All of my data supplied by Penson Financial Services is missing the cost basis for my transactions - it only has the 'sale' information; it's missing the 'purchase' information! Is anyone else having a problem with the tax information provided by Penson Financial (the broker that TOS uses)? I had TurboTax import my data from Penson Financial Group. It showed an enormous profit. TurboTax was missing all of the cost basis for my trades. I pulled the data directly from Penson, in the form of the printouts they sent me (the amended ones that were sent 2/15/11). Those Penson records match the ones on TurboTax. All of the cost basis is missing - it only has the sales proceeds! I started manually correcting by going back to the TOS transactions, but this is labor intensive - I did this thinking it was only a couple of transactions - this was before I realized it was for ALL TRANSACTIONS!
I have also tried to obtain the tax information directly from my TOS platform. I go to Monitor->Account Statement->Tax Tools, which launches a window where you can specify the start date and end date. This is the only location I've found for taxes. Anyway, the most recent start date on the 'from:' field is for 10/01/09....nothing at all for the year 2010. Anyone else having these problems with TOS?
total sales from 1099B-your total PnL for year=basis cost.(or "purchase" cost,like you call it) this how i file my taxes for more than a decade. one line. when you mean tax info-exactly which forms you are talking about? 2011 1099B for example shouldn't have any basis costs.
Bob, Sorry if I wasn't clear. The Penson documents only have the 'Sale' net price, which is the number of shares multiplied by the cost per share, plus commission. So that part is OK. However, there is no 'Buy' information at all, only 'Sale'. So it's not reporting any transaction information - the buy followed by the sale for long positions. In the case of shorts, it says 'short sale' but the corresponding buy to close it is also missing. Hope that's clear, and thanks for your assistance. JavaBen
do you have 1099B? do you know your total pnL number for year on Schedule D form? www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1099b.pdf
Bob11, I do have the 1099B. And I have found that the 'purchases' are in a different section, so I was mistaken when I said that it was missing. The forms sent by Penson has 1099-DIV, 1099-INT, 1099-B and 1099-MISC. The 1099-B section has profit or (loss) but everything in that section is '0.00'. If this is the way it is supposed to work, then OK, but I've still got a problem, and it must be either with me ;0) and my understanding, or with TOS then. But I've been using TOS since 2004 and haven't had these tax issues before. As noted above, there isn't any tax info from TOS for 2010 on my TOS platform - nothing more recent for the 'Tax Tools' section then 10/1/09 - 12/31/09 - nothing at all for 2010. I can view the transactions for all of 2010 within the trade history, but there's nothing available to download to plug into anything. Thanks again. JavaBen
I don't use Penson, but here is the scoop in general... By law, the broker only has to report the sale side of the transaction, so what your broker is doing is perfectly legal. This means the trader/investor has to find a way to keep track of all buy side data to match it up with the sell side data being reported on the 1099. Some folks use software to import all the buys/sells, but a little "clean-up" is always in order for certain types of transactions. Starting with the 2011 tax year, brokers will also have to report the buy side (cost basis). The IRS hopes that this additional broker reporting will help then nab folks who make "mistakes" reporting the net profit/loss for each transaction. Many brokers will provide supplemental P/L style reporting that helps in preparing tax return info. Sometimes this supplemental data will be mailed to you or it is available online if your broker provides it.
what about your total PnL number for year? do you have it? if you do-then (like i said before)-calculating the basis costs should be piece of cake if you don't have it-then you have a problem. try to contact TOS or Pension and ask them about this issue. i'm with IB,they do provide Schedule D with all trades along with PnL for each trade and total PnL for both long and short term cap. gain\loss.
Bob111, I'm missing something here. It's my understanding that I have to have the basis for each transaction. I do have the profit and loss, but it's my understanding that I have to enter in each transaction. TurboTax shows each transaction it obtained from Penson, and is requesting the cost basis for each of these. I have a LOT of transactions, way too many to enter by hand. It sounds like you are saying I just need to post the profit and loss, but it's my understanding that I have to enter each transaction. What is your understanding - that I do need to enter each transaction, including the basis, or not? Thanks, JavaBen
Stinkyfelix, Just saw your post - appreciated it. I am working my way through this, and am in agreement with what you are saying regarding Penson. It's also my understanding that I need to establish the basis for each transaction, which is what TurboTax is requiring - without it, it treats the sales as having a $0.00 cost, and gosh - wish I was that successful! TOS says they have a tax tool that is available to assist with this. However, it doesn't appear to be online right now. I also can't download any 2010 from their site into .csv files - nothing for 2010 shows up. So looks like I'm stuck until I can get some insight from TOS as to where their tax tool is at and the 2010 tax info. Am heading to Charleston SC for a month, and wanted to wrap this up before I left this week. Thanks again, JavaBen