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

To: Ron Chamberlain who wrote (1510)	11/25/1998 9:34:00 AM
From: WallStBum	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5810

Some here may accuse me of sounding like a broken record (gg), but go get yourself a copy of Quicken. The 99 version just came out...should run you $50-60 dollars. You get up on Friday morning when the rest of the world is shopping, pour yourself a cup of coffee, and then enter every transaction. Why? First, your brokers are NOT required to report your gains and losses to you at the end of the year, although some have started to do this. You may want to inquire of them. But even if they do, they boldface tell you that their figures may not be accurate. Also if you trade one or two stocks frequently and want to "manage" your gains and losses by designating lots, Quicken allows this and, in fact, prompts you to tell it which lot(s) you're selling. If you think you may have any wash sales, then you simply MUST keep separate track of this. Additionally the 1099's that your brokers send to the IRS at the end of the year with a cc to you only report sales proceeds. YOU are required to accurately report gains and losses to the IRS on Schedule D. My advice is to do this even if it seems daunting. I'm sure after you enter the first month, the rest will go fast. If you just want quick and dirty you could easily create an Excel spreadsheet to calculate gains and losses. One of our resident experts does this. After all is said and done, I myself export all my trades out of Quicken into Excel, separate my trades into short-term and long-term gains and losses and then attach the printout as a Statement attachment to Schedule D. I usually have a couple hundred trades though, I don't know how many you've had this year. Hope that helps. dax

To: Ron Chamberlain who wrote (1510)	11/25/1998 4:18:00 PM
From: Colin Cody	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5810

Ron, Definitely do the Quicken/Excel work yourself BEFORE burning up $$$ talking with your CPA. Grab a copy of I.R.S. Form 1040, Schedule D to see the column format to use. There's a couple INCOME TAX BBs on S.I. where we discuss this as well as tax implications of electing "trader status" and electing "market to market." Read a good number of these posts before seeing your CPA. Colin

To: Ron Chamberlain who wrote (1510)	11/25/1998 8:13:00 PM
From: Investor2	Respond to of 5810

I agree with the two previous responses. Definitely do not wait for anything. Get on the problem NOW. The longer you wait, the harder it will become. Good luck, I2 P.S. If the $10,000 loss doesn't convince you to quit trading for "a living," keeping the tax records and filing the taxes might.