1099-B...236 pages

[Janitor Bob]

client brings me a 1099-B...It is 236 pages of transactions.  In the end, she only has a gain of $5,700.  I plan on making just 4 entries on the 8949 (as opposed to the thousands detailed on the 1099-B.  However, I do not have the time or ability to scan 236 pages.  Can I just scan the summary page that shows the total gain for the 4 different categories (ST A, ST B, LT A, LT B ) and attach it to the electronically filed return and send a copy of the 1099-B later if requested?

[schirallicpa]

I have done just that in past and have not had any problems.

[mrichman333]

That's what I would do. 

[Kea]

You can enter the totals for ST A (covered) & LT D (covered) directly on the Schedule D.  The detail is only for the non-covered transactions.  (Oh, and, covered transactions that need adjustments such as wash sales).  If they have only a few non-covered transactions, you can just enter those individually.  If too many non-covered, then you may need to send the backup documentation.

 

Good luck.

[ILLMAS]

JB:  How much did you charge just for this transaction?

[JohnH]

$5,600 sounds like a reasonable fee.

[rfassett]

$5,600 sounds like a reasonable fee.

Yep - that would be may fee. And when the client showed up to get the return, I would have bandages on all my typing fingers and have very dark rings around my eyes and tell the client that the e-filed version had to have all of the detail typed in. I like to justify my fee. :)

[Janitor Bob]

I'm charging this elderly client $90 total for her 1040 and OH return.  All she has is this 1099-B, one 1099-R, 1 W-2, and SSA-1099.

[Richcpaman]

I wouldn't attach anything to the return.  The four entries are enough.

 

The IRS already has the 1099-B info.

 

And you are not charging enough.

 

 

Rich

[Richcpaman]

JB:

 

Also, I would wonder why someone would have 236 pages of trades?  Is there "churning" going on in her account?

 

If they netted her $5,700 in Capital gain, and the Int and Divs were $XXX.00  Then how much did the brokerage house earn in fees in doing all those trades?

 

She may have paid a pretty penny for that.  15-20 trades on each page?  230 pages?  That would be 4,100 trades.  At $1, that would be $4,100. At $25 a trade its $102,500.

 

And that is a much larger fee than what she "earned".  And they probably charged her to manage the account as well.

 

I would hope that the accounts had more than a million in assets.  I have one client with 4 "managed" accounts and $2mil, and never had more than 30 pages of trades, and they "wanted" to be aggressive.

 

Something is fishy.

 

Rich

[Janitor Bob]

She is with Curian and, in my opinion, they are churning.  She had 100+ pages of transactions last year and only had $3,000 in gains and they charged her over $1,000 in fees.  I have not looked yet this year, but I assume fees are similar this year.  I told her of my suspected churning last year and advised her to speak to them about it...I stopped short of providing investment advise...although I think she should dump them.

[Janitor Bob]

total account value is only $100,487.40.  She did have $1000 dividends as well.  I will state my "churning" concerns to her again this year...but its up to her to do something about it.

[Margaret CPA in OH]

Interesting - I had 2 clients in the past couple of years with Curian with the same issues. I also mentioned churning. One client vigorously defended the advisor, the other changed quickly. I truly believe in both cases it was churning with great results for the advisor, not so great for the client.

[Abby Normal]

These accounts are usually managed accounts for a flat % quarterly fee. There is no per transaction fee, but they also rarely seem to make a lot of money. Sometimes the management fee exceeds the gains.

[Abby Normal]

I'd be more concerned with 1% dividends and 5% (1% in 2013) gains than I would be with churning. S&P 500 was up about 10% last year & 25% in 2013.

[Lion EA]

So, if her broker is charging $1,000 to trade, you can charge $500 to report the trades.  I'd probably invoice $1,000 and Loyal Client Discount $500

[Janitor Bob]

$500?  Not in my market.  Not even H & R Schmuk would gouge...I mean charge that much around here

[joanmcq]

Bob, I have a client with a VERY actively managed account, almost all short term trades. 1099-B ran 5 pages. He earned her $63,000 in short term capital gains on about $475,000 of assets.

You don't have to be giving investment advice to tell her she has a crap advisor, is overpaying fees.

[Randall]

If the broker can provide a csv file, you can import directly to ATX.

[Kea]

I have several clients with a "big name" brokerage firm (not sure if I should mention the name on a public forum).  The one I'm working on right now is 40 pages covering 2 accounts.  All trades are in and out of mutual funds.  But this is an improvement over 2012 that was 66 pages over 6 accounts.  Why would one person have 6 (sub?) accounts in one brokerage - not counting the retirement accounts.  Asked her & she didn't know.  As far as she was concerned it was just the one personal account and one retirement account.

 

Then, there was the client who had a different brokerage account, but huge number of trades - including several purchases & sales that occurred after she passed away (yes, even after the firm was notified that she passed away).

[RitaB]

You don't have to be giving investment advice to tell her she has a crap advisor, is overpaying fees.

I agree, Joan.

Last year I went to Vanguard and Fidelity and printed Performance Details of the mutual funds one client owns but pays $19,000 to have managed by a firm in Nashville. I have never in all my life seen fees like that. He says, "But my portfolio has doubled in five years."

Me: "The STOCK MARKET has doubled in five years. Everybody made what you made."

He's a retired engineer. Tried to do his own very complicated return to save on tax prep. Some people don't want to be helped.

[joanmcq]

The guy my client uses is a genius. All stock trades. He follows certain segments of the market very closely, and although there were a few things he sold at a loss, there weren't many. I'm thinking of seeing if he'll take me on as a client with a small initial amount.