2023 8949 IRS Tax Form Released

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.

2022 8949 IRS Tax Form Released

We just released the 2022 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 2022, 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.

EquityStat and Taxes

It’s that dreaded time of year – tax time. EquityStat’s portfolio manager has several tools to help investors with their taxes.

If you sold any shares last year, you can use EquityStat to generate IRS Form 8949.  IRS Form 8949 is a form that shows your short-term  and long-term capital gains on any investment sale.  EquityStat will automatically calculate these capital gains.  It will then generate a PDF of Form 8949 with all needed information that the IRS requires.  You can then give this form to your tax preparer when you are preparing your taxes.  To generate IRS Form 8949, click the Tools menu and then choose the Generate Form 8949 menuitem.

Use EquityStat To Print IRS Form 8949
IRS Form 8949 Example

Another tool to help you with your taxes is the ability to export your investment’s transactions to a spreadsheet. To export your transactions, click the Tools menu and then choose the Export Transactions menuitem. When you export your transactions, you will get a spreadsheet showing each transaction for the investment including the type of transaction it is (e.g. Buy, Sell, Dividend, etc). With this information, your tax preparer can calculate your taxable capital-gains and taxable dividends for all of your investments.

2016 8949 IRS Tax Form Released

We just released the 2016 8949 IRS tax forms.  IRS Form 8949 is a form that reports your short and long term gains for any sold investments in the tax year.  You can give Form 8949 to your tax preparer which assists in preparing Schedule D on your tax return.  To generate Form 8949 click the Tools menu and choose the “Generate Form 8949” menuitem.

Print IRS Form 8949 with EquityStat's Investment Portfolio Manager
IRS Form 8949

2015 8949 IRS Tax Forms Released

We just released the 2015 8949 IRS tax forms. If you have sold any stocks or mutual funds in 2015, then you can generate IRS Form 8949 to calculate your gain or loss on a stock sale. EquityStat will automatically calculate your short-term gains and losses and long-term gains and losses and generate a PDF 8949 form. You can then save or print out this form and give it to your accountant or tax preparer. To generate Form 8949 click the Tools menu and then select the Generate Form 8949 menuitem.

Cost Basis

What is Cost Basis?

Investopedia defines cost basis as:

The original value of an asset for tax purposes (usually the purchase price), adjusted for stock splits, dividends and return of capital distributions. This value is used to determine the capital gain, which is equal to the difference between the asset’s cost basis and the current market value. Also known as “tax basis”.

Why is it important?

The IRS is requiring more and more reporting of your cost basis of your investment.  They also require your report the capital gains/losses of your investments. To calculate your capital gains you need to know your cost basis.

How do you calculate it?

On the surface calculating cost basis sounds easy. Just use the price you paid for your stock. For example, if you purchased a 100 shares of XYZ company for $120 then your cost basis is $120. However, things get complicated if you had 3 for 2 stock split. Also, what if you purchase an additional 50 shares for $90? What if you have a split, reinvest capital gains and purchases in a given year? What is your cost basis? Now things get really complicated.

How EquityStat makes things easier

With EquityStat all you have to do is enter your purchases, splits, capital gains and we will calculate your cost basis. Then when you sell your stock whether all of your shares or just some of your shares, we can easily calculate your gain or loss. You can then generate IRS Form 8949 that will show your cost for each investment you sold in the last year.

TurboTax and Investment Taxes

Do you use TurboTax to calculate your investment gains and losses?  Do you use TurboTax to generate form Schedule D or Form 8949?  If so be aware that TurboTax is now charging extra for these features.

In addition to paying $59.99 for the Deluxe version of Turbo tax, if you want to calculate your investment capital gains or losses from stock, mutual fund or ETF sales you will have to pay an additional $20 or $30.

You can read more about the changes to TurboTax here.

http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-intuits-catastrophic-turbotax-20150118-column.html

If you are looking for an alternative to TurboTax for calculating your capital gains or losses, checkout EquityStat.  With EquityStat you can generate IRS Form 8949 .  Form 8949 is used to report your short and long term capital gains and loses.  Once you enter your purchases and sales of your investments into EquityStat, you can then generate Form 8949 and use this form to fill out your Schedule D Form.

Investments, Taxes, Form 8949, Schedule D

Selling Investments and the IRS

The IRS is requiring more reporting when you sell your investments.  Specifically, they require you to report the investment cost, cost basis in investment terminology, and the gain/loss from the investment sale.  If you purchase 100 shares of a stock and sell 100 shares of the stock, your cost basis is easy to calculate.  Things get more difficult when you purchase shares in different lots.  For example, you purchase 100 shares in 2011, 50 shares in 2012, 200 shares in 2013 and sell 160 shares in 2014.

Form 8949

What is your cost basis in the above scenario?  This is not an easy calculation to do.  To make things even more difficult, you have to report both your short term gains and long term gains to the IRS separately.  Fortunately, EquityStat makes this easy.  EquityStat calculates your cost basis for each investment and can also generate IRS Form 8949 which is a report that shows your gain/loss on each investment sold.  Your tax preparer can then use Form 8949 to create the IRS Schedule D form.

To Generate Form 8949, click the Tools menu at the top of the portfolio and then click the Generate IRS Form 8949. Choose your tax year and EquityStat will generate the report showing both your short term and long term gain/loss on each investment you sold during the tax year.