Stock trading question (tax related)

[Argo]

This thread reminded me that I'm gonna have to do my taxes soon. I started my investment in February and over time I sold some of one stock, bought more of the other. To simplify, I invested 6k, then went on the margin up to 12k, then slowly started closing the margin by adding cash to my account. When the margin was only 2k I sold some stocks to close the margin completely.

Now, when doing my taxes, do I need to report income on every "sale" I made? What if I used money from that sale to buy another stock? Would ameritrade be able to help me with that?

 

[Passions]

it's income!

 

[Argo]

Originally posted by: Passions
it's income!

I understand that. But which part of it? Do I need to calculate income/loss on every sale I made this year (over 10).

 

[ElFenix]

you have to report every sale, iirc. short term capital gains is what you're looking at. if you used the money to buy another stock you then have that much in basis (post tax dollars, essentially) in that new stock.

 

[Argo]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
you have to report every sale, iirc. short term capital gains is what you're looking at. if you used the money to buy another stock you then have that much in basis (post tax dollars, essentially) in that new stock.

That is what I was afraid off, because in my case it gets really complicated. Here's an example:

Bought stock A.
Bought stock B.
Bought more of stock A at a different price.
Sold some of stock B.
Bought stock C.
Bought more of stock B.
Sold some of stock A.
Bought stock D.

You get the idea. Good think I have one stock where I lost over 900 and there are very little chances it will recover. I might sell that stock for tax purposes.

 

[richardycc]

Originally posted by: Argo

Originally posted by: Passions
it's income!

I understand that. But which part of it? Do I need to calculate income/loss on every sale I made this year (over 10).

you are complainting over 10 transactions? I had over 150 trades last year. I sorta cut down to about 40trades from my regular account and do most of my trades from my IRA acct to avoid doing the taxes.

 

[Argo]

Originally posted by: richardycc

Originally posted by: Argo

Originally posted by: Passions
it's income!

I understand that. But which part of it? Do I need to calculate income/loss on every sale I made this year (over 10).

you are complainting over 10 transactions? I had over 150 trades last year. I sorta cut down to about 40trades from my regular account and do most of my trades from my IRA acct to avoid doing the taxes.

Are there any tools that help you calculate taxes? Somewhere where I'd enter transactions and it would spit out tax information.

 

[richardycc]

Originally posted by: Argo

Originally posted by: richardycc

Originally posted by: Argo

Originally posted by: Passions
it's income!

I understand that. But which part of it? Do I need to calculate income/loss on every sale I made this year (over 10).

you are complainting over 10 transactions? I had over 150 trades last year. I sorta cut down to about 40trades from my regular account and do most of my trades from my IRA acct to avoid doing the taxes.

Are there any tools that help you calculate taxes? Somewhere where I'd enter transactions and it would spit out tax information.

yes and no, ameritrade has a tools to do the taxes for, gainkeeper or something, but I was too cheap to pay for that, so I did it all by excel, took me like a week, to make matter worst I was buying and selling a lot of the same stock(ELN), so I had to keep track of the buy/sell dates, making sure FIFO, calculate my cost basis, use the lost to add into the new holding, watch out for wash sales, etc.

 

[tikwanleap]

Originally posted by: Argo

Originally posted by: ElFenix
you have to report every sale, iirc. short term capital gains is what you're looking at. if you used the money to buy another stock you then have that much in basis (post tax dollars, essentially) in that new stock.

That is what I was afraid off, because in my case it gets really complicated. Here's an example:

Bought stock A.
Bought stock B.
Bought more of stock A at a different price.
Sold some of stock B.
Bought stock C.
Bought more of stock B.
Sold some of stock A.
Bought stock D.

You get the idea. Good think I have one stock where I lost over 900 and there are very little chances it will recover. I might sell that stock for tax purposes.

If I remember correctly, you only have to worry about when you sold your stocks. In this case you sold stocks only two times.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: tikwanleap

Originally posted by: Argo

Originally posted by: ElFenix
you have to report every sale, iirc. short term capital gains is what you're looking at. if you used the money to buy another stock you then have that much in basis (post tax dollars, essentially) in that new stock.

That is what I was afraid off, because in my case it gets really complicated. Here's an example:

Bought stock A.
Bought stock B.
Bought more of stock A at a different price.
Sold some of stock B.
Bought stock C.
Bought more of stock B.
Sold some of stock A.
Bought stock D.

You get the idea. Good think I have one stock where I lost over 900 and there are very little chances it will recover. I might sell that stock for tax purposes.

If I remember correctly, you only have to worry about when you sold your stocks. In this case you sold stocks only two times.

Normally true, you report profit or loss when you sell, based on your cost basis. But if you sell then re-buy the same stock you need to read up on the "wash sale" rules richardycc mentioned.