I stumbled upon this site while trying to find an answer to the question below, so please bear with me (i tried using the search function but got pages of unrelated material).... During the 2007 tax season i opened a small account with Scottrade (only about $1500 and placed one stock option trade (I just bought a handful of a out of the money options, basically just gambling that the underlying company would take off within the next year). The options then became worthless and i just let them expire, and just taking that $1500 loss...my problem is, i never recieved a 1099 tax form for those transactions. I contacted the broker and they said "they do not report option transactions, thus you dont need a 1099". So do I even have to declare those trades (and that loss) on my taxes if i didnt recieve any 1099 (or any tax forms from my broker for that matter)? Any information would be very much apperciated. Thanks!
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p550.pdf Options transactions are spread out over 80 pages but equity options are covered in detail beginning on page 56. There's a nice grid on page 57 that you can use as a guide.