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To: Mandalou who wrote (27865)	11/5/1999 8:01:00 PM
From: Ted M	Respond to of 40688

Mandalou, here's what I did, and no complaints came back: First, I had 2 brokers in 1998. Each sent me a summary of purchases and sales on separate sheets for the year. I created an excel spreadsheet in the format of the information required on Schedule D. Each sale was given a number, going chronologiclly. I then put that same number on the appropriate line on the summary sheets (both purchase and sale) sent from the brokers. In a few cases the purchase happened prior to 1/1/98 so I found the transaction sheet for the purchase and numbered it. The excel sheet was broken down by broker to show that sales proceeds for that broker matched the sales proceeds on the summary from the broker. Of course, short term and long term should be kept separately also. In several cases the were multiple purchases to match a sale. In those cases they all went under one number for the sale, and multiple lines to split out the purchases. The whole process took a couple of hours for some 75 sales, so it wasn't so bad. I sent the IRS the excel speadsheet, the broker summaries of purchases and sales, and pre 1998 purchase transactions numbered for a 1998 sale. In all about 10 pages. No guarantees but it worked ok for me. Good luck. Ted

To: Mandalou who wrote (27865)	11/5/1999 8:33:00 PM
From: Stan	Respond to of 40688

Mandalou, The Federal government passed the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980 and amended in 1995. It's purpose is to: "Minimize the paperwork burden for individuals, small businesses, educational and nonprofit institutions, Federal contractors, State, local and tribal governments, and other persons resulting from the collection of information by or for the Federal Government." It is largely because of this act, that they raised the taxable capital gain threshold for the sale of a home. It was determined to be too impractical for people to retain records of capital improvements to their home for many years that would have affected the basis in the home. As to stocks, the federal government gets a copy of the form 1099b from your brokerage as to the sales you made in a tax year. That form is proof of sales as far as they are concerned. The government does not require the brokerages to send the stock purchase information to them. You provide that from your records. Not every brokerage sends out the year end summary of the purchases to their clients either, although most do. If that is the case, you should at least keep the confirmation sheets of purchases, since you must be able to show, for example, the date of purchase of a stock on your schedule D to prove long or short term treatment in an audit. Some brokerages arrange their summaries in Schedule D format -- The stock, the date bought, the date sold, sale price and basis -- a real value. Schedule D is one of the most complicated ones to get done, and a good tax program is worth the expense. Speaking of which, if you have hundreds of stock sales to report, then call the software company to see if they handle an unlimited number of entries on the schedule D. I am not sure that all of them do. You certainly have a lot of work to do if you have hundreds of sales of stocks. Last year, I had 77 sales to report on the schedule D. That's 77 X 5 entries. I am so glad I had software. Remember that capital gain is short term if it is held less than a year and a day. One more thing about paperwork: Since no one knows what the Y2K problem is going to affect, keep hard copies of anything that you feel may be disputed later on. Better a little clutter now, then a losing a battle later. Cheers! Stan

To: Mandalou who wrote (27865)	11/6/1999 4:16:00 AM
From: Paganini	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 40688

Bet not use AmeriTrade, they charge $125 for that print out (trade summary). The online listing only go back as far as 3 months. My tax person stated it would not make any difference as long as I knew when and how much (buys and sells). ___ Pag

To: Mandalou who wrote (27865)	11/6/1999 7:48:00 AM
From: TsioKawe	Respond to of 40688

Mandalou. last year I was freaked about how this on-line trading would affect my tax preparation people and how many thousands it would cost to have them dig through it all. Well in short, H&R Block ended up doing it, and my concerns was a small matter to them. Online trading is as common today to these tax preparation accountants as a mortgage deduction was a few years ago. The end of the year forms sent to the individuals are all you need. I forget the form numbers now but that is all they want. our records mean nothing to them as they only report the EOY form. Relax, a couple hundred bucks will take care of it. I have 2 accounts, ETrade Platinum and DLJ direct with easily a 1000+ trades and lo and behold PNLK is my only long <g> Relax its as easy as 1,2,3. TK

To: Mandalou who wrote (27865)	11/6/1999 8:26:00 AM
From: terri acey	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 40688

Mandalou, I also use a tax program. For the last several years I have used TurboTax Deluxe. If you need extra help, go thru the tutorial and it will walk you thru each step. If you are fairly familiar with the tax laws and have all your figures, you can go right to the forms section and fill everything in. If you used it from the previous year, it will bring forward information from the previous year such as depreciation, amortized roth ira conversions (for the capital gains over a 4 yr period), and left over stock losses if you exceeded the allowed amount. It will walk you thru schedule D as well to figure your short term and long term situation. It is under 100 dollars for the deluxe version...I think I paid around 60 last year..