Robinhood Loss

[SensibleandHourly]

Good evening, Community, 

My client played around with investing in Robinhood this past year --- all short-term trades, basis reported to the IRS and at the end an $11 loss. Looking over the plethora of transactions necessary to achieve this small loss, I'm wondering if the full report needs to be submitted to the IRS? Or can just the synopsis be submitted on 1099B? 

Thanks a million! Dawn. 

Btw, the total value of the account is approximately 12k. 

[IRonMaN]

As long as they reported basis to the IRS, just enter the totals- nothing else needs to be sent with the return.

[BobKamman]

There's that Box A, Box B, Box C, Box D sort -- sounds like it's all short-term "covered," which means the basis is reported --but then often with  characters like that they get into publicly-traded partnerships (PTPs) and as soon as you finish the return, they show up with a K-1.  Or they will bring you a K-1 and once you finish entering it, you notice it's for their IRA.

Not that it matters, but your client probably wasn't investing in Robinhood (although they did go public last year), but with Robinhood, just another discount broker but with better online marketing skills.  

[SensibleandHourly]

Yes, it is short-term covered, and yes, investing through Robinhood not IN Robinhood. The form is asking for an acquired date and sold date, yet the totals embrace a plethora of sales and I'm not sure how to get around it for the specific dates per trade. It sure seems like alot of work for such a small loss. 😉 

[BobKamman]

Open a 1099-B worksheet from the Schedule D page -- at the top is a place to show the Box A and Box D totals.  If this doesn't work, it's because I don't have one in front of me, but someone else will correct me.

[PATAX]

@SensibleandHourly just had the same thing. A million short-term sales. Many wash sales. The wannabe Wall Street Genius ended up losing about the same amount as your client. If they spent that much time actually working, instead of flushing money down the toilet, while trying to be the Wolf of Wall Street, then they would be better off. Also make sure you charge for your time involved. Don't do it for free. If they don't like it, let them $%#@ off. Just my opinion.

[SensibleandHourly]

Thank you! Found it, totally makes sense. Now I realize though that I have a wash sale. So, it looks like this: Total Proceeds: 4117.20. Total Cost: 4156.86. Total Wash Sale Losses: 27.96. Total Gain/Loss: -11.70. This is an educational opportunity for the client, right? 😉 

[acuny · Accepted solution]

Of course, you could just do an import of the data. Five minutes on the spreadsheet to check the numbers and no other data entry. Works fine for me and saves a TON of time. Import > Tax Import > Import Client Data from Scanned PDF - read over the instructions the first time to make sure you understand how it works. Though, if your scan is crooked or otherwise sketchy, might not work so well. But, a downloaded PDF works near-perfectly.

[SensibleandHourly]

I do intend to fully charge for my time. I also wonder if many of those wash sales occur simply because they are trying to figure out the platform ....... one wrong click and oops, they've sold. Now to get back in....... 😉 

[SensibleandHourly]

Thank you for those details. I'm not great at imports, but in the case, probably worth giving it a try. Glad to know it is truly do-able.