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Strategies & Market Trends : Shorting stocks: High fliers -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Anaxagoras who wrote (623)	1/5/1999 9:15:00 PM
From: Kip518	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 709

Anaxagoras (who is anything but an expert and does his own taxes with the greatest of fear, trepidation, and uncertainty) Such an admission! When the IRS calls, do you trust Jill to keep your anonymity? ;0} Your advice is probably much better than that I've used for the last several years. I simply append a note stating that the brokers' 1099s include proceeds from short sales not covered during the tax year (think I got that out of tax book at one time), without listing each open short. I've not had any questions raised about that (knock, knock, knock on wood). As to the original question, I've not been in the situation where trade dates & settlement dates cross years but my inclination would be to go with trade dates (as with longs) because the money is already in my account and can be accessed on that date. Also I can't imagine any reason for different rules for the two situations (though, I'm sure if Congress wanted to make a meaningless distinction here, it would).

To: Anaxagoras who wrote (623)	1/6/1999 12:28:00 AM
From: chester lee	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 709

Anax, <<(who is anything but an expert and does his own taxes with the greatest of fear, trepidation, and uncertainty)>> My long time accountant retired two years ago, and I was forced to find another last year. He charged my several hundred dollars, and new I was concern about his rates. This year (per last years agreement) I will do my own taxes on a computerized tax program, and submit to him the final report and package (that I would give to him if he were to do my taxes in its entirety) for comparison. He would point out any errors on my part for me to correct. The review would be a nominal fee ($100??) and greatly alleviate fear, trepidation, and uncertainty on my part. So, do you (or the thread) know of any good tax programs?? chester

To: Anaxagoras who wrote (623)	1/10/1999 10:38:00 PM
From: Q.	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 709

re. what tax year for capital gains: Here's what thestreet.com said today, in its tax column: <<If you are long a stock and you sell it, the trade date is the day that counts for capital gains purposes. .... But if you make a short sale, the settlement date is used for capital gains recording purposes.>> fwiw, thestreet.com consulted somebody at Deloitte & Touche to get that answer. Anyway, I've been doing my capital gains taxes that way, so I'm always glad to see it in print, that I haven't done it wrong.