at one month=2.2% and 3 months=1.4% This is still in the top 15% in its M* category. For most investors who are looking for a ballast, performance and longer term hold, it's a great fund.
For a much smaller group of investors like me, who rely more on bonds for higher performance and use momentum successfully, I hardly ever use Core and Core Plus funds. I would not recommend this for most investors.
Junkster, I stayed away from IOFIX for several months after the crash, I made most of my money after that with HY munis. I wanted to see more calm and was glad the Fed actions worked. I sure missed a lot of performance from the bottom but I also missed all the meltdown in March of 2020 (documented in this thread). Every Saturday I write down my portfolio performance for the last week and YTD. I can't complain too much when I'm up 18% in 2020, only one week loss at -0.3%, 5 weeks at zero and the rest are all up.

FD: "But I understand what you do and it suits your style"
I did quite a bit of trading this year, but limited my trading to more risk averse trades, consistent with my rather conservative Retirement objectives--bought GIBLX in a trade this year and was very pleased with its performance until it cooled off. I hope to return to my preferred investing approach for the remainder of 2020 and 2021--trying to select solid bond oefs, that I hope to hold for longer periods. IOFIX and SEMMX may be good for traders, but they would not fit my more risk averse fund selection criteria. I am trusting that VCFIX will return to its lower risk days going forward, but that is just my optimistic projection, based on what I have seen from it in the last 6 months. Schwab's embracing of it in their Select Fund lists, is reassuring to me and my approach to fund selection. I wish you continued success with your trading and look forward to following how that is working out for you.