Hello,

Last year I sold a few stocks at a loss. I'm getting ready to do my taxes now but my 1099 from TD Ameritrade says that of the stocks I sold last year I had a gain when in fact there was a loss.

Of the three, two of them are listed with an adjusted cost of zero and therefore an adjusted long term gain in the positive.

One of them is shown correctly with what I paid and subsequently lost when I sold it.

I called TD Ameritrade and the customer service rep said that the form was fine and to just report what I paid for them and what they were sold at.

My question is, shouldn't the 1099 list what I paid and what I lost on these stocks? If on my taxes I report that I lost money when TD Ameritrade reports that I had a gain wouldn't this look odd and possibly cause me to get audited?

Thanks,
Josh

Sometimes the Investment Firms do not track the stock basis very well! The only aspect of the Stock Transactions that is certain is the Selling Price and this amount is correctly reported to you and the IRS by TD Ameritrade. But, when it comes to the individual stock's purchase price and date of purchase, the IRS expects that you maintain these records more accurately and the IRS will look at your input data for both the purchase price and purchase acquistion date as being the more accurate data for the stock trades.

Thus, you should not worry about the cost basis be reflected at Zero basis, as what this means is that TD Ameritrade were not able to provide you with this information as either the acquistion date was from a few years ago or maybe perhaps that you transferred your stocks from another Investment Firm.

You should report the basis of the stock trades based on your actual records and ignore the Zero cost basis as per the TD Ameritrade 1099-Consolidated records. Do not worry, as this would not trigger an IRS audit!

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