no4j
45 posts
msg #26542
- Ignore no4j |
5/18/2003 8:09:25 AM
How do you day traders file your stock activity on your Federal Income Tax return? I use Turbo Tax and it requires me to manually enter every equity sell. Seems to me there should be some way of entering a summary without listing each transaction separately. Or at least a tax program that allows such an entry. Help!!!!
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ray_reeves
5 posts
msg #26638
- Ignore ray_reeves |
5/27/2003 8:54:09 PM
I am not a day trader, but make a lot of trades during a year. One way I have found to simplify entering trades for tax purposes that works for my broker, Interactive Brokers, is to down load monthly statements from IB into Quicken 2002 (IB has implemented this in their account management system) and then import the data from Quicken into Turbo Tax. The same can most likely be done for at least some other brokers, but do not know which ones for sure.
Ray
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gruender
101 posts
msg #26643
- Ignore gruender |
5/28/2003 8:49:09 PM
Hi no4j,
A fellow professional day trader has an easy way to do this and so far has not had any problems or questions from the IRS. He takes his monthly statements from his broker and extracts the beginning balance and ending balance for each month and shows the difference (either plus or minus) for each month. He then adds up these 12 numbers and shows the total profit or loss for the year. He only shows 37 numbers (monthly open, monthly close and difference) and the total for the year. On this document he then puts a note stating "Details for all trades are shown in the attached brokerage statements". This seems to work because he begins and ends the year in cash with no stock held going into the next calendar year. I have never tried this myself and instead list hundreds of trades. You can hire a teenager for $10 or $12 an hour and let them do the administrative tasks for you while you focus your time and efforts on making the big bucks.
Good Luck, Joe
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ranbaker
7 posts
msg #26808
- Ignore ranbaker |
6/9/2003 9:49:16 PM
http://www.greencompany.com/Traders/Software.shtml
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rrochon
117 posts
msg #26814
- Ignore rrochon |
6/10/2003 2:27:36 PM
I made a spreadsheet where I use the IRS Schedule D headings, print it out with empty lines, and enter each trade under the proper heading, with pencil. EOM I enter them on the pc and print it out with more empty lines for next month's trades. The end of the year I just delete any trades that are still open, print it out and my accountant attaches my print out to my 1040. Saves him time and me BIG MONEY.
Dick
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no4j
45 posts
msg #26816
- Ignore no4j |
6/10/2003 8:23:02 PM
Thanks to all for the responses. I think what I'll do Dick's spreadsheet idea. I keep my trades in an Access database now so it will be an easy task to export to spreadsheet that looks like the tax form.
Last year I used TurboTax. Had to enter each transaction manually. Never again!
Thank you all
no4j
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adrianf
49 posts
msg #26819
- Ignore adrianf |
6/11/2003 9:25:14 AM
Go to gainskeeper.com
Been using them for 3 years now and they are great.
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