Turbo Tax weak error checking

[joesxm3]

I am going through the printed forms from Turbo Tax and double checking my data entry.

I was surprised to come upon a line where the date acquired was 15 days after the date sold.

You would think that Turbo Tax should catch this sort of data entry error.

Is there some unusual situation where you would sell an asset before you buy it? Some sort of short sale situation?

[fh2000]

Quote:

Originally Posted by joesxm3 I am going through the printed forms from Turbo Tax and double checking my data entry. I was surprised to come upon a line where the date acquired was 15 days after the date sold. You would think that Turbo Tax should catch this sort of data entry error. Is there some unusual situation where you would sell an asset before you buy it? Some sort of short sale situation?

If this is a short trade, then the date sold would be prior to the date bought.

[joesxm3]

Since most people do not sell short, I would think that at least a warning question would be appropriate.

[COcheesehead]

As long as the gain or loss was reported correctly, I don’t think it would really matter.

[djsander]

I had that issue which I didn’t catch and it didn’t seem to affect anything. That was about 3 or 4 years ago.

[fh2000]

Quote:

Originally Posted by COcheesehead As long as the gain or loss was reported correctly, I don’t think it would really matter.

It only matters if the sold date is greater than buy date by one year + 1 day, which would be long term. Otherwise, short term. The tax treatment is different. TT does calculate that accordingly.

But, if you put the sold date earlier than the buy date, you are telling TT it is a short trade. All gains/loses are short team in this case.

As to how many people actually do short trades? Many people are selling puts and selling calls. All of those are short trades. So, whether TT should have a way to inform short traders how to properly put the dates, I think that would annoy all those traders, my self included.

Then again, now I simply import all 1099-Bs to TT so I do not look at those dates anymore.

[COcheesehead]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fh2000 It only matters if the sold date is greater than buy date by one year + 1 day, which would be long term. Otherwise, short term. The tax treatment is different. TT does calculate that accordingly. But, if you put the sold date earlier than the buy date, you are telling TT it is a short trade. All gains/loses are short team in this case. As to how many people actually do short trades? Many people are selling puts and selling calls. All of those are short trades. So, whether TT should have a way to inform short traders how to properly put the dates, I think that would annoy all those traders, my self included. Then again, now I simply import all 1099-Bs to TT so I do not look at those dates anymore.

But if that is the way the import is, which matches the 1099 reported to the IRS, it’s not going to be an issue. It’s a mistake, but if the mistake matches what the IRS is seeing…

[fh2000]

Quote:

Originally Posted by COcheesehead But if that is the way the import is, which matches the 1099 reported to the IRS, it’s not going to be an issue. It’s a mistake, but if the mistake matches what the IRS is seeing…

True, it just means that if you have a long term capital gain, you better double check the dates.

[COcheesehead]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fh2000 True, it just means that if you have a long term capital gain, you better double check the dates.

I agree. I track all income throughout the year to avoid year end surprises, so if something is off, it should jump out.

[joesxm3]

I sold a put and then covered it a seek later. The 1099-B listed the date I sold it as the acquired date and the date I covered as the "sold/disposed" date. I don't have a sold call that was covered to compare to.

[sakowitzm]

I write covered calls often. Sometimes they expire out of the money, but if I want wrap up the position, I'll buy the call back. In that situation, I've sold before I bought.