I'll have to drag out my Schwab papers, but was thinking about stock sales... and how they are reported..
Since the 1040 just has a date & cost basis, how do you report or list multiple buys, and 1 final sale of a stock ? Single line - or - multiple lines for each lot ?
ie -
Cost basis = $12,500 Sell = $20,000
You have a choice of listing each lot separately, allocating half the sales price for each lot, or combining all buys into a single sale transaction so long as all are long term or all are short term. For purchase date enter VARious. And assign that transaction to long or short term as appropriate.
Eventually the broker will have to report these as covered trades, and then I'd suggest you do whatever the broker does.
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