Reportable Transactions?

transactions so that a human can understand it?

tax reduction; presumably nothing you can buy at Etrade would be a reportable transaction; but I am not certain of that.

Uh - 'Reportable transactions' are transactions that must be reported.

Are you perchance asking about 'Covered Transactions'? They are new this year and a source of confusion.

Don EA in Upstate NY

IRS form 8886 and its instructions cover this.

It does seem that they pertain to investments not likely to be made by mere mortals.

We are speaking of trades done a a stock brokerage right?

As I understand it, reportable transactions, meaning reportable to the IRS by the broker, include most trades taxpayers make but not all.

Some trades not reportable by the broker to the IRS include options trades, some OID amounts, and principal payments on REITs and CMOs.

But the taxpayer is still supposed to report these to the IRS.

Covred or noncovered, I believe, refers to the broker reporting basis to the IRS, which has to be done for most equity stock acquired in

Funds are not covered in 2011.

Well, that is what I am referring to; but those instructions might just as well have been written in Swedish. I am 99.99% certain I don't have any, but would like to be 100% sure.

with taxes, you can never be 100% sure.

As I understand it, reportable transactions, meaning reportable to the IRS by the broker, include most trades taxpayers make but not all.

Some trades not reportable by the broker to the IRS include options trades, some OID amounts, and principal payments on REITs and CMOs. ~~~~~~~~~~~ Almost all brokerage sales must be reported on Form 1099-B, but a detailed listing may not be submitted by the broker to the IRS.

I see a lot of brokerage statements and, although the broker provides the client with the cost as well as the sales value, the broker often does NOT report all of this on a transaction-by-transaction basis to the IRS--and will include a statement to that effect somewhere in the "small print." These are "uncovered" transactions.

A "covered" transaction, however, is a transaction for which the broker MUST report both cost and sales figures. In future years, more and more transacitons will be considered "covered."