Tax Guru – Ker$tetter Letter

Simplify Schedule D

Some of the most time-consuming tax returns I have prepared have been the ones with several stock market transactions. Since I do charge by the time I spend, these have been extremely expensive for my clients. With the growth of the volume of day trading, this will just be even more trouble next year.

Much of the time is spent sifting through stock broker reports trying to match up both sides of the deals (purchase and sale). There are a few stock brokers that actually put that info in a very easy to follow side by side year-end report. However, most don’t do that simple task.

Both for my clients and anyone else interested in reducing their tax preparation costs, I have prepared this basic Excel spreadsheet that can be used to assemble the data required for Schedule D. It can be filled in on the computer and then sent to your tax preparer via email or printed out and completed by hand.

Unfortunately, most tax preparation programs (including my Lacerte) don’t have the capability to import the data directly from the Excel file; so we will still have to key it in. However, having the data this well organized will save your tax preparer huge amounts of time.

KMK