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Strategies & Market Trends : Income Taxes and Record Keeping ( tax ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ira Player who wrote (473)	1/16/1998 8:08:00 PM
From: Joseph	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5810

I have what might perhaps be a frequently asked question about tax reporting. Why is it that brokers report only stock sales and not the corresponding buys to the IRS? If brokers do not report the buys, how can the IRS figure out the actual capital gains tax incurred in the buy and sell? Doesn't that leave the IRS to rely solely on "good faith" reporting by individuals, and rely on random audits of suspicious returns to keep people in line? Personally, I wish brokers would just report everything to the IRS, so that everything is clear on my 1099s form and I do not have to worry about possible mistakes in figuring out the cost basis of things like mutual funds etc. when filling out the Schedule D. Joseph