The below block is the ‘accounting’ lingo for how I calculate and handle taxes every year for filing.  But really, it’s this simple:

I run consolidated reports out of interactive brokers, ameritrade and etrade and get the net gain, AFTER commissions (commissions tax deductable and included in trade deductions).  This is the number I pay taxes on.   I don’t file electronically, I mail the entire package in with the detail reporting schedules, and it’s large.

My accountant than includes the total gross number from the brokerage consolidated report which is large.   Example, if I made 100k at ameritrade, it would look like this:

Gross trade number:  1,000,000,000  (Yes, the number is really this large)

Gain:                               100,000

Net Number:               999,900,000

My broker reports the Gross and Net number to IRS, which equals the 100k gain ameritrade on schedule D.   I then mail the supporting schedules. 

I hope this was simple, because I do thousands of trades a year, but it only takes me 5 minutes to calculate this at the end of the year.

Also quick note:  for quarterly estimated tax payments, I run these same reports but for the QTR and pay may tax bracket rate and state rate. 

Below is the accounting lingo of what I tried to explain above.

Welsh

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First, you report on your tax return the gross or net number that is reported to you by the clearing house on the form 1099-B they send.  They will tell you whether it is a gross or net #.  90% of the time it is the gross #. Next, what you are supposed to do is document sale by sale.  You take the gross sale # and subtract the trading fees (or if net is reported, you just take the net sales #), then from that figure, you subtract the purchase price of the item, including any fees to arrive at your capital gain or loss.   Or, like you do if you already know your gain or loss for the year, you can simply report the reported gross or net number and back into the purchase number by subtracting your total gain or adding your total loss to that amount.__________________________________________________