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Stock transactions make your taxes very not boring. Pub 550 (https://www.irs.gov/publications/p550 https://www.irs.gov/publications/p550) is one of the most co

Stock transactions make your taxes very not boring. Pub 550 (https://www.irs.gov/publications/p550 https://www.irs.gov/publications/p550) is one of the most complicated areas of personal income tax.

lern_too_spel 8y ago
It is boring for the IRS's computers, which calculate everything the IRS needs to know automatically from the data sent by my brokerage firm.
- nightski 8y ago
  Right but you are very OT at this point. The parent was arguing that for the vast majority of people taxes are boring and do not involve 1099-INTs or taxes on numerous stock trades. While true, these people have the easiest time calculating their required tax. No one ever was trying to say that IRS doing your taxes for you would never make things easier.
  - hundt 8y ago
    42M out of 150M tax returns filed in 2015 had taxable interest (1099-INT) https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-individual-income-tax-returns-line-item-estimates https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-individual-inco...
    - scott_s 8y ago
      We're in the weeds here, but 1099-INT are also used for interest on money-market savings accounts - my guess is a lot of that 42 million filers do not have stock trades. I think W2s and 1099-INTs for money-market savings accounts still qualify as quite boring. However, I still claim that even such boring filers would benefit from the IRS sending out "yea/nay" forms. It removes a lot of the stress and mystery from the process.
      - hundt 8y ago
        You don't have to guess :) About 26.5 million had losses or gains from sale of property (of which stock trades is the simplest case). Stock trades are also reported to the IRS, although the basis often isn't.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
  - lern_too_spel 8y ago
    I'm saying that many people have tax returns that are not easy to file but should be. My stock transactions are just one example. As soon as return free filing becomes an option, intermediaries will pop up to automate IRS reporting for many other taxable transactions (think Square for plumbers and business credit cards for automatic business expense deductions). Even those who have simple returns are wasting half an hour a year.
- usaar333 8y ago
  I suppose it matters what type of activity you have. For most people doing equity-only trades in a single brokerage, the IRS can handle things themselves. There are ways to make things exceedingly complex: 1. Have activity cross-brokerage (e.g. cross-account wash sales) as no entity cleanly tracks this. 2. Have straddles (e.g. put options on equity) which are under complex rules and AFAIK brokerages don't handle correctly (often failing to even identify them). 3. Constructively sale stock using options/shorting as rules are ambiguous and brokers don't implement the entirety of it.

Stock transactions make your taxes very not boring. Pub 550 (https://www.irs.gov/publications/p550 https://www.irs.gov/publications/p550) is one of the most complicated areas of personal income tax.

lern_too_spel 8y ago

It is boring for the IRS's computers, which calculate everything the IRS needs to know automatically from the data sent by my brokerage firm.

nightski 8y ago
Right but you are very OT at this point. The parent was arguing that for the vast majority of people taxes are boring and do not involve 1099-INTs or taxes on numerous stock trades. While true, these people have the easiest time calculating their required tax. No one ever was trying to say that IRS doing your taxes for you would never make things easier.
- hundt 8y ago
  42M out of 150M tax returns filed in 2015 had taxable interest (1099-INT) https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-individual-income-tax-returns-line-item-estimates https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-individual-inco...
  - scott_s 8y ago
    We're in the weeds here, but 1099-INT are also used for interest on money-market savings accounts - my guess is a lot of that 42 million filers do not have stock trades. I think W2s and 1099-INTs for money-market savings accounts still qualify as quite boring. However, I still claim that even such boring filers would benefit from the IRS sending out "yea/nay" forms. It removes a lot of the stress and mystery from the process.
    - hundt 8y ago
      You don't have to guess :) About 26.5 million had losses or gains from sale of property (of which stock trades is the simplest case). Stock trades are also reported to the IRS, although the basis often isn't.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- lern_too_spel 8y ago
  I'm saying that many people have tax returns that are not easy to file but should be. My stock transactions are just one example. As soon as return free filing becomes an option, intermediaries will pop up to automate IRS reporting for many other taxable transactions (think Square for plumbers and business credit cards for automatic business expense deductions). Even those who have simple returns are wasting half an hour a year.
usaar333 8y ago
I suppose it matters what type of activity you have. For most people doing equity-only trades in a single brokerage, the IRS can handle things themselves. There are ways to make things exceedingly complex: 1. Have activity cross-brokerage (e.g. cross-account wash sales) as no entity cleanly tracks this. 2. Have straddles (e.g. put options on equity) which are under complex rules and AFAIK brokerages don't handle correctly (often failing to even identify them). 3. Constructively sale stock using options/shorting as rules are ambiguous and brokers don't implement the entirety of it.