Replies to post #5519 on Investor Help (NO Ihub questions)

[cintrix]

Turbo may allow you to import it from your broker. I have always just put the totals in at the bottom. Keep all your records just in case there's a problem and they question anything but as long as your totals match what is being reported by your broker it shouldn't matter since it is all automated. You have to make sure you place all your totals in the right areas.
Anything under a year will be short term.You can put "various" as the purchase date and put the total under cost. Then put 12/30/19 as the sell date and put that total under gross proceeds.

Over a year - long term: There may be one or two categories. If everything you sold was purchased after 2011 then the broker will have reported your cost basis to the IRS with their numbers. It will say next to each category. You do the same as with the short term putting the totals as noted.
If you have long term that were purchased prior to 2011 there is an additional column for that. They may or may not supply you with the cost basis. But if this is the case, even if they do supply you with the cost basis, it isn't reported to the IRS and your amount doesn't have to match up exactly with what they put there. If they don't give you the cost basis for an old equity it is your responsibility to put the amount in. If you can't find it I guess you could just estimate what you think it was.

So basically in a nutshell: Try and see if you can import everything from your broker right into the program. If you can't or don't want to go that route do what I mentioned above.
You will have either one, two, or three different area's where you will have to insert info:
1. short term gains/losses (under a year)
2. long term where the broker reported cost basis (over a year where anything bought was after 2011)
3. long term where there was cost basis prior to 2011 (broker does not report cost basis to irs, only proceeds)

One other thing. If you have any wash sales there will be another column you must fill out. It will be on your 1099. Don't leave this number out if it appears in your capital gain area. You must enter that amount. They will ask you if there is a number in that box or not.