Ted, thanks for your response regarding wash sales. You said:
The issue of the wash sale rule, not being able to buy back a stock you took off as a loss until 31 days have come and gone
This is not really correct. You can buy back a stock you have just sold for a loss. The issue is how you treat it when you file Sched D. A simplistic stating of the wash sale rule is that if you have a loss in a position you close and you buy back that same stock within the window 30 days before to 30 days after you closed the losing position, then you report the losing position, label it as a wash sale on the next line on which you also negate the loss, and then add the loss to the basis of the new position (thus deferring rather than losing the loss).
The reason I brought up the wash sale issue in the context of Becky's story is that daytraders typically have lots of wash sales and this is probably their biggest tax nightmare from a bookkeeping point of view. And since her story was largely about the tax bookkeeping burden for daytraders, it seemed to me she missed the biggest issue.
Furthermore, the tax programs like TaxCut and TurboTax do not handle wash sales thus are of little value to daytraders.
Personally, I record my trades in Excel as I make them. At the end of the year, a little sorting, a little data massaging, and a little formatting and I can print attachment forms that look nearly identical to Sched D forms. |
