Can anyone recommend a reliable stock transaction analysis tax-prep software for day traders which will massage the transaction data reports from Interactive Brokers and put the data in the correct format for US IRS Form "Schedule D". Thank you.
I used to use Amware's TradeKeeper, but they have since switched from supporting their "dataclipper" software to converting the data on their own and charging you per transaction (rip off if you ask me). So I actually just ended up using TradeMatcher, for $34.95 they converted over 25,000 trades I had into a perfectly matched Schedule D, from Interactive Brokers. They are, imo, hands down the way to go if you don't want to spend $500 or if you have a lot of trades like I always do.
I just got Tradelog and it is fantastic.Very easy to use and perfect matching. I have not used anyone else but since I have thousands of trades I consider it well worth the price.The problem I have now is finding a tax software to import my 800 pages of Schedule D into. TurboTax limits it to 10 million "gross proceeds", and I am way over that.
I use Gainskeeper to import my trades from E*Trade. I am using TaxAct online tax preparation software and it is able to import the transactions from Gainskeeper. The only thing I had to fuss with was some incorrect wash sales which showed up when I purchased more than one lot of some stock and then sold it in the same day. Other than this little gotcha, very easy to use.
Just wanted to bump this thread again because just like last year, I decided to use Tradematcher again this year. Again it was $34.95 for the service, and again the guy successfully matched every single one of my trades for the 2008 year (getting a headstart on taxes this time around!). It was impressive because I finally started trading a lot more actively to scalp more, so here are my stats, you can determine for yourselves if his service would work for you but he is superb on customer service. Again, you can check my posts, this is not an ad, just giving you my 2 cents, here are my stats: 2008 Stats: ->Broker: Interactive Brokers ->Data: Downloaded all my monthly data in Tradelog format, he can use that to convert into Excel and then match it all up -># of matched trades: 101745 -># of shares traded: 46,299,004 ->1099-B gross less comm: $550,008,997 Good luck to all in 09...
I have a follow-up question on this... More to do with Bookkeeping than with Taxes. For tax purposes, I download everything from IB into Tradelog and it's pretty easy to generate the report. But I would like to do bookkeeping in QuickBooks also. Importing from IB to QBPro is really a prob. Since I have everything in Tradelog, could I take a shortcut and make only some kind of end-of-month entry in QBPro, that summarize what's detailed in Tradelog. All those bookkeeping software are not made for keeping track of day trades really, they were always geared towards a few long positions. Any ideas?
what wrong with pdf Sch D file from IB? look fine to me. is there is any "specific" format for IRS? never heard of it and never file all trades. proceeds from 1099 minus PnL from sch d= purchase price. put those three in tax return and you are done.i file this way for years. and i talk to owner of big accounting firm the other day-they file it same way. just make sure that you have Sch D, if IRS ask for it. not sure, if they will be happy after receiving my Sch D..it will be few hundred if not few thousands pages..save some trees
Someone else posted something similar a few years ago. They just summarize the activity...don't list every trade.