Help! An big error was made on my gain/loss but the brokerage does not want to fix it! Attached imag

Discussion in 'Taxes and Accounting' started by Steven W, Feb 24, 2017.

  1. You or someone else needs to figure out your actual pnl. If you closed everything for a month around year end, the wash sales, of which there no doubt were lots, should net out in the wash so to speak. How big was the 1099 wash sale number in total? Can you give us the total proceeds and basis numbers, roughly as well?

    It's entirely possible the broker flagged a wash sale, disallowed the loss, and then did not properly add the wash sale disallowed loss to the basis of one of your other positions. If this keeps happening, you're basically being taxed on all your profits but not getting to net out any of your losses. It could easily result in your situation of a $110k apparent taxable amount despite only having made $80k net as you say.

    If they did make a mistake and won't fix it, you should figure out the error/difference and list it as a negative number on your 8949 as an adjustment. you'll end up paying taxes on your correct net gain. But first you have to actually figure out the right amount.
     
    #11     Feb 24, 2017
  2. Let me see here and correct me if I am wrong. You started trading last year with approximately $33k in your account and made 30K transaction, which resulted in $80K in trading profit hence $113K in your account balance. If we dice it a little bit more you made approximately 70% profit on $33k account in one year. That is very impressive, I think if I were you, I will take some of the profit and go hire an accountant to do my Taxes.

    Who is your free broker again? Or better yet give me some!!
    :sneaky:
     
    #12     Feb 24, 2017
    VPhantom and athlonmank8 like this.
  3. algofy

    algofy

    Smell test is off here. 7000 pages of a 1099???
     
    #13     Feb 24, 2017
    MoreLeverage likes this.
  4. ET180

    ET180

    I think in this situation, I'd hire an accountant that specializes in this sort of thing. You have a very unusual case.
     
    #14     Feb 24, 2017
  5. Steven W

    Steven W

    Not sure how I can find a specialized accountant. I went to 5 different accountants and they have not been very knowledgeable in this subject
     
    #15     Feb 24, 2017
  6. monee

    monee

    #16     Feb 24, 2017
  7. algofy

    algofy

    Somehow I feel like this is a weird troll thread, the oddly redacted statement looked funny, the number of transactions, flashing the huge % gain.
     
    #17     Feb 24, 2017
  8. First, that's a ~240% return on the $33k, not just 70%. Second, 30k trades won't get you a thousand page 1099 unless the broker is using some hokey format. A few hundred pages maybe, that's what mine runs per active account. Lastly, if I was making 10%/month or whatever those numbers work out to, I would not take a month off at year end just to make the taxes easier!
     
    #18     Feb 24, 2017
    algofy likes this.
  9. comagnum

    comagnum

    Here is a program that works with most brokers, maybe you can ask them about it, it uploads your trades and calculates the trades including wash sales and puts it in a format that you can submit with your schedule D. It works well. You pay $29 for the program - it never expires.

    https://www.investing.com/indices/indices-futures
     
    #19     Feb 24, 2017
  10. garachen

    garachen

    If your paperwork / concern is legit I can ask my accountant if he has time and then refer you to him. My 1099s never match reality. Sure, it sometimes triggers an audit but it's pretty easy to explain.

    My last audit was triggered by a dividend check that was sent to me at the end of December. I received it Jan 3rd and cashed it a few days later. The 1099 I got included the dividend but I'd closed the books for the year so I didn't report it.

    When the auditor called she actually suggested that this was probably the discrepancy. No adjustment was required.

    Still had to go through the whole process but if your records are good it's pretty painless.

    It sounds like you trade enough where errors are going to creep in. That's going to happen. I haven't looked at the 1099s my broker sends for years. There's always something wrong or misclassified. Just keep your own records and go with that.
     
    Last edited: Feb 25, 2017
    #20     Feb 25, 2017
    Occam likes this.