2025 IRS Form 8949: How to Quickly Generate Your Capital Gains Report with EquityStat

Posted on | by equitystat

If you sold stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, or other investments during 2025, you’ll need to report your gains and losses on IRS Form 8949 when filing your 2025 tax return. To make this process faster and more accurate, EquityStat now provides an automated Form 8949 generator.

What Is IRS Form 8949?

IRS Form 8949 is the official document used to report:

  • Short‑term capital gains and losses (assets held for one year or less)
  • Long‑term capital gains and losses (assets held for more than one year)

If you sold any taxable investment in 2025 — including stocks, mutual funds, ETFs — this form will help your tax preparer produce your tax return.

Generate tax form 8949 with EquityStat

Generate Your 2024 Form 8949 Automatically in EquityStat

EquityStat’s updated tools now support instant creation of the 2025 Form 8949, helping you avoid manual calculations and spreadsheet errors.

How to Generate Form 8949 in EquityStat

  1. Open the Tools menu in your EquityStat dashboard
  2. Select Generate IRS Form 8949
  3. Choose the tax year you want to generate Form 8949 for
  4. Click Generate on the Form 8949 page

Within seconds, EquityStat calculates:

  • Short‑term gains and losses
  • Long‑term gains and losses
  • Adjusted cost basis
  • Totals required for Schedule D

A PDF formatted exactly to IRS specifications is created and ready for download.

What You Can Do With Your Generated Form 8949

Your completed PDF can be:

  • Uploaded directly into your tax software
  • Sent to your accountant or tax preparer
  • Printed and included with a paper tax return

This ensures your capital‑gains reporting is complete, accurate, and compliant.

Why Investors Choose EquityStat for Form 8949

EquityStat is built for both high‑volume traders and long‑term investors who want reliable tax reporting. Key benefits include:

  • Accurate cost‑basis tracking
  • Automatic gain/loss calculations
  • Fast PDF generation
  • Support for stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds
  • Ideal for 2025 tax‑filing deadlines

Who Should Generate Form 8949?

You should create Form 8949 if you:

  • Sold stocks or ETFs in 2025
  • Sold mutual funds or index funds
  • Need a clean, IRS‑ready summary of gains and losses

If you had any investment sales in 2025, EquityStat’s Form 8949 generator saves time and reduces the risk of filing errors.

Example: What Your Form 8949 Output Includes

Your generated PDF contains:

  • Part I: Short‑term transactions
  • Part II: Long‑term transactions
  • Totals for gains and losses
  • IRS‑compliant formatting and layout

This ensures your tax return is complete and ready for submission.

‘Tis the Season For Dividends and Capital Gains

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As year-end dividends and capital gains distributions arrive, you can easily track them using EquityStat’s portfolio manager.

With EquityStat’s powerful stock portfolio manager, handling these critical financial events across all your brokerage accounts is seamless and intuitive.

How to Record Distributions

Add dividend, short-term capital gains and long-term capital gains to your EquityStat stock portfolio.
Transaction Panel Example

1. Select the investment from your portfolio list.
2. In the Transaction panel, click the Add button
3. Use the Activity dropdown to select the distribution type:
a. Cash Payments – Select Dividend, Short-Term Capital Gain, or Long-Term Capital Gain
b. Reinvestements – Select the “Re-Invested” version of these options if the funds were used to purchase more shares.
4. Enter the distribution details and click Add.

Add dividend, short-term capital gains and long-term capital gains to your EquityStat stock portfolio.
Example of entering a short-term capital gain.

How to View Your Dividend Totals
Knowledge is power. EquityStat helps you get a complete picture of dividends:

  • Customize Your View: Instantly see the Total Dividends (including capital gains) paid by each investment. Simply access the Options menu at the top and select Change Columns to add this key metric to your main portfolio display.
  • Analyze Your Entire Account: Get big-picture insights on your total income over time. The Analyze Portfolio page, found under the Tools menu, provides comprehensive, graphical performance metrics for your entire account or specific portfolios, helping you make better-informed decisions.

2024 8949 IRS Tax Form Released

Posted on | by equitystat

How to Generate Your Capital Gains and Losses Report

If you sold stocks or other investments in 2024, the IRS requires you to report your short‑term and long‑term capital gains and losses using IRS Form 8949. EquityStat now offers a fast, accurate way to generate this form automatically—perfect for tax filing season.

What is IRS Form 8949

IRS Form 8949 is used to report:

  • Short‑term capital gains/losses (assets held 1 year or less)
  • Long‑term capital gains/losses (assets held more than 1 year)

If you sold stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, crypto, or other investments in 2024, you must include this form with your tax return.

Generate the 2024 IRS Form 8949

EquityStat supports automatic creation of the 2023 Form 8949, making tax prep easier and more accurate.

How to Generate Form 8949 in EquityStat

  1. Open the Tools menu.
  2. Select Generate Form 8949.
  3. On the Form 8949 page, click Generate.
  4. EquityStat instantly calculates:
    • Short‑term gains/losses
    • Long‑term gains/losses
  5. A PDF version of IRS Form 8949 is created for download.

This PDF is formatted exactly as required by the IRS.

What You Can Do With the Generated Form 8949

  • Send it directly to your tax preparer
  • Upload it to your tax software
  • Print and include it with your paper tax return

Why Use EquityStat for Form 8949?

  • Accurate capital gains calculations
  • Automatic cost‑basis tracking
  • Fast PDF generation
  • Ideal for active traders and long‑term investors
  • Perfect for 2023 tax filing deadlines

Who Should Generate Form 8949?

You should generate this form if you:

  • Sold stocks in 2023
  • Sold ETFs or mutual funds
  • Sold crypto assets
  • Need a clean, IRS‑ready gains/losses report

If you had any investment sales in 2024, EquityStat’s Form 8949 generator saves time and reduces errors.

Example: IRS Form 8949 Output

Generate IRS Form 8949 to track your investment gains and losses for your taxes.
Form 8949 Example

Your generated PDF includes:

  • Short‑term transactions (Part I)
  • Long‑term transactions (Part II)
  • Totals for gains and losses
  • IRS‑compliant formatting

This ensures your tax filing is complete and accurate.

Start Your 2024 Form 8949 Now

If you sold investments in 2023 and need to calculate your gains or losses, use EquityStat’s Generate Form 8949 tool today.

Best and Worst Stocks of 2024

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The stock market ended 2024 near record highs. The Nasdaq Composite rallied by 30%, while the S&P 500 climbed over 24%. The blue-chip Dow Jones rose a more modest 13%. The S&P 500 clinched 57 records, making it one of the top five years for most all-time highs recorded by the benchmark index.

Technology and Communications Services were the standout sectors, thanks to the artificial intelligence boom. Big Tech stocks, including Nvidia, Tesla, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Meta, posted significant gains. Nvidia, in particular, rallied more than 175%

Here are the best performing stocks of 2024.

Best performing stocks of 2024

Here are the worst performing stocks of 2024.

Worst performing stocks of 2024

You can read more about the best and worst performing stocks here and here.

Note, if you want to share your portfolio in image format like you see above, go to here.

How to Import Your Yahoo Finance Portfolio Into EquityStat

Posted on | by equitystat

If you are looking for an alternative to Yahoo Finance Portfolio, you can easily import your Yahoo Finance Portfolio into EquityStat.  Recently, we enhanced our import feature to work with Yahoo portfolios.

To import your Yahoo portfolio into EquityStat, just follow these easy steps.

Step #1
Login to your Yahoo Finance Portfolio and click on a portfolio with holdings.

Yahoo Finance Portfolio example

Step #2
On page that displays your holdings, click the down arrow icon in the upper right hand corner.

You will then be prompted to either Print the portfolio or Save the portfolio as a CSV. Choose the Save option. Your CSV file will then be saved to your Downloads folder on your computer.

Step #3
Login to your EquityStat account and click the New menu at the top and choose Import Transactions from the drop down menu. Choose the portfolio you want to import into. Next, choose the file you saved in Step #2.

If you have any questions, contact our support by clicking here.


EquityStat Named a Top Tool for DIY Investors by Kiplinger Magazine

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A Trusted Recommendation for Individual Investors

Kiplinger Magazine Names EquityStat A Great Tool For DIY Investors

Kiplinger Magazine — one of the most respected names in personal finance — recently recognized EquityStat as one of the top tools for DIY stock investors. To build their list, Kiplinger consulted seasoned investors and long‑time Wall Street observers, selecting only platforms that deliver real value, clarity, and actionable insights.

Their verdict: EquityStat stands out as a powerful, easy‑to‑use portfolio tracking solution for everyday investors.

Why Kiplinger Highlighted EquityStat

In their review of top investing tools, Kiplinger emphasized several strengths that make EquityStat especially useful for self‑directed investors:

1. Fast, Simple Portfolio Setup

Kiplinger noted that EquityStat makes it incredibly easy to build a stock‑tracking portfolio. Investors can add holdings quickly, organize multiple portfolios, and start analyzing performance in minutes — without the clutter or complexity found in many other tools.

2. Robust Performance Metrics

According to Kiplinger’s analysis, EquityStat provides a wide range of performance indicators that help investors understand how their stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds are truly performing. These include:

  • Daily gain/loss
  • Total return
  • Annualized return
  • Realized gains
  • Cost basis
  • Long‑term performance trends

These metrics give DIY investors the clarity they need to make informed decisions.

3. Clean, Intuitive Interface

Kiplinger also praised EquityStat’s clean, streamlined design. The interface avoids unnecessary distractions and focuses on what matters most: clear data, easy navigation, and fast access to performance insights.

Why This Recognition Matters

Being named one of Kiplinger’s top tools reinforces what many investors already know: EquityStat is a reliable, transparent, and user‑friendly platform for tracking investments.

For individual investors — especially those managing their own portfolios without an advisor — having a tool that is both powerful and easy to use is essential. Kiplinger’s endorsement highlights EquityStat’s ability to deliver exactly that.

You can read the article here.

https://www.kiplinger.com/investing/great-tools-for-diy-stock-investors

Alphabet/Google Dividend

Posted on | by equitystat

On June 17, 2024, Alphabet (GOOGL/GOOG) will pay a $0.20 dividend per share. This is the first dividend paid by Alphabet in the history of the company.

With EquityStat’s stock portfolio manager, it is easy to add and track your dividends.

To add a dividend to your Alphabet investment, first select this investment in your investment panel. Then in the transactions panel, click the Add button to add a new transaction.

Add dividends to your EquityStat portfolio.
Alphabet dividend transactions example

Next, select either Dividend or Re-invested Dividend from the Activity drop down. If you didn’t re-invest the dividend, just enter the dividend amount in the Total field.

Add Alphabet dividend to your EquityStat portfolio.
Add Alphabet dividend transaction example

If you re-invested your Alphabet dividend, choose Re-invested Dividend from the Activity drop down. Enter the number of shares you purchased in the Quantity field and enter the price you paid for the shares.

Add a re-invested Alphabet dividend.
Add a Re-invested Dividend example

Once you have entered your dividend information, click the Add button to save the dividend transaction to your portfolio.

You can follow many of these same steps if you have a different investment that pays a dividend.

NVIDIA Stock Split in EquityStat

Posted on | by equitystat

Nvidia’s (NVDA) stock is set to split on June 7th, 2024. It is a 10 for 1 stock split. So, for each share you own before the split, you get 10 shares.

If you owned Nvidia (NVDA) stock before the split and you are tracking this stock in your EquityStat portfolio, how do you record the split?

First, select the Nvidia stock in your investment panel. Next, in the transaction panel, click the Add button to add a new transaction. In the Activity drop down, choose a “Split” transaction. Enter how many shares were split, in this case it is a 10 for 1 split, and click the Add button to save the transaction.

EquityStat split Nvidia stock.
Nvidia stock split transaction

When the split transaction is saved, each transaction will be adjusted to reflect this split. The number of shares will be increased ten times and the price will be divided by ten.

For example, if you had the following transactions before the split.

Nvidia transactions before the split in EquityStat stock portfolio tracker.
Nvidia transactions before the split.

After the split your transactions will look like this.

Nvidia transactions after the split in EquityStat stock portfolio tracker.
Nvidia after the split

Notice that before the split there were two buy transactions. After the split, the number of shares has increased 10 times and the price has been reduced by a factor of ten. For example, the initial buy on 07/21/2021 was for a quantity of 200 shares. After the split, the purchased quantity is 2000 shares. The price the shares were bought on 07/21/2021 was $186.12. After the split, the price paid was $18.61. These adjustments are all automatically done when you enter the split transaction.

If you have other stocks that have split, you can use the same steps to record your split. Just make sure that you enter the correct split information.

New Mobile Feature – Investment Symbol Search

Posted on | by equitystat

We have recently added a new feature to the mobile device user interface. When adding a new investment to your portfolio, you can easily lookup the investment to add. In the past when you added an investment to your portfolio, you needed to know the investment symbol. Now, in the Symbol field you can start typing, which will display all symbols and investment names that matches the text as you type. With this new feature the mobile phone user interface works similar to the desktop user interface.

Lookup a symbol when adding a new investment to your EquityStat stock portfolio on a mobile device.
Example of the new symbol lookup when adding a new investment on a mobile device.

For example, as seen in the screen shot above, if you start typing “A” in the symbol field you will get a list of symbols and investments that match this text. This will make finding your investment symbol much easier.

To choose a symbol, select the line that has the investment you want to add to your portfolio.

If you don’t find your symbol listed, just type in the symbol and tab to the next field. The symbol will then be checked to make sure it is a valid symbol. If it is not a valid symbol for an investment, you will get an “Invalid Symbol” message.

2023 8949 IRS Tax Form Released

Posted on | by equitystat

We just released the 2023 8949 IRS tax form.  IRS Form 8949 is a form that reports your short and long term gains/losses for any sold investments in the tax year.  If you had any investment sales in 2023, this form is a great way to easily calculate your losses/gains from this investment sale.

To generate Form 8949 click the Tools menu and choose the “Generate Form 8949” menuitem. On the “Generate Form 8949” page, click the Generate button. Your short-term and long-term gains/losses on any investment sales will then be calculated. Then a pdf format of IRS Form 8949 will be generated. This form has a short-term gains/losses section and long-term gains/losses section, which is what you need when filing your taxes.

Calculate your gains/losses on any stock sale with EquityStat and generate IRS Form 8949.
IRS Form 8949 Example

Once this pdf form is generated, you can then send this pdf file to your tax preparer or print a copy of it.