A Stock Mystery

[JG EA]

A client gives me her statements that incllude buys. I save these in case she sells. This year she sold all her IBM. I looked back and I have two purchases in 2006 of 100 shares and 200 shares. Then for 2008 she bought two more blocks of 100 each.Total 500. She sold 300 later in the year. She says she has none left. Yet there were no sales in 2006 or 2007 of IBM.

Another mystery is what happened the the Big Charts website. It is very hard to find the historical prices for me now. I did see on Yahoo that the last split was in 99 and I didn't see any merging.....

Any ideas?

[Bill Tubbs]

Give

Did she give/donate any shares? Or transfer them out to a different account?

[S T]

Was there

Was there a reverse split? That would decrease her shares. Maybe try the IBM Shareholders Investor website.

Sandy

[Gene V]

Another mystery is what happened the the Big Charts website. It is very hard to find the historical prices for me now. I did see on Yahoo that the last split was in 99 and I didn't see any merging.....

Any ideas?

Is this what your're looking for--this is the web site I use for historical quote

http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/historical/

[erchess]

Am confused

1. I thought that starting this year the brokerage had to supply basis.

2. In my practice the clients keep up with their papers and their information and they or their agents must spoon feed me all the relevant facts. I will dig for tax law but never for facts. If they need me to help them dig I will for an additional hourly fee but for every hour I spend on that they are going to both pay me and work or at least sit at my side. I thought everyone did things this way.

3. If she needs you to keep up with her paperwork I wouldn't trust her assertion that she sold all she had. I would want to see the monthly statement that shows the sale to check her holdings. I don't at all mean that I think she would lie to you but some otherwise relatively well functioning people can no more keep keep track of what investments they own than I can play professional sports.

[DonPriebe]

There's a great day comming ...

1. I thought that starting this year the brokerage had to supply basis.

No, that starts in 2011 for stocks. And then only for stocks where both the buy and sell dates are in 2011 or later. Mutual funds in 2012, other investments (options?) in 2013.

Only the part about 1099-B not being required until Feb 15 kicked in this year.

[AJsTax]

I wish!!

2. In my practice the clients keep up with their papers and their information and they or their agents must spoon feed me all the relevant facts. I will dig for tax law but never for facts. If they need me to help them dig I will for an additional hourly fee but for every hour I spend on that they are going to both pay me and work or at least sit at my side. I thought everyone did things this way.

We spend a lot of time calling brokers and doing spreadsheets on basis of stocks. Many clients just have no clue on how to do this. That is just part of the business of providing tax preparation services. I also call cities frequently to verify the amount of estimated tax credits for clients that cant remember. Saves a lot time from not having to fix the returns later or explain to them why the city changed it.
I do not want a client in my office while I am trying to do that kind of work. Costs too much time.

[WhiteOleander]

A great deal of my clients are elderly. I try to keep the copies of their brokerage stmts that show buys each year. They don't know what's going on in their accts. If I can look at prior year stmts and get the basis, it saves me time and them frustration. It really is easier in the long run. I enjoy helping them. Each year they are a little less on top of things. So, this is a "service" I can give them.

[FEDUKE404]

Probably jjust confused

A client gives me her statements that include buys. I save these in case she sells. This year she sold all her IBM. I looked back and I have two purchases in 2006 of 100 shares and 200 shares. Then for 2008 she bought two more blocks of 100 each.Total 500. She sold 300 later in the year. She says she has none left. Yet there were no sales in 2006 or 2007 of IBM.

I think your client is confused....

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=IBM&t=5y&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=

No IBM splits since 2:1 in May of 1999 as you noted.

Either she sold the original 300, or never bought any more IBM post 2006. A call to her broker should settle things. Most full service brokers provide "position" and "gain/loss" statements to clients already.

Another approach is to look at her 2008 (and earlier!) dividends, which can give you an accurate idea of how many IBM shares were in the account at the time.

FE

[oceanlovin'ea]

on statements

Most of the brokerage statements I get now have the basis on them. It is a little further back in the report but it is there. Occasionally one will be missing.

The other situation is if they just sell an individual stock and don't work with a brokerage house. Then they have to come up with basis. I had one like that this year. He had to come back 3 times with statements for the last 20 years.

Linda

[JG EA]

Thank you to all of you.

Sandy: Was there a reverse split? That would decrease her shares. Maybe try the IBM Shareholders Investor website.

That what I was thinking, but I could only find the 99 split. This was confirmed by FEDUKE404.

Another approach is to look at her 2008 (and earlier!) dividends, which can give you an accurate idea of how many IBM shares were in the account at the time.

Of course! I will look on Monday. Thanks for this idea.
Thanks!

So the only answer is what was suggested - she sold the first 300 and still has the newest 200.

Thanks Gene V - that was the page I was looking for. I was on another page and went to another page. It was late... that is my excuse this time.

[erchess]

We spend a lot of time calling brokers and doing spreadsheets on basis of stocks. Many clients just have no clue on how to do this. That is just part of the business of providing tax preparation services. I also call cities frequently to verify the amount of estimated tax credits for clients that cant remember. Saves a lot time from not having to fix the returns later or explain to them why the city changed it.
I do not want a client in my office while I am trying to do that kind of work. Costs too much time.

How do you get the broker to talk to you when your mutual client is not there to request that he or she do so?

[S T]

I ask my client

I usually will ask my client to call their broker and add me to the list of contacts. Most brokers are willing to provide me with any information that I need to prepare the tax returns, I have only encountered a few brokers that were affronted by it, probably afraid of what I might say to the client about their services.

Some of my clients have submitted the papers to the brokerage house to have their files tagged to automatically send me copies of their year end statements or any corrections, and allow me to call the broker with any questions regarding cost basis, etc.

Really, shows you how much the taxpayer really doesn't know about their investments and transactions.

Sandy

[Larmil]

How do you get the broker to talk to you when your mutual client is not there to request that he or she do so?

Good point. Brokers are regulated like we are by the privacy act. I suggest a disclosure statement similar to the one we use to allow the broker to disclose our mutual client's info to us.

[thomtax]

2. In my practice the clients keep up with their papers and their information and they or their agents must spoon feed me all the relevant facts. I will dig for tax law but never for facts. If they need me to help them dig I will for an additional hourly fee but for every hour I spend on that they are going to both pay me and work or at least sit at my side. I thought everyone did things this way.

No disrepect intended, but if you are unwilling to look for facts, it does not appear as if you offer much to the client in the way of service. I look at it as if my clients come to me for help and service. If I am only willing to plug numbers into a computer program, without offering help when needed, there is no service to cause them to want to use me in the future.. I obviously have a different type of clientle.

If this works for you, all the more power to you.

LT