After spending 3 days straight reading about taxes on spot forex and finding that every other document contradicts the last or contradicts itself, I've got to ask this...
My situation couldn't be simpler... I received a 1099-B from my broker for about half a dozen trades that I made in 2007, resulting in a minor loss. It only has boxes 1a, 8 and 11 filled out. From what I gather, I want this loss to be reflected on line 21 of my 1040. But that is under the income section, it doesn't seem like the proper place to enter a loss.
Since I'm using TurboTax, I don't have direct access to line 21 anyways. So the suggested method is to enter the loss as gambling winnings... obviously you can not have a negative amount for gambling winnings though, so I tried entering it as a gambling loss. My concern here is, will that amount be linked to the 1099-B so they know that I'm reporting it and not making up some random amount to lower my tax liability?
I have an actual gambling win from a casino reported on a W-2G form, so entering the forex loss as a gambling loss just subtracts from the win. But you can only claim gambling losses up to the amount of gambling winnings, so if I didn't have a gambling win... this approach wouldn't work I believe. So, what's the easiest way to do this? It's a couple hundred dollar loss, I don't want to split hairs about which method would decrease my liability by a few dollars. It's the last part of my taxes, I just want to get it done!
My situation couldn't be simpler... I received a 1099-B from my broker for about half a dozen trades that I made in 2007, resulting in a minor loss. It only has boxes 1a, 8 and 11 filled out. From what I gather, I want this loss to be reflected on line 21 of my 1040. But that is under the income section, it doesn't seem like the proper place to enter a loss.
Since I'm using TurboTax, I don't have direct access to line 21 anyways. So the suggested method is to enter the loss as gambling winnings... obviously you can not have a negative amount for gambling winnings though, so I tried entering it as a gambling loss. My concern here is, will that amount be linked to the 1099-B so they know that I'm reporting it and not making up some random amount to lower my tax liability?
I have an actual gambling win from a casino reported on a W-2G form, so entering the forex loss as a gambling loss just subtracts from the win. But you can only claim gambling losses up to the amount of gambling winnings, so if I didn't have a gambling win... this approach wouldn't work I believe. So, what's the easiest way to do this? It's a couple hundred dollar loss, I don't want to split hairs about which method would decrease my liability by a few dollars. It's the last part of my taxes, I just want to get it done!
