Additional rules for 2012 Form 8949 on wash sales came out February 28, 2013. If you need help on Form 8949, Schedule D or Form 1099-B consider calling us for a free phone consult. (910) 399-2705. Our virtual office can serve you wherever you live.
Investment CPAs rejoiced at IRS Form 8949’s introduction, wink. But Form 8949, Sales and Other Dispositions of Capital Assets, is just a re-tooling of Schedule D-1, which now rests in the IRS cemetery. Form 8949 integrates with Schedule D to report Capital Gains from information on Form 1099-B.
New rules for reporting wash sales on Form 8949 for 2012 tax returns came out February 13, 2013. For your convenience I cut and pasted the IRS blurb on these new rules at the bottom of this post.
Wash Sales
The IRS often revises their forms as new issues emerge. Form 8949 CPAs had problems reporting wash sales when Form 1099-B showed an incorrect amount of non-deductible loss. Wash sales occur when you sell stocks and bonds at a loss, and, purchase the same stock just before or after the sale. Of course there are lots of IRS wrinkles, so consult with your investment CPA if your transaction get complex. Wash sale issues include:
- Non deductible losses.
- Basis adjustment to the newly purchased stock.
- Holding period.
If you understand the IRS rules, you can sometimes proactively structure the transaction to avoid wash sale pitfalls. When I re-calculate a wash sale, I send supplemental documentation with your tax return showing why the original figures on Form 1099-B were wrong and how I arrived at the correct number.
“Information from your broker’s Form 1099-B flows to Schedule D and then summarized on Form 8949.”
- Gary Bode, Form 8949 CPA
The real change is Form 1099-B
The fundamental change in this process? Requiring brokerage firms to track the purchase costs of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc. and cross correlate them to sales for the current tax year. This is another example of the IRS requiring costly compliance, from someone else, to increase their own efficiency. But streamlining the process makes it easier for tax return preparation. From experience with Form 1099-B, Schedule D and Form 8949, my perception is the IRS accepts the Form 1099-B information as gospel for “covered” transaction and concentrates on “non-covered” transaction when they look for fraud. In 2013, lingering problems exist:
- For investments purchased too far back to have accurate records.
- For stocks that split in the past.
- For investors who switched brokerage houses over the years.
Capital Gains remain the same even though Schedule D looks different
- You still pay capital gains from investments sold at a profit.
- You still try to use capital losses to offset taxable income.
- You still aggregate capital gains and losses by the short and long-term designations.
- Information now just passes through to Form 8949.
We’re a CPA firm with a virtual office to serve clients outside of our Wilmington NC geographical base. The virtual office adds greater convenience for local clients as well. Of course, we deal with Form 1099-B Schedule D and Form 8949 routinely. For a free phone consult, please call (910) 399-2705.
Here is the summary of the new rules for wash sales on Form 8949, cut and pasted from their website.
If you receive a Form 1099-B (or substitute statement) showing an incorrect amount of a nondeductible loss in a wash sale transaction (box 5), enter the correct amount of the disallowed loss as a positive number in column (g) of Part I or II of Form 8949 with the appropriate box checked. Enter “W” in column (f). Complete the remaining columns. If the amount of the disallowed loss is less than the amount shown on Form 1099-B (or substitute statement), attach a statement explaining the difference. If no part of the loss is a nondeductible loss from a wash sale transaction, enter -0- in column (g).
Hi Mr. Bode, I came on your website after struggling for 3 days trying to get an understanding of how to make the correct entry of the sale of a 2nd home we owned but never moved into. I have filed returns in the past manually, but would rather use the programs available for the ease of e-file. The programs, TaxAct and TurboTax handle everything correctly except the entry for the sale of the 2nd home. I sold our main home and a 2nd home both in 2012. I received a 1099S on both transactions reporting gross proceeds to the IRS. The 2nd home was in AZ and the main home was in MS. 1st question: are the 1099S’s that I received from the title co’s handling the closings only sent to the IRS or are they also sent to the state where the home is located? 2nd question: The gain on the main home was excluded because of the $500,000.00 exemption and the 2nd home was sold at a loss. How do the states where the homes were sold know that these sales did not result in a taxable gain? Also, if I have no taxable income in the states where I sold these homes am I required to file a return in these states?
Both programs handled the entry for the main home correctly. Both homes are reported on Form 8949 with the main home using Codes E&H in column f resulting in no gain ($0) reported in column h. TaxAct and Turbo Tax handle the reporting of the sale of the 2nd home incorrectly. Turbo Tax asks to enter net proceeds as the selling proceeds instead of the gross proceeds submitted on the 1099S and uses Code L resulting in a non-deductible loss ($0) in column h which gives the correct entry on Sch D, but would probably generate a letter from the IRS due to a mismatch on the proceeds. TaxAct does not allow for the use of multiple codes and using code L alone results in a capital gain as there is no way to enter the selling expenses. Using Code E alone generates an incorrect addition to Sch D. To get a correct entry in TaxAct on form 8949 and Sch D, I have to impute a number into the cost basis (cost basis + selling expenses). Code L is required as this is a non deductible capital loss. Neither TacAct or Turbo Tax were of any help in resoving this entry problem for the 2nd home. Can I do my return manually and enter the transaction for the 2nd home using Codes E&L and enter the selling expenses in column g as the adjustment amount, then I can report gross proceeds which match the 1099S, resulting in a non deductible loss ($0) reported in column h. If these are correct entries into form 8949, then $0 is carried over to Sch D, column h as a gain/loss resulting in a correct capital loss carry forward number to 2013. IRS instructions state that more than one code can be used in column f. Gross proceeds were reported in each 1099S in Box 2 requiring me to input the selling expenses as an adjustment to show the correct gain/loss for each transaction.
I may have to file my returns manually if I am not supposed to impute the number into the cost basis on form 8949 for the 2nd house to arrive at the correct tax and carry forward capital loss and use one of the programs. I need your help to confirm my understanding of the above questions.
Sorry for this long post and allowing me to impose on your time, Thank you in advance. Donn
OK Don, I don’t think the States get a copy of Form 1099-S, or at least I’ve never come across a case like that. Most States require you to file a tax reurn if you have taxable sources from that State. Many States just pickup info from the Federal return Hope that helps. May the software’s support center can help with the program’s logistics?