Heeelp! Stock

[Gene V]

Many large brokerage houses provided consolidated statements that include the detail of the purchases and sales history as needed.

It is easy enough to create an Excel sheet that list description, sales date, purchase date, gross sales price, purchase price, gain/(loss) and days held. One can also add rows at the bottom to total the gross sales price and purchases. With the "sumif()" function one could even add cells to provide the long term and short term gross sales price, cost, and gain/(loss). Then just one can see what is missing.

Afrer filing out the EXcel sheet send a copy along with the tax return or an 8453.

I create an Excel sheet for my own trades during the year, then my software lets me import for schedule D. However, if I have to create one for my client, I just as well input
the information directly into my software program.

[veritas]

Check the brokerage website or fund family

Your client may be able to download the data for import into your tax software.


I understand this is available from American Funds for instance.

[FEDUKE404]

A slight glimmer of hope for you

All the papers I have only have the date of sell and what he sold it for that is ALL. On the 9th page is the total. I have to come up with the total but no date of purchase and how much he bought it for. BIG mess!!! Don't know even short or long. Only my short nerve.

All may not be lost.

All brokerage firms provide what the government needs to meet the Form 1099-B requirements of the sale, but not the Schedule D.

BUT some of the "major" firms frequently send a separate document ("expanded" "additional" etc) which does show the cost basis, purchase date, gain/loss, short/long, etc. You should ask! From experience, I've found you need to be a little careful on things such as cash in lieu events, which are shown on the Form 1099-B but not specifically included in the gain/loss summary. You may have to do some minor tweaking to match the actual Form 1099-B net sale amounts already reported, such as just putting zero cost basis in for the CIL's.

I agree you can now use totals on the e-filed tax return, BUT the IRS still needs copies of the details sent to them in a suitable format. If your client/broker cannot provide you with something that "dots the i's and crosses the t's" to match the IRS format, then just crank up the billable hours and let an administrative person start typing for you!

FE

[Snaggletooth]

One suggested strategy

One of the tactics I use is to let a horrendous tax liability fall out because of the clients' lack of information. I usually get co-operation real quick.

In your situation, I would populate a Schedule D-1 with information from the 1099-B. In situations where he has not provided you decent information, just leave the basis column blank and calculate the tax liability. Then tell him how he can reduce his tax liability by supplying the information that is missing. 70% of the time, this devious tactic works. 20% of the time they pay me a ton of money to figure it out, and maybe another 10% the client gets hacked off and goes somewhere else.

When I do this, I have absolutely no intention of sending the return in this way. Only to bring the client into perspective. I will also disclose to the client my reasons for doing this, as I cannot afford for customers to think I am not "up front."

By the way, for any readers who think this is un-called for, remember, this is EXACTLY what the IRS does with 1099-Bs for unreported Sch D transactions before sending the taxpayer a letter. It works.

[David1980]

One of my most profitable customers was this person trying to trade stock. He kept using the same 6 or so companies too throughout the year, overall made a loss and so many wash sales it would make your head spin.

I was for certain that when he saw the bill he'd **** his pants. Au contraire! He thought it would be more. Yes, this is where you learn more about the person you're doing taxes for. He pulls out an IRS letter for the previous year return as he did it on turbotax and doesn't think he did the Sch. D right. When asked how he did it he said "I didn't do it." Yup, that would be doing it wrong.

In the end he had a loss in both years on his trading, and we prepared an IRS response (basically they just wanted the Sch D so we gave them a Sch D with brief letter.) Ironically the year-old return was much cheaper because he had just started his trading halfway through and had fewer transactions. Just the sheer number of grades caused the IRS letter to look horrificly scary like owing $10,000 on $100,000 of sells, despite the fact it looked like he used only around 5k during the whole thing.

[Bees Knees]

I create an Excel sheet for my own trades during the year, then my software lets me import for schedule D. However, if I have to create one for my client, I just as well input
the information directly into my software program.

That is what I was thinking.

Why spend the time doing an Excel spreadsheet when it would be just as fast to enter the data into the tax software?

[SueBaby]

One of my most profitable customers was this person trying to trade stock. He kept using the same 6 or so companies too throughout the year, overall made a loss and so many wash sales it would make your head spin.

I was for certain that when he saw the bill he'd **** his pants. Au contraire! He thought it would be more. Yes, this is where you learn more about the person you're doing taxes for. He pulls out an IRS letter for the previous year return as he did it on turbotax and doesn't think he did the Sch. D right. When asked how he did it he said "I didn't do it." Yup, that would be doing it wrong.

In the end he had a loss in both years on his trading, and we prepared an IRS response (basically they just wanted the Sch D so we gave them a Sch D with brief letter.) Ironically the year-old return was much cheaper because he had just started his trading halfway through and had fewer transactions. Just the sheer number of grades caused the IRS letter to look horrificly scary like owing $10,000 on $100,000 of sells, despite the fact it looked like he used only around 5k during the whole thing.

I FINALLY got finished with all pages!!!!! The time I spent on it calling gathering info on it plus my work on it plus 2 big sch Cs. I only charged $450. After he got mad about the price I wish I would have stuck with my orignial price $700!
People amaze me. They think me sitting in this electric chair 14-18 hours a day is FUN and FREE!! (or cheap)
Times like this I wish I was working at a library!! I guess I am like Linda F. venting out my fustrations!