Tax Tools - Thinkorswim

If you are in the stock market, you no doubt haveExercise/Assignment, Expired Worthless or Open at
figured out that the tremendous rise and historicYear End-Index Marked to Market, you should not
plummet over the last few years has greatly affectedhave to take further action. But, there is a second
your taxes in ways that may be beyond yourgroup that covers some possible scenarios that may
comprehension. If you are in the habit of doing yourrequire you to take some manual action in order to
own taxes and are loathe to hire an accountant orresolve. These trades might fall within one of these
professional tax preparer, the thinkorswim taxcategories" Expired Worthless Carryover From Prior
handbook and software may be for you. thinkorswimYear, Closing Purchase Carryover From Prior Year,
is a member of NASD/SIPC, National Association ofClosing Sale Carryover From Prior Year and Unable to
Securities Dealers/Securities Investor ProtectionLocate Closing Action.
Corporation.The tax tool will separate the records into categories
When figuring out how much money you have gainedunder "tabs" along with similar transaction types. You
or lost over the previous tax year, bookkeeping cancan even search for positions with similar stock
be a nightmare. This program provides taxsymbols or OPRA roots. The trade records are then
reconciliation, with data received directly from yoursegregated for carry over from the previous year or
clearing firm and will contain every single transactionheld over to the following year. And, to prevent further
for any given trading account. You have a choice oferror, any records with missing fields will be marked
using the tax tools available within the "accountwith an orange arrow, enabling you to manually insert
statement" tab or your preferred spreadsheetthe required information. Simply double-clicking the
application. Using these records you can generate aappropriate cell allows editing and the edited records
1040, Schedule D and complete Form 6781.are also indicated by turning orange so that they are
The Tax Worksheet within the program refers toeasily recognizable. The edited values are also
each individual transaction either by its trading symbolbold-faced so that you can easily see what fields
or its OPRA code. The system determines the statewere edited and the RESET button will set everything
of each transaction and will even suggest a possibleback to the original data for any single editing session.
way to reconcile any problems or to retrieve missingThere is even an option to delete records, but it is
data. You can edit this file in order to enter it into thepossible to inadvertently mark or unmark a record that
Schedule D and Form 6781. You can also import thisyou wanted to keep or delete. As with all deletion
information into TurboTax or another compatible taxprocesses, use with care.
prep software program.The method is straight forward and user-friendly. Even
The worksheet also has two additional lines, which arethose who have habitually kept their trade information
not required for the Schedule D, but that will help withon cumbersome, but familiar, hand-written or
classification. There is an index and equity status fieldcomputer-generated spreadsheets are finding the
and you can even reclassify manually if you choose tothinkorswim tax tools, tax handbook and software one
put ETFs in this category. The status lines simply helpmore invaluable tool for getting their taxes done
you to understand your data. Once your trades are inaccurately and on time and for making tax season
the right category: Matched Trades, Cash Settledmuch less stressful.