another question about taxes

I received my tax forms from Etrade today. All the forms show are my opening positions and that value. What is not shown is how much I actually made/lost in year 2005.

why can't they make things simple?

I know I made about $4000 daytraing stocks in year 2005, but that information is not shown. However, that is exactly the information required by the IRS- ie my gain or loss for the year.

question: how do you guys deal with this? and how do you find the value of your gain/loss for the year from the info they provided.

islands

 

another example:

I just checked my tax form on the IB website, It says I have gross sales proceeds of 48575.40

ok very good.

however I lost about $2500 trading futures in 2005.

so my question is, why don't they make things simple, and just show my gain/loss for the year? why is not my gain/loss for the year shown on my 1099? the only value shown is 48575.40

how do you guys find the valus of your gain/loss? I need an exact figure for my taxes, and not just the approximate figure I remember in my head.

islands

 

add up the sells and subtract the buys and bingo you have it.

 

i use a spreadsheet and keep records. there are programs out there that do it easier than that also. depends on how many trades you are doing.

 

quicken...doesn't get any easier

 

where do you get the sells number?

that's my whole point. there is only ONE NUMBER on the 1099.

 

even with quicken you have to enter values.

I guess you are just promoting quicken, because you didn't answer my questions.

 

the 1099 is the sells. you will have to go in the ib website and get the buys.

 

you download the trades from your broker and it automatically enters and classifies your data...

jeesss...don't be such a whiner...

 

it always one number-proceeds. same number irs will recieve and they have to match it with your report.

all your purchases(entrys) minus proceeds(exits)=your PL