I hesitate to ask this but here goes....

[LPC]

I am looking now at the possibility of buying this software or if that does not work I will just do it by hand I guess. Shouldn't take more than 6 months :?

Double SH@T!! It costs $379.00...

And how much is six months of your time worth?

More to the point, you said you "downloaded" the data, so it must already be in some kind of electronic form. Even if it is PDF or image, it may be possible to convert or OCR the data, get it into a spreadsheet, and then massage the rows and columns to give you the results you want.

I have successfully scanned printed reports and done this sort of thing for different kinds of tax returns with large amounts of data.

At the very least, and if you can view data on a computer screen, you should see if you can copy and paste data into a spreadsheet. You would be surprised how often that sort of thing will work when you least expect it.

[.]

By using the difference between pruchases and sales and disregarding holdings the gain computed is 3M - 2M = 1M (broker fees included in cost to simplify the example).
Adjusting for the holdings gives a gain of 3M - 100K -2M + 50K = 950K.

That's not an "adjustment," that's just the net realized profit for that year arrived at by another method.

There's no "adjustment" necessary when one is considering only the transactions resulting in profits or losses taxable in any particular year.

[ErsatzAnatchist]

Since I don't know much about your history, but I gather you are no longer with the Husband/Tax Protester? Since you are not amending your previous frivolous returns, can you file your "new" returns married, filing separately and avoid all of this day trading BS? Do you need the loss from the day trading to reduce your liability?

Just a few dim-witted, semi-random thoughts (And now I feel like David Merrill).

[gezco]

Have you tried importing the raw data into excel? That normally works.

[gottago]

Sadly, I do not have an Excel spreadsheet program on my computer. I do have Microsoft Works and it has some sort of spreadsheet but I could not make heads or tails of it. I will try to explain where I am at and if anyone has suggestions I would appreciate it.

At this point, I have listed (by hand) all the "buys" (without commission ) and then added up all the commission charges on both the buy and sell sides (they were 9.99--maybe it is different with a margin account?), the sales fees and the interest charged by Ameritrade to the margin account. Adding these brings me to a figure that is the total cost basis for all the stocks bought and sold in 2002. Good news is that the account was opened in May 2002 and all "buys" were "sold" in 2002 except for 4000 shares in one stock that were not sold in 2002. I deducted the "buy" amount for these from the total since there was no corresponding sell.

I have taken the total "sold" amount and added the interest paid to the account by Ameritrade which amounts to the total "gain".

These numbers show a "gain" of about $7200.00 (I don't think he started getting creamed until 2003 but honestly I paid little attention). Since he worked for approximately 2/3 of 2002 at another job but traded regularly for 7 months of the year should I make him a "trader" or an "investor" for IRS purposes? Can I just attach a copy of the detailed (7 pages) account history to the return with a summary of the figures or do I need to document gain/loss on each transaction? The numbers come out the same either way.

Technically, married filing separate would be worse for me because I had most of the income and I am still liable for what he owes anyway. I asked attorney this last year at the beginning and that was his response.

Thanks again to all of your assistance I can not fathom why anyone would do this type of work for a living.

[gottago]

After several hours on the phone and internet today, I have determined that I need to do the Schedule D one transaction at a time--approximately 800 for 2002. The good news is that Gainkeeper will upload all the transactions from the brokerage(s) and prepare the schedule D's as the IRS wants and I can do all the years needed for $139 which seems to be a very reasonable price. Apparently the commissions and other expenses charged are reported on a different form (Schedule C) if you qualify as a "trader".

I am just posting this in case other "similarly situated" people might be in this predicament with day trading, even if they are not reformed TP's.

[webhick]

After several hours on the phone and internet today, I have determined that I need to do the Schedule D one transaction at a time--approximately 800 for 2002. The good news is that Gainkeeper will upload all the transactions from the brokerage(s) and prepare the schedule D's as the IRS wants and I can do all the years needed for $139 which seems to be a very reasonable price. Apparently the commissions and other expenses charged are reported on a different form (Schedule C) if you qualify as a "trader".

I am just posting this in case other "similarly situated" people might be in this predicament with day trading, even if they are not reformed TP's.

Congrats, gottago. It's good to hear that you have viable solution to the problem at hand for all those transactions!

[LPC]

Sadly, I do not have an Excel spreadsheet program on my computer.

You've already found a solution to your Schedule D problem, but for future reference, you can get a Microsoft Office work-alike for free from Sun Systems. It's called "Open Office" and it includes word processing, spread sheet, presentation, and database programs. I have been using it in lieu of MS Office for several months and am quite satisfied with it, although I'm still learning some of the quirks.

See http://www.openoffice.org for details.

[.]

I have taken the total "sold" amount and added the interest paid to the account by Ameritrade which amounts to the total "gain".

I assumed one of the CPAs around here would correct this, but nobody has. The interest earned on cash balances not required to margin trades doesn't affect your capital gain or loss. Interest income is reported on Schedule B and winds up on line 8a on the 1040. Doesn't affect net income from the activity, but they are sticklers for putting stuff on the right line.

There is also virtually no chance that your husband could be considered to be a "trader" for tax purposes. Which isn't a huge deal because the primary benefit of documenting the trades is to demonstrate that a $5 million profit never happened, and instead a loss in 2003 or thereafter of 50K+ occured.

"Trader" status, which he obviously didn't elect or try to maintain, only affects the deductibility of net losses over $3K (per head on the return) per year and the deductibility of "office"-type "trader" expenses, but not much else.

Now, "trader" status (which probably wasn't the case, and which in any case probably isn't provable) would enable the deductibility of the $50K loss immediately, but that's not the point of the returns. The point is to file accurate returns, the side benefit of which is to demonstrate that there was no $5 million gain to tax in the first place, and that the assessed tax was illusory. Which probably places your OIC in a much better light, considering that it might be offering to pay a decent percentage of the tax you really owe, as opposed to some infinitesimal fraction of a tax based upon your failure to file accurately in the first place, which led to automatic assumptions of zero basis and therefore a $5 million gain which never happened.

[gottago]

I can not believe I am saying this but it is all done!!

I wound up getting a friend who is really good with computers to help me download the transactions into an Excel spreadsheet. BTW, the "tryusonline" thing mentioned by jj was the absolute best and cheapest solution to the problem. I was able to generate the Schedule D's for the years in question and import them right into the Turbotax and away it went. I only had to do this for 2 years since the trading volume for the others was low enough that I was just able to input them into Turbotax one at a time. The total cost was $40.00. There were some reverse splits so some stock just "disappeared" and one was "removed from the board" with resulting value of -.01. The tax owed for the years in question went from the millions from the SFRs to $5014 for 1 year and $7200 for the other year. Total capital loss was $42K but since you can only claim $3K per year there is still $27K that I guess will be deducted over the next 9 years.

Thank you everyone for your help and suggestions.

[Nikki]

Now, all you need is to get the revenue agent to sign off, pay the bills, and get back on with your life.

Good luck with all three and keep us posted.

[Imalawman]

See, we don't hate you Gottago.

[Demosthenes]

Good news.

[Famspear]

Gottago, congratulations! Yours, Famspear

[webhick]

Wow, to go from millions owed to $12k...that's... incredible. We need to throw a party or something. And then we can throw another party when the IRS accepts the OIC.

[gottago]

Now, all you need is to get the revenue agent to sign off, pay the bills, and get back on with your life.

Good luck with all three and keep us posted.

I am not sure what the agent will sign off on but the returns were done in connection with a "Collection Due Process Hearing" request requested back in July 06 and not the OIC itself. Apparently you can not have this type of hearing if all returns are not filed. They accepted the amended returns for all years 1997-2005 except 2002 2004 and 2005. I had to do the 2003 one as well due to the stock situation that impacted 2004 and 2005.

If I could pay these amounts, I would. If I sold my house and car it might raise $20K but then of course I would be homeless and walking (not that there is anything wrong with that). Will just have to wait and see.